spring boot April 12, 2019 5 min read by mkyong 31 comments

Spring Boot – How to send email via SMTP

In this tutorial, we will show you how to send email via SMTP in Spring Boot.

Technologies used :

Spring Boot 2.1.2.RELEASE
Spring 5.1.4.RELEASE
Java Mail 1.6.2
Maven 3
Java 8

1. Project Directory

2. Maven

To send email, declares spring-boot-starter-mail, it will pull the JavaMail dependencies.

pom.xml


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
	http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <artifactId>spring-boot-send-email</artifactId>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>
    <name>Spring Boot Send Email</name>
    <url>https://www.mkyong.com</url>
    <version>1.0</version>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.1.2.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <!-- send email -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-mail</artifactId>
        </dependency>

    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <!-- Package as an executable jar/war -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.22.0</version>
            </plugin>

        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Display the project dependencies.


$ mvn dependency:tree

[INFO] org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-send-email:jar:1.0
[INFO] +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter:jar:2.1.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot:jar:2.1.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- org.springframework:spring-context:jar:5.1.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |     +- org.springframework:spring-aop:jar:5.1.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |     \- org.springframework:spring-expression:jar:5.1.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure:jar:2.1.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-logging:jar:2.1.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- ch.qos.logback:logback-classic:jar:1.2.3:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  +- ch.qos.logback:logback-core:jar:1.2.3:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  \- org.slf4j:slf4j-api:jar:1.7.25:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-to-slf4j:jar:2.11.1:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  \- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api:jar:2.11.1:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- org.slf4j:jul-to-slf4j:jar:1.7.25:compile
[INFO] |  +- javax.annotation:javax.annotation-api:jar:1.3.2:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.springframework:spring-core:jar:5.1.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- org.springframework:spring-jcl:jar:5.1.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO] |  \- org.yaml:snakeyaml:jar:1.23:runtime

[INFO] \- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-mail:jar:2.1.2.RELEASE:compile
[INFO]    +- org.springframework:spring-context-support:jar:5.1.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO]    |  \- org.springframework:spring-beans:jar:5.1.4.RELEASE:compile
[INFO]    \- com.sun.mail:javax.mail:jar:1.6.2:compile
[INFO]       \- javax.activation:activation:jar:1.1:compile

3. Gmail SMTP

This example is using Gmail SMTP server, tested with TLS (port 587) and SSL (port 465). Read this Gmail SMTP

application.properties


spring.mail.host=smtp.gmail.com
spring.mail.port=587
spring.mail.username=username
spring.mail.password=password

# Other properties
spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.auth=true
spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.connectiontimeout=5000
spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.timeout=5000
spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.writetimeout=5000

# TLS , port 587
spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.starttls.enable=true

# SSL, post 465
#spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.socketFactory.port = 465
#spring.mail.properties.mail.smtp.socketFactory.class = javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory

Note
For Gmail SMTP, if your account is enabled the 2-Step verification, please create an “App Password”. Read more on this JavaMail – Sending email via Gmail SMTP example

4. Sending Email

Spring provides an JavaMailSender interface on top of JavaMail APIs.

4.1 Send a normal text email.


import org.springframework.mail.SimpleMailMessage;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender;

	@Autowired
    private JavaMailSender javaMailSender;
	
	void sendEmail() {

        SimpleMailMessage msg = new SimpleMailMessage();
        msg.setTo("[email protected]", "[email protected]", "[email protected]");

        msg.setSubject("Testing from Spring Boot");
        msg.setText("Hello World \n Spring Boot Email");

        javaMailSender.send(msg);

    }

4.2 Send an HTML email and a file attachment.


import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessageHelper;

import javax.mail.MessagingException;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;

	void sendEmailWithAttachment() throws MessagingException, IOException {

        MimeMessage msg = javaMailSender.createMimeMessage();

        // true = multipart message
        MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(msg, true);
		
        helper.setTo("to_@email");

        helper.setSubject("Testing from Spring Boot");

        // default = text/plain
        //helper.setText("Check attachment for image!");

        // true = text/html
        helper.setText("<h1>Check attachment for image!</h1>", true);

		// hard coded a file path
        //FileSystemResource file = new FileSystemResource(new File("path/android.png"));

        helper.addAttachment("my_photo.png", new ClassPathResource("android.png"));

        javaMailSender.send(msg);

    }

5. Demo

5.1 Start Spring Boot, and it will send out an email.

Application.java


package com.mkyong;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
import org.springframework.mail.SimpleMailMessage;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender;
import org.springframework.mail.javamail.MimeMessageHelper;

import javax.mail.MessagingException;
import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
import java.io.IOException;

@SpringBootApplication
public class Application implements CommandLineRunner {

    @Autowired
    private JavaMailSender javaMailSender;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }

    @Override
    public void run(String... args) {

        System.out.println("Sending Email...");

        try {
		
            sendEmail();
            //sendEmailWithAttachment();

        } catch (MessagingException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        System.out.println("Done");

    }

    void sendEmail() {

        SimpleMailMessage msg = new SimpleMailMessage();
        msg.setTo("[email protected]", "[email protected]");

        msg.setSubject("Testing from Spring Boot");
        msg.setText("Hello World \n Spring Boot Email");

        javaMailSender.send(msg);

    }

    void sendEmailWithAttachment() throws MessagingException, IOException {

        MimeMessage msg = javaMailSender.createMimeMessage();

        // true = multipart message
        MimeMessageHelper helper = new MimeMessageHelper(msg, true);
        helper.setTo("[email protected]");

        helper.setSubject("Testing from Spring Boot");

        // default = text/plain
        //helper.setText("Check attachment for image!");

        // true = text/html
        helper.setText("<h1>Check attachment for image!</h1>", true);

        helper.addAttachment("my_photo.png", new ClassPathResource("android.png"));

        javaMailSender.send(msg);

    }
}

Terminal


  .   ____          _            __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
  '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot ::        (v2.1.2.RELEASE)

Sending Email...
Done

Download Source Code

$ git clone https://github.com/mkyong/spring-boot.git
$ cd email

//update SMTP info in application.properties

$ mvn spring-boot:run

References

Written by mkyong

Software Engineer • Writer • Dad

20+ years hands-on, writing about Java, Spring, and AI. Every code example here is tested.

All posts by mkyong

31 comments on “Spring Boot – How to send email via SMTP”

Manikantan V
May 23, 2023 at 6:45 pm

Hi ,

Can some one share me Outlook Email automation Create ,Send and Received Using Selenium Java.

Reply
asd
December 7, 2022 at 4:42 pm

nice

Reply
poosan
March 31, 2022 at 3:15 pm

How the bounce mail is handled here

Reply
Romaric
October 12, 2021 at 9:04 pm

Hi,

Thanks for the article. How to include the real sender’s email instead of the SMTP account ? For example, a customer who answers to a vendor’s publication.

Regards,

Reply
tarun
April 10, 2021 at 9:29 am

username and password authentication failed showing error

Reply
Paul
August 28, 2020 at 11:05 pm

good. How can do it with using functions ?

Reply
Amitesh Tiwari
June 29, 2020 at 4:06 am

Hey I used that it’s working, I want to set the password from one bean class which is getting password from DB. How I can do that in this case. I tried below code and it’s saying password missing. Please help.

==========================================
sendmail(){
……………..
MimeMessage message = getMailSender().createMimeMessage();
…………….
}

==========================================

public JavaMailSender getMailSender() {
JavaMailSenderImpl mailSender = new JavaMailSenderImpl();
mailSender.setPassword(“asdasdasdas”);
return mailSender;

}
==================================================
error = Authentication failed; nested exception is javax.mail.AuthenticationFailedException: failed to connect, no password specified?

Reply
1. Amitesh Tiwari
  June 30, 2020 at 1:32 am
  
  Can anyone check on this ?
  
  Reply
Shriknt
June 23, 2020 at 5:04 pm

– Bean method ‘mailSender’ not loaded because AnyNestedCondition 0 matched 2 did not; NestedCondition on MailSenderAutoConfiguration.MailSenderCondition.JndiNameProperty @ConditionalOnProperty (spring.mail.jndi-name) did not find property ‘jndi-name’; NestedCondition on MailSenderAutoConfiguration.MailSenderCondition.HostProperty @ConditionalOnProperty (spring.mail.host) did not find property ‘host’

getting this error please help.

Reply
Charbel
April 24, 2020 at 9:59 pm

Hello,
Thanks for this tutorial.
I’m getting this error
javax.mail.AuthenticationFailedException: 454 4.7.0 Too many login attempts, please try again later. x18sm2989666wmi.29 – gsmtp
Could anyone help please? Thank you!

Reply
baojian yuan
April 8, 2020 at 6:06 pm

hey there, SimpleMailMessage needs to “setFrom”, otherwise it will occur error

Reply
1. Thenuka
  August 14, 2022 at 10:43 pm
  
  Yeah it only worked after setFrom Thanks.
  
  Reply
vijay
March 30, 2020 at 2:14 pm

Mail health check failed

javax.mail.AuthenticationFailedException: 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful [MWHPR11CA0027.namprd11.prod.outlook.com]

Reply
1. Ravi
  April 4, 2020 at 9:21 pm
  
  Vijay, you have to set Less Secure app as ON. try to go below url and make Less Secure app ON. and then try. Hope it will work. but after testing make sure to make it OFF only, because it’s not recommended because of security reason.
  
  https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps
  
  Reply
  1. Alexandre Oliveira
    April 11, 2022 at 8:16 pm
    
    May 2022, less secure apps will be retired. The best solution is http://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords
    
    Reply
Tariq
March 15, 2020 at 3:38 pm

Hi ,

Thanks for this wonderful stepwise tutorial on sending email using gmail SMTP.

would like to know if we want a DoNotReply kind of email, can this be achievable with these configurations or some more changes is required.

please advise,

Thanks

Reply
naresh
January 17, 2020 at 10:28 pm

I am getting this error. Please help.

***************************
APPLICATION FAILED TO START
***************************

Description:

Field javaMailSender in com.subex.util.Application required a bean of type ‘org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender’ that could not be found.

The injection point has the following annotations:
– @org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired(required=true)

Action:

Consider defining a bean of type ‘org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender’ in your configuration.

Reply
1. yuanbaojian
  April 8, 2020 at 6:04 pm
  
  I have the same problem as you . My project is multipy maven project . I put my dependency to root pom, so it worked
  
  Reply
SAKTHIVEL
October 25, 2019 at 11:39 am

Hey,
How to get SMTP response success or failed. How to system know, Its send successfully for user.

Reply
1. Abdou
  June 25, 2021 at 3:03 am
  
  Use Try catch exception
  
  Reply
ced
October 24, 2019 at 3:29 pm

it said too many login attemps how should i fix this?

Reply
brad
July 10, 2019 at 3:38 am

Instead of application.properties file is there way to declare hostname with in function?

Reply
1. carolina
  October 23, 2019 at 4:22 am
  
  Brad, you can set it wherever you initiate the JavaMailSenderImpl call
  
  @Bean
  public JavaMailSender getJavaMailSender() {
  JavaMailSenderImpl mailSender = new JavaMailSenderImpl();
  mailSender.setHost(“smtp.gmail.com”);
  return mailSender;
  }
  
  Reply
Fernando
July 2, 2019 at 5:41 am

How can I change sender email credentials?… If I Send an email with one account this works great!… but If I want to send emails from different accounts how can I do this?

Reply
satish
June 25, 2019 at 2:00 pm

It is working fine. I have one doubt. Gmail added one feature called “confidential mode” so, nobody can forward, copy the message. That is not there in java mail sender. Is there any ways to implement that?

Reply
1. Naresh
  January 17, 2020 at 10:32 pm
  
  What version of Springboot are you suing it? Could you please share the code here. I am using springboot 2.1.8 and even tried 2.1.2
  
  Reply
Derin
June 2, 2019 at 11:59 pm

Hi,

Thank you for the tutorial. I was able to send out emails using the Google SMTP. However, I have a limitation, the email sender is always the authenticated google account. I want to override the email sender using the setFrom() method of MimeMessageHelper class. I used the method in code and it was ignored.

My question is how can I authenticate with my google account but override the sender email with any email provided by the app user.

I was able to do this with MimeMessage using Transport.send().

For reference:
Scenario 1: sender email remains the one configured in the bean

SimpleMailMessage message = new SimpleMailMessage();
message.setTo(recipientEmail);
message.setFrom(senderEmail); // this line does not override the sender email in my configured bean.
message.setSubject(eventName);
message.setText(eventInfo + “\n\n” + senderEmail);

emailSender.send(message);

Scenario 2: sender email is set to whatever email address is passed to the method.

try {
MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);
message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(senderEmail));
message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress(recipientEmail));
message.setSubject(eventName);
message.setText(eventInfo);
Transport.send(message);
emailSender.send(message);
log.debug(“Sent message successfully….”);
} catch (MessagingException mex) {
mex.printStackTrace();
}

How can I make scenario 1 behave like scenario 2 even with configured google credentials.

Thank you.

Reply
Amy
May 3, 2019 at 1:14 pm

Please help with this issue

4 ERROR 24324 — [nio-8443-exec-5] o.a.c.c.C.[.[.[/].[dispatcherServlet] : Servlet.service() for servlet [dispatcherServlet] in context with path [] threw exception [Request processing failed; nested exception is org.springframework.mail.MailSendException: Mail server connection failed; nested exception is com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn’t connect to host, port: smtp.gmail.com, 465; timeout -1;
nested exception is:
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect. Failed messages: com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn’t connect to host, port: smtp.gmail.com, 465; timeout -1;
nested exception is:
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect; message exceptions (1) are:
Failed message 1: com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn’t connect to host, port: smtp.gmail.com, 465; timeout -1;
nested exception is:
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect] with root cause

java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
at java.base/java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect0(Native Method) ~[na:na]
at java.base/java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
at java.base/java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
at java.base/java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(Unknown Source) ~[na:na]
at java.base/java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source) ~[na:na

Reply
Peter Szrnka
April 13, 2019 at 9:54 pm

Hi,

I’ve checked out this repository, configured the necessary parameters, but I’ve got an Exception:

java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.springframework.boot.maven.AbstractRunMojo$LaunchRunner.run(AbstractRunMojo.java:558)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to execute CommandLineRunner
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.callRunner(SpringApplication.java:816)
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.callRunners(SpringApplication.java:797)
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:324)
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1260)
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1248)
at com.mkyong.Application.main(Application.java:24)
… 6 more
Caused by: org.springframework.mail.MailSendException: Mail server connection failed; nested exception is com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn’t connect to host, port: smtp.gmail.com, 587; timeout 5000;
nested exception is:
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect. Failed messages: com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn’t connect to host, port: smtp.gmail.com, 587; timeout 5000;
nested exception is:
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect; message exceptions (1) are:
Failed message 1: com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn’t connect to host, port: smtp.gmail.com, 587; timeout 5000;
nested exception is:
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
at org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl.doSend(JavaMailSenderImpl.java:447)
at org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl.send(JavaMailSenderImpl.java:360)
at org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl.send(JavaMailSenderImpl.java:355)
at com.mkyong.Application.sendEmailWithAttachment(Application.java:83)
at com.mkyong.Application.run(Application.java:34)
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.callRunner(SpringApplication.java:813)
… 11 more
Caused by: com.sun.mail.util.MailConnectException: Couldn’t connect to host, port: smtp.gmail.com, 587; timeout 5000;
nested exception is:
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.openServer(SMTPTransport.java:2209)
at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.protocolConnect(SMTPTransport.java:740)
at javax.mail.Service.connect(Service.java:366)
at org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl.connectTransport(JavaMailSenderImpl.java:517)
at org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSenderImpl.doSend(JavaMailSenderImpl.java:436)
… 16 more
Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
at java.net.DualStackPlainSocketImpl.waitForConnect(Native Method)
at java.net.DualStackPlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(DualStackPlainSocketImpl.java:85)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:350)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:206)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:188)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:172)
at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:392)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:589)
at com.sun.mail.util.WriteTimeoutSocket.connect(WriteTimeoutSocket.java:115)
at com.sun.mail.util.SocketFetcher.createSocket(SocketFetcher.java:357)
at com.sun.mail.util.SocketFetcher.getSocket(SocketFetcher.java:238)
at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.openServer(SMTPTransport.java:2175)
… 20 more

I’ve turned on “Enable less secure apps” on my Google account properties on this page as well:
https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps

Reply
1. Peter Szrnka
  April 13, 2019 at 11:38 pm
  
  This comment can be deleted, antivirus issue 🙂
  
  Reply
2. Jordi
  June 19, 2019 at 4:33 pm
  
  Same problem. Did you resolve it?
  
  Reply