PHP mail() returns true but mail cannot be delivered

Question

I am trying to use php to deliver a simple mail. Before I am using WAMP server, however as it does not include a SMTP client/server, so I switch to XAMPP. By using XAMPP, the mail() function returns true this time, however, when I check my gmail mailbox, I cannot receive the mail successfully. My XAMPP is installing on Window Server 2008. Based on what I have read, I think the cause of mail cannot be sent is Window does not have a mail server installed, so I checked in the server manager of Window, however it shows that SMTP server has been installed, so I have no idea what is the cause of the problem.

Here is my PHP code:

$subject = "Simple mail";
$message = "Here is a test mail";
$to = "me@gmail.com";
$from = "me@test.com";
$header = "From: ".$from;

if(mail($to, $subject, $message, $header))
   print "success<br>";
else
   print "fail<br>";

Below is the part about mail in php.ini, I have not made any changes:

[mail function]
; XAMPP: Comment out this if you want to work with an SMTP Server like Mercury
; SMTP = localhost
; smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/sendmail-from
;sendmail_from = postmaster@localhost  

; XAMPP IMPORTANT NOTE (1): If XAMPP is installed in a base directory with spaces (e.g. c:\program filesC:\xampp) fakemail and mailtodisk do not work correctly.
; XAMPP IMPORTANT NOTE (2): In this case please copy the sendmail or mailtodisk folder in your root folder (e.g. C:\sendmail) and use this for sendmail_path.  

; XAMPP: Comment out this if you want to work with fakemail for forwarding to your mailbox (sendmail.exe in the sendmail folder)
;sendmail_path = "\"C:\xampp\sendmail\sendmail.exe\" -t"

; XAMPP: Comment out this if you want to work with mailToDisk, It writes all mails in the C:\xampp\mailoutput folder
sendmail_path = "C:\xampp\mailtodisk\mailtodisk.exe"

; Force the addition of the specified parameters to be passed as extra parameters
; to the sendmail binary. These parameters will always replace the value of
; the 5th parameter to mail(), even in safe mode.
;mail.force_extra_parameters =

; Add X-PHP-Originating-Script: that will include uid of the script followed by the filename
mail.add_x_header = Off

; Log all mail() calls including the full path of the script, line #, to address and headers
;mail.log = "C:\xampp\php\logs\php_mail.log"

At last here is the picture to show:

Set up mail server with Mercury:

Answer 1

If mail() returns true, this means PHP has succesfully delivered the message to your smtp mail server (successfully accepted for delivery). From there the server then needs to send it to gmail.

So from this it would mean your smtp server is not correctly configured to send the e-mail. Check your logs for the smtp server to give you more info.

Also you might consider using a component like swift.

Answer 2

The problem is in these two lines:

; XAMPP: Comment out this if you want to work with mailToDisk, It writes all mails in the C:\xampp\mailoutput folder
sendmail_path = "C:\xampp\mailtodisk\mailtodisk.exe"

The comment is wrong. You actually have to uncomment the line if you want to use mailToDisk. And, since the line is uncommented, all your e-mails are simply being written to disk.

On my XAMPP installation, I found another error in the documentation. It doesn't write the e-mails to C:\xampp\mailoutput. It actually writes them to C:\xampp\tmp\mailoutput.

Answer 3

; SMTP = localhost
; smtp_port = 25

You might need to uncomment those 2 lines to tell php where to find the mail server? Assuming of course, the server is on the same machine PHP is installed on.

Answer 4

Quote from manual:

The Windows implementation of mail() differs in many ways from the Unix implementation. First, it doesn't use a local binary for composing messages but only operates on direct sockets which means a MTA is needed listening on a network socket (which can either on the localhost or a remote machine).

This means you need to use smtp configuration (uncomment lines starting with smtp and edit the values if needed):

SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25

Answer 5

Remove ';' from the below lines so that

; SMTP = localhost
; smtp_port = 25
;sendmail_from = postmaster@localhost

becomes

SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25
sendmail_from = postmaster@localhost

Then open XAMPP control panel and start Mercury mail. Send email again and check your inbox.

UPDATE: Save your php.ini file, go to XAMPP control panel and restart Apache server. Try sending email now.