Setting up email sending#

SynergyCP sends transactional email to your clients and staff — OS reload completion notices, password resets, bandwidth alerts, and so on. Out of the box no mail server is configured, so you should set up SMTP as one of your first configuration steps.

All email settings are managed from the System > Settings > Email Settings page in the admin panel.

Configuring the sender#

On the Email Settings tab, configure:

• From Name — the display name on outgoing email (e.g. your company name)
• From Email — the address email is sent from. This should be an address on a domain you control and have authenticated with your mail provider (see deliverability below).
• Signature — appended to outgoing emails
• Email Method — set this to SMTP

Always use the SMTP method with a real SMTP host configured. The PHPMail option is legacy and does not deliver mail on current versions of SynergyCP.

SMTP settings#

With the Email Method set to SMTP, the SMTP Settings tab appears. Fill in the details for your mail server or relay provider:

• Host — your SMTP server hostname
• Username / Password — SMTP credentials
• Port — typically 587 (the default)
• Mode — typically TLS (the default)

Settings take effect as soon as they are saved; the queue workers that deliver mail are restarted automatically to pick up the new configuration.

Using SendGrid#

If you don’t run your own mail server, SendGrid is recommended and works well as a generic SMTP relay:

1. In SendGrid, go to Settings > API Keys > Create API Key, choose Restricted Access, and enable only the Mail Send permission.
2. Authenticate your sending domain in SendGrid under Settings > Sender Authentication so your From address passes SPF and DKIM checks.
3. Enter the following on the SMTP Settings tab:
   • Host: smtp.sendgrid.net
   • Username: apikey (this literal string, not your account name)
   • Password: the API key you created (starts with SG.)
   • Port: 587
   • Mode: TLS

Any other SMTP relay (Amazon SES, Mailgun, Postmark, etc.) works the same way — enter its SMTP endpoint and credentials.

Deliverability#

Whichever provider you use, make sure the domain of your From Email has SPF and DKIM records set up for that provider, and that the From Email matches the authenticated domain. Without these, your email is likely to land in spam or be rejected outright.

Verifying and troubleshooting#

There is no test-email button; the easiest way to verify delivery is to trigger a password reset email for one of your accounts.

If email is not arriving:

• Check for delivery errors under System > Logs.
• Outgoing mail is delivered through the queue, so the beanstalkd and php_worker services must be running on the SynergyCP host.
• Mail is only sent when the application environment is set to production (the default for standard installations); on development installs, emails are written to the log instead of being sent.
• Confirm outbound connections on your SMTP port (587 by default) are not blocked by your firewall or upstream provider — many networks block outbound SMTP by default.

Customizing email templates#

The content of the individual emails SynergyCP sends can be edited under System > Emails. Each template has a subject and body, and a flag controlling whether admins are BCC’d on it. Admin accounts with the Receive Copies option enabled get a BCC of those emails.