I cannot properly configure PHPMailer

Question

I have spent the last four hours reading examples, watching YouTube videos etc and I cannot for the life of me get an email to send. I have tried using a G-mail account with the settings changed to allow for less secure apps and also a privately hosted email address from my business.

I loaded PHPMailer with composer

When I use the following code which is literally the example from PHPMailer's github page, I get the errors listed below.

  <?php

  use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
  use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
  use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

  require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

  $mail = new PHPMailer(true);

  try {
      //Server settings
      $mail->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_SERVER;                      //Enable verbose debug output
      $mail->isSMTP();                                            //Send using SMTP
      $mail->Host       = 'smtp.gmail.com';                       //Set the SMTP server to send through
      $mail->SMTPAuth   = true;                                   //Enable SMTP authentication
      $mail->Username   = 'my gmail email here';                  //SMTP username
      $mail->Password   = 'my gmail password here';               //SMTP password
      $mail->SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_SMTPS;            //Enable implicit TLS encryption
      $mail->Port       = 465;                                    //TCP port to connect to; use 587 if you have set `SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_STARTTLS`
  
      //Recipients
      $mail->setFrom('my gmail email address', 'Mailer');
      $mail->addAddress('different email address', 'Joe User');     //Add a recipient


      //Content
      $mail->isHTML(true);                                  //Set email format to HTML
      $mail->Subject = 'Here is the subject';
      $mail->Body    = 'This is the HTML message body <b>in bold!</b>';
      $mail->AltBody = 'This is the body in plain text for non-HTML mail clients';
  
      $mail->send();
      echo 'Message has been sent';
  } catch (Exception $e) {
      echo "Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: {$mail->ErrorInfo}";
  }

This is the error message that I get: 2021-08-09 20:04:25 SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: (0) SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

I am 100% sure that the email addresses and passwords are correct and listed in the proper locations.

Does anyone know what is going on or what I can do to fix?

I am so desperate I am about to just switch programming languages because this is the most insanely complicated thing I have ever came across!

Thanks so much to anyone that has a solution or tips!

PS I am currently using localhost... I will answer any questions that you need answered Thanks!!!

UPDATE >>> When I change to this line

$mail->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_CONNECTION; 

I get this output:

2021-08-09 21:02:10 Connection: opening to ssl://smtp.gmail.com:465, timeout=300, options=array() 2021-08-09 21:02:10 Connection failed. Error #2: stream_socket_client(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:error:1416F086:SSL routines:tls_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed [C:\xampp\htdocs\sheri\vendor\phpmailer\phpmailer\src\SMTP.php line 388] 2021-08-09 21:02:10 Connection failed. Error #2: stream_socket_client(): Failed to enable crypto [C:\xampp\htdocs\sheri\vendor\phpmailer\phpmailer\src\SMTP.php line 388] 2021-08-09 21:02:10 Connection failed. Error #2: stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to ssl://smtp.gmail.com:465 (Unknown error) [C:\xampp\htdocs\sheri\vendor\phpmailer\phpmailer\src\SMTP.php line 388] 2021-08-09 21:02:10 SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: (0) SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

Answer 1

When I changed SMTPSecure = 'tls' and Port = 587 this still did not work in local host but did work when I uploaded it on my server to test it.

Answer 2

SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: (0) SMTP connect() failed

That implies a firewall issue - but its actually rather misleading.

SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:error:1416F086:SSL routines:tls_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed

Your PHP installation could not validate the certificate presented by Google. They are usually quite good with certificates - its an issue with the installation of openssl on your machine. You need to configure openssl properly, specifically the CAcerts database.

update You installed MS-Windows on a namecheap VM and are using it as a webserver?????? OMG.