phpmailer error "Could not instantiate mail function"

Question

I'm using the mail() basic example modified slightly for my user id and I'm getting the error "Mailer Error: Could not instantiate mail function"

if I use the mail function -

mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

it works fine, though I'm having trouble sending html, which is why I'm trying PHPMailer.

this is the code:

<?php
require_once('../class.phpmailer.php');

    $mail             = new PHPMailer(); // defaults to using php "mail()"
    $body             = file_get_contents('contents.html');
    $body             = eregi_replace("[\]",'',$body);
        print ($body ); // to verify that I got the html
    $mail->AddReplyTo("reply@domain.com","my name");
    $mail->SetFrom('from@domain.com', 'my name');
    $address = "to@domain.com";
    $mail->AddAddress($address, "her name");
    $mail->Subject    = "PHPMailer Test Subject via mail(), basic";
    $mail->AltBody    = "To view the message, please use an HTML compatible email viewer!";
    $mail->MsgHTML($body);
    $mail->AddAttachment("images/phpmailer.gif");      // attachment
    $mail->AddAttachment("images/phpmailer_mini.gif"); // attachment

    if(!$mail->Send()) {
        echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
    } else {
        echo "Message sent!";
    }
?>

Similar question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1944631/could-not-instantiate-mail-function-why-this-error-occuring — Mukesh Chapagain, Aug 22 '11 at 08:26
Than mean PHPmailer try to use build in mail function from PHP not SMTP — user956584, Aug 25 '15 at 19:55
For me it was caused by server problem, I've got a segmentation fault error message via SSH while try to update system (apt-get update), so I reboot VPS and PHPMailer works fine. — Harkály Gergő, Jan 16 '17 at 00:22

Mukesh Chapagain · Answer 1 · 2011-08-22T10:00:53.447

32

Try using SMTP to send email:-

$mail->IsSMTP();
$mail->Host = "smtp.example.com";

// optional
// used only when SMTP requires authentication  
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = 'smtp_username';
$mail->Password = 'smtp_password';

edited Aug 22 '11 at 10:00

answered Aug 22 '11 at 08:55

Mukesh Chapagain

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upvote, this works !! thanks a lot, it saved my time a lot !! – Aditya P Bhatt May 23 '13 at 16:52
4

the problem with SMTP is that it requires to install a SMTP server locally...unless I am mistaken. – Dimitris Papageorgiou Jun 13 '16 at 14:27
As of 2018, the function is called `$mail->isSMTP()`. Still saved me, thanks! – andreas Jan 01 '19 at 02:03
@DimitrisPapageorgiou, I set up an account with a $1/month domain/email provider, and this method works fine with them. You just have to know the correct SMTP host, port, username, and password for your provider. – thargenediad Feb 22 '19 at 15:07
what if you do not have an smtp server locally? – Lisandro Apr 13 '19 at 15:39

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 21 '18 at 12:55

14

Your code looks good, did you forget to install PostFix on your server?

sudo apt-get install postfix

It worked for me ;)

Cheers

edited Sep 21 '18 at 12:55

Andrew

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answered Feb 06 '18 at 13:22

Irwuin

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1

also worked for me, also it is in their docs: https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting#could-not-instantiate-mail-function – Yuri Waki Apr 06 '18 at 14:39
Helped me out. Thanks. I used it in DigitalOcean server. – Pranay Mishra Aug 11 '20 at 23:26

score 14 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 31 '11 at 12:09

14

$mail->AddAddress($address, "her name");

should be changed to

$mail->AddAddress($address);

This worked for my case..

answered Aug 31 '11 at 12:09

Avinash

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whats the problem with name? – Peyman abdollahy May 29 '15 at 17:56
@Peymanabdollahy really hard to recall after 4 years. I will check and update you. – Avinash May 29 '15 at 18:03
Still waiting.. – Richard Muthwill Jan 04 '21 at 14:12
See [`addAddress(string $address, string $name = '') : boolean`](https://phpmailer.github.io/PHPMailer/classes/PHPMailer.PHPMailer.PHPMailer.html#method_addAddress) – showdev Feb 04 '21 at 10:24

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 27 '16 at 20:52

12

This worked for me

$mail->SetFrom("from@domain.co","my name", 0); //notice the third parameter

answered Feb 27 '16 at 20:52

Matías Cánepa

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Thank you! For any one who's wondered why, here explains the third parameter: http://develop.wp-a2z.org/oik_api/phpmailersetfrom/ – Walty Yeung Aug 14 '17 at 23:43
Wow. I didn't expect this would fix it. @WaltyYeung sadly your link is down. I am still interested in why that works. – miile7 Apr 29 '21 at 20:39

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 19 '10 at 07:31

11

You need to make sure that your from address is a valid email account setup on that server.

answered Jun 19 '10 at 07:31

D.F.

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Salman A · Answer 6 · 2015-10-02T06:41:06.860

If you are sending file attachments and your code works for small attachments but fails for large attachments:

If you get the error "Could not instantiate mail function" error when you try to send large emails and your PHP error log contains the message "Cannot send message: Too big" then your mail transfer agent (sendmail, postfix, exim, etc) is refusing to deliver these emails.

The solution is to configure the MTA to allow larger attachments. But this is not always possible. The alternate solution is to use SMTP. You will need access to a SMTP server (and login credentials if your SMTP server requires authentication):

$mail             = new PHPMailer();
$mail->IsSMTP();                           // telling the class to use SMTP
$mail->SMTPAuth   = true;                  // enable SMTP authentication
$mail->Host       = "mail.yourdomain.com"; // set the SMTP server
$mail->Port       = 26;                    // set the SMTP port
$mail->Username   = "yourname@yourdomain"; // SMTP account username
$mail->Password   = "yourpassword";        // SMTP account password

PHPMailer defaults to using PHP mail() function which uses settings from php.ini which normally defaults to use sendmail (or something similar). In the above example we override the default behavior.

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered May 04 '17 at 01:24

4

The PHPMailer help docs on this specific error helped to get me on the right path.

What we found is that php.ini did not have the sendmail_path defined, so I added that with sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i;

answered May 04 '17 at 01:24

Matt Pope

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For the information of anyone wondering what the `-t -i` is doing there, here's a list of sendmail options http://www.postfix.org/sendmail.1.html – Steven Feb 25 '20 at 10:14

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 10 '16 at 10:32

1

Seems in my case it was just SERVER REJECTION. Please check your mail server log / smtp connection accessibility.

answered Nov 10 '16 at 10:32

Alex

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 21 '17 at 07:47

I had this issue, and after doing some debugging, and searching I realized that the SERVER (Godaddy) can have issues.

I recommend you contact your Web hosting Provider and talk to them about Quota Restrictions on the mail function (They do this to prevent people doing spam bots or mass emailing (spam) ).

They may be able to advise you of their limits, and if you're exceeding them. You can also possibly upgrade limit by going to private server.

After talking with GoDaddy for 15 minutes the tech support was able to resolve this within 20 minutes.

This helped me out a lot, and I wanted to share it so if someone else comes across this they can try this method if all fails, or before they try anything else.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 31 '18 at 17:59

1

In my case, it was the attachment size limit that causes the issue. Check and increase the size limit of mail worked for me.

answered Oct 31 '18 at 17:59

fiskcn

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Yep increasing the quota from 100MB to 1000MB worked for me, dont know why. – kiranvj Nov 16 '18 at 17:04

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 06 '13 at 00:38

0

An old thread, but it may help someone like me. I resolved the issue by setting up SMTP server value to a legitimate value in PHP.ini

answered Jun 06 '13 at 00:38

Atif.SQL

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 30 '14 at 19:53

I had this issue as well. My solution was to disable selinux. I tried allowing 2 different http settings in selinux (something like httpd_allow_email and http_can_connect) and that didn't work, so I just disabled it completely and it started working.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 20 '16 at 19:20

0

I was having this issue while sending files with regional characters in their names like: VęryRęgióńął file - name.pdf.

The solution was to clear filename before attaching it to the email.

answered Aug 20 '16 at 19:20

jmarceli

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 05 '17 at 13:43

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Check if sendmail is enabled, mostly if your server is provided by another company.

answered Oct 05 '17 at 13:43

Gianluca Demarinis

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jun 21 '18 at 10:19

For what it's worth I had this issue and had to go into cPanel where I saw the error message

"Attention! Please register your email IDs used in non-smtp mails through cpanel plugin. Unregistered email IDs will not be allowed in non-smtp emails sent through scripts. Go to Mail section and find "Registered Mail IDs" plugin in paper_lantern theme."

Registering the emails in cPanel (Register Mail IDs) and waiting 10 mins got mine to work.

Hope that helps someone.

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Sep 08 '20 at 14:39

My config: IIS + php7.4

I had the same issue as @Salman-A, where small attachments were emailed but large were causing the page to error out. I have increased file and attachments limits in php.ini, but this has made no difference.

Then I found a configuration in IIS(6.0), and increased file limits in there.

Also here is my mail.php:

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;
require '../_PHPMailer-master/src/Exception.php';
require '../_PHPMailer-master/src/PHPMailer.php';

try{
    $email = new PHPMailer(true);
    $email->SetFrom('internal@email.com', 'optional name');
    $email->isHTML(true);
    $email->Subject   = 'my subject';
    $email->Body      = $emailContent;
    $email->AddAddress( $eml_to );  
    $email->AddAttachment( $file_to_attach );
    $email->Send();
  }catch(phpmailerException $e){echo $e->errorMessage();}

I hope this helps someone in the future.

score -2 · Answer 17 · answered Oct 24 '14 at 05:48

-2

We nee to change the values of 'SMTP' in php.ini file php.ini file is located into

EasyPHP-DevServer-14.1VC11\binaries\php\php_runningversion\php.ini

answered Oct 24 '14 at 05:48

user3595601

1

phpmailer error "Could not instantiate mail function"

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