PowerShell Send Email using SMTP
Today in this example, We will implement PowerShell Send Email using SMTP functionality. To make this even simpler I have used my own Gmail( modified below) for sending an email and testing purposes which worked very well after some initial travail.
We will Send-MailMessage cmdlet to send an email message with attachments using the SMTP server and client.
Today in this article, we will cover below aspects,
Send-MailMessage cmdlet to send email
The Send-MailMessage cmdlet sends an email message using PowerShell conveniently.
You must specify a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server details using Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Below I have used Gmail SMTP server details.
Below is the code added to send email in PowerShell
$message = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage;
$message.From = "go.digital.development@gmail.com";
$message.To.Add($email);
$message.Subject = "Sending email from PowerShell";
$message.Body = "Hi There";
$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", "587");
$smtp.EnableSSL = $true;
$smtp.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential($Username, $Password);
$smtp.send($message);
Powershell- Send an email with attachment
If you want to send an email with the attachments, Please specify the attachments as below,
$attachment = New-Object Net.Mail.Attachment($attachmentpath);
$message.Attachments.Add($attachment);
To make use of GMAIL to send emails to other domains, you need to use some settings to make it work.
I also got an email from Gmail saying “Critical security alert for your linked Google Account.”
- I had to enable “Allow less secure apps: ON” to make send email API work properly.
Once configured successfully you shall see an email in your mailbox.
Note: As per Microsoft The Send-MailMessage cmdlet is obsolete. This cmdlet does not guarantee secure connections to SMTP servers. For more details see here
References :
Do you have any comments or ideas or any better suggestions to share?
Please sound off your comments below.
Happy Coding !!
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Google No longer supports the “allow less secure apps” in Gmail. Do you have a work around or know of another SMTP server that will allow this?
Hi Trent- Thanks for your query. Using your Gmail account password is recommended and it was used for just testing purpose.
You can create an Application Password using the feature “apppasswords” – https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and then use the same as password. Here you need to first Turn on 2 step verification for your gmail account.
Hope this helps!