Why do I get “'property cannot be assigned” when sending an SMTP email?

Question

I can't understand why this code is not working. I get an error saying property can not be assigned

MailMessage mail = new MailMessage();
SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();            
client.Port = 25;
client.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
mail.To = "[e-mail]"; // <-- this one
mail.From = "[e-mail]";
mail.Subject = "this is a test email.";
mail.Body = "this is my test email body";
client.Send(mail);

Answer 1

mail.To and mail.From are readonly. Move them to the constructor.

using System.Net.Mail;

...

MailMessage mail = new MailMessage("[e-mail]", "[e-mail]");
SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();
client.Port = 25;
client.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
mail.Subject = "this is a test email.";
mail.Body = "this is my test email body";
client.Send(mail);

Answer 2

This :

mail.To = "[e-mail]";

Should be:

mail.To.Add(new MailAddress("[e-mail]"));

Answer 3

Finally got working :)

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Text;

...

// Command line argument must the the SMTP host.
SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();
client.Port = 587;
client.Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
client.EnableSsl = true;
client.Timeout = 10000;
client.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("[e-mail]","password");

MailMessage mm = new MailMessage("[e-mail]", "[e-mail]", "test", "test");
mm.BodyEncoding = UTF8Encoding.UTF8;
mm.DeliveryNotificationOptions = DeliveryNotificationOptions.OnFailure;

client.Send(mm);

sorry about poor spelling before

Answer 4

public static void SendMail(MailMessage Message)
{
    SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();
    client.Host = "smtp.googlemail.com";
    client.Port = 587;
    client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
    client.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
    client.EnableSsl = true;
    client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("[e-mail]", "password");
    client.Send(Message); 
}

Answer 5

This is how it works for me. Hope you find it useful

MailMessage objeto_mail = new MailMessage();
SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();
client.Port = 25;
client.Host = "smtp.internal.mycompany.com";
client.Timeout = 10000;
client.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("user", "Password");
objeto_mail.From = new MailAddress("[e-mail]");
objeto_mail.To.Add(new MailAddress("[e-mail]"));
objeto_mail.Subject = "Password Recover";
objeto_mail.Body = "Message";
client.Send(objeto_mail);

Answer 6

First go to https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps and make Allow less secure apps true.

Then use the below code. This below code will work only if your from email address is from gmail.

static void SendEmail()
    {
        string mailBodyhtml =
            "<p>some text here</p>";
        var msg = new MailMessage("[e-mail]", "[e-mail]", "Hello", mailBodyhtml);
        msg.To.Add("[e-mail]");
        msg.IsBodyHtml = true;
        var smtpClient = new SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", 587); //**if your from email address is "[e-mail]" then host should be "smtp.hotmail.com"**
        smtpClient.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
        smtpClient.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("[e-mail]", "password");
        smtpClient.EnableSsl = true;
        smtpClient.Send(msg);
        Console.WriteLine("Email Sent Successfully");
    }

Answer 7

If you want to have your email and password not appear in your code and want your company email client server to use your windows credentials use below.

client.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials;

Source

Answer 8

This just worked for me as of March 2017. Started with solution from above "Finally got working :)" which didn't work at first.

SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();
client.Port =  587;
client.Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
client.EnableSsl = true;
client.Timeout = 10000;
client.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("<me>@gmail.com", "<my pw>");
MailMessage mm = new MailMessage(from_addr_text, to_addr_text, msg_subject, msg_body);
mm.BodyEncoding = UTF8Encoding.UTF8;
mm.DeliveryNotificationOptions = DeliveryNotificationOptions.OnFailure;

client.Send(mm);

Answer 9

This answer features:

• Using 'using' whenever possible (IDisposable interfaces)
• Using Object initializers
• Async Programming
• Extract SmtpConfig to external class (adjust it to your needs)

Here's the extracted code:

    public async Task SendAsync(string subject, string body, string to)
    {
        using (var message = new MailMessage(smtpConfig.FromAddress, to)
        {
            Subject = subject,
            Body = body,
            IsBodyHtml = true
        })
        {
            using (var client = new SmtpClient()
            {
                Port = smtpConfig.Port,
                DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network,
                UseDefaultCredentials = false,
                Host = smtpConfig.Host,
                Credentials = new NetworkCredential(smtpConfig.User, smtpConfig.Password),
            })
            {
                await client.SendMailAsync(message);
            }
        }                                     
    }

Class SmtpConfig:

public class SmtpConfig
{
    public string Host { get; set; }
    public string User { get; set; }
    public string Password { get; set; }
    public int Port { get; set; }
    public string FromAddress { get; set; }
}

Answer 10

MailMessage mm = new MailMessage(txtEmail.Text, txtTo.Text);
mm.Subject = txtSubject.Text;
mm.Body = txtBody.Text;
if (fuAttachment.HasFile)//file upload select or not
{
    string FileName = Path.GetFileName(fuAttachment.PostedFile.FileName);
    mm.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(fuAttachment.PostedFile.InputStream, FileName));
}
mm.IsBodyHtml = false;
SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient();
smtp.Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
smtp.EnableSsl = true;
NetworkCredential NetworkCred = new NetworkCredential(txtEmail.Text, txtPassword.Text);
smtp.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
smtp.Credentials = NetworkCred;
smtp.Port = 587;
smtp.Send(mm);
Response.write("Send Mail");

View Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUUNv-19QAI

Answer 11

smtp.Host = "smtp.gmail.com"; // the host name
smtp.Port = 587; //port number
smtp.EnableSsl = true; //whether your smtp server requires SSL
smtp.DeliveryMethod = System.Net.Mail.SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
smtp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(fromAddress, fromPassword);
smtp.Timeout = 20000;

Go through this article for more details

Answer 12

Just need to try this:

string smtpAddress = "smtp.gmail.com";
int portNumber = 587;
bool enableSSL = true;
string emailFrom = "companyemail";
string password = "password";
string emailTo = "Your email";
string subject = "Hello!";
string body = "Hello, Mr.";
MailMessage mail = new MailMessage();
mail.From = new MailAddress(emailFrom);
mail.To.Add(emailTo);
mail.Subject = subject;
mail.Body = body;
mail.IsBodyHtml = true;
using (SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient(smtpAddress, portNumber))
{
   smtp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(emailFrom, password);
   smtp.EnableSsl = enableSSL;
   smtp.Send(mail);
}

Answer 13

MailKit is an Open Source cross-platform .NET mail-client library that is based on MimeKit and optimized for mobile devices. It has more and advance features better than System.Net.Mail Microsoft TNEF support via MimeKit.

Download nuget package from here.

See this example you can send mail

            MimeMessage mailMessage = new MimeMessage();
            mailMessage.From.Add(new MailboxAddress(senderName, [e-mail]));
            mailMessage.Sender = new MailboxAddress(senderName, [e-mail]);
            mailMessage.To.Add(new MailboxAddress(emailid, emailid));
            mailMessage.Subject = subject;
            mailMessage.ReplyTo.Add(new MailboxAddress(replyToAddress));
            mailMessage.Subject = subject;
            var builder = new BodyBuilder();
            builder.TextBody = "Hello There";            
            try
            {
                using (var smtpClient = new SmtpClient())
                {
                    smtpClient.Connect("HostName", "Port", MailKit.Security.SecureSocketOptions.None);
                    smtpClient.Authenticate("[e-mail]", "password");

                    smtpClient.Send(mailMessage);
                    Console.WriteLine("Success");
                }
            }
            catch (SmtpCommandException ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());              
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());                
            }

Answer 14

Initialize the MailMessage with sender and reciever's email addresses. It should be something like

string from = "[e-mail]";  //Senders email   
string to = "[e-mail]";  //Receiver's email  
MailMessage msg = new MailMessage(from, to); 

Read the full code snippet of how to send emails in c#

Answer 15

this would work too..

string your_id = "[e-mail]";
string your_password = "password";
try
{
   SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient
   {
     Host = "smtp.gmail.com",
     Port = 587,
     EnableSsl = true,
     DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network,
     Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(your_id, your_password),
     Timeout = 10000,
   };
   MailMessage mm = new MailMessage(your_iD, "[e-mail]", "subject", "body");
   client.Send(mm);
   Console.WriteLine("Email Sent");
 }
 catch (Exception e)
 {
   Console.WriteLine("Could not end email\n\n"+e.ToString());
 }

Answer 16

 //Hope you find it useful, it contain too many things

    string smtpAddress = "smtp.xyz.com";
    int portNumber = 587;
    bool enableSSL = true;
    string m_userName = "[e-mail]";
    string m_UserpassWord = "56436578";

    public void SendEmail(Customer _customers)
    {
        string emailID = [e-mail];
        string userName = DemoUser;

        string emailFrom = "[e-mail]";
        string password = "qwerty";
        string emailTo = emailID;

        // Here you can put subject of the mail
        string subject = "Registration";
        // Body of the mail
        string body = "<div style='border: medium solid grey; width: 500px; height: 266px;font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;'>";
        body += "<h3 style='background-color: blueviolet; margin-top:0px;'>Aspen Reporting Tool</h3>";
        body += "<br />";
        body += "Dear " + userName + ",";
        body += "<br />";
        body += "<p>";
        body += "Thank you for registering </p>";            
        body += "<p><a href='"+ sURL +"'>Click Here</a>To finalize the registration process</p>";
        body += " <br />";
        body += "Thanks,";
        body += "<br />";
        body += "<b>The Team</b>";
        body += "</div>";
       // this is done using  using System.Net.Mail; & using System.Net; 
        using (MailMessage mail = new MailMessage())
        {
            mail.From = new MailAddress(emailFrom);
            mail.To.Add(emailTo);
            mail.Subject = subject;
            mail.Body = body;
            mail.IsBodyHtml = true;
            // Can set to false, if you are sending pure text.

            using (SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient(smtpAddress, portNumber))
            {
                smtp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(emailFrom, password);
                smtp.EnableSsl = enableSSL;
                smtp.Send(mail);
            }
        }
    }

Answer 17

send email by smtp

public void EmailSend(string subject, string host, string from, string to, string body, int port, string username, string password, bool enableSsl)
    {
        try
        {
            MailMessage mail = new MailMessage();
            SmtpClient smtpServer = new SmtpClient(host);
            mail.Subject = subject;
            mail.From = new MailAddress(from);
            mail.To.Add(to);
            mail.Body = body;
            smtpServer.Port = port;
            smtpServer.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);
            smtpServer.EnableSsl = enableSsl;
            smtpServer.Send(mail);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw new Exception(ex.Message);
        }
    }