Amazon SES SMTP with Django

Question

I'm trying to use Amazon's new SMTP service for SES with Django 1.3.1 but I'm not having much luck.

I've created my SES SMTP credentials and have this in my settings:

EMAIL_USE_TLS = True
EMAIL_HOST = 'email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com'
EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'my-smtp-user'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'my-smtp-password'
EMAIL_PORT = 465

Then I try sending a test email (from and to verified email addresses):

from django.core.mail import send_mail

send_mail('Test subject', 'This is the body', '[email protected]',['[email protected]'], fail_silently=False)

But I get the following error:

SMTPServerDisconnected: Connection unexpectedly closed

I can telnet to the server:

telnet email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com 465

Solution 1

I found a much simpler solution that would allow me to use Django's built-in mail classes so I can still get my admin error email reports etc.

Thanks to this little beauty I was able to use SES SMTP without any problems:

https://github.com/bancek/django-smtp-ssl

Download and install (python setup.py install)

Then just change your settings to use this new email backend:

EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django_smtp_ssl.SSLEmailBackend'

The rest of the settings are as per normal:

EMAIL_HOST = 'email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com'
EMAIL_PORT = 465
EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'my_smtp_username'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'my_smtp_password'
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True

Solution 2

2019 Update: Django 2.2.1

EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend'

EMAIL_HOST = 'email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com'
EMAIL_PORT = 587
EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'my_smtp_username'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'my_smtp_password'
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True

No library needed.

Credits : https://stackoverflow.com/a/32476190/5647272

Reference : https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/topics/email/

Solution 3

Since Django 1.7, you can send email with SSL natively without third party library.

EMAIL_USE_SSL = True

Docs

Solution 4

2021 Update: Django-3.2.4

No libraries needed such as django-ses or django-amazon-ses !!

EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend'
EMAIL_HOST = 'email-smtp.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com'
EMAIL_PORT = 587
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True
EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'my_smtp_username'      # Must create SMTP Credentials
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'my_smtp_password'  # Must create SMTP Credentials
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]' # If don't need, comment out!!

I added DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL.

DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]'

If you don't need it, comment it out!!

# DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]'

Moreover, for DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL, put one verified domain or email address whether or not your account is in the sandbox.

So for the verified domain sender.com below,

---

Three of them below are valid: (Use only one of three)

DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]' # OR
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]' # OR
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]'

But these two below are not valid: (These give you error)

*The format must be [email protected] !!

DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = 'sender.com' 
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '@sender.com'

Then, for the verified 2 email addresses below,

---

Just use only one of two below:

DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]' # OR
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]'

Finally, for EMAIL_HOST_USER and EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD, you must create SMTP Credentials.

Choose SMTP Settings:

---

Press Create My SMTP Credentials Button:

---

Given SMTP Credentials:

Then, put the SMTP Credentials as below:

EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'AKIAWP3TMGZN4OZH5H37'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'BB6dufiw96jJHUTrowXI8R4gcyOI+t1+Skbi51cdHYhV'

*(I've already deleted these SMTP Credentials)

---

Solution 5

After long long searching and trying I found:

Instead using:

 s = smtplib.SMTP(host, port)
 s.starttls()
 s.login(user, password)

For AmazonSES SMTP must be:

 s = smtplib.SMTP_SSL(host, port)
 s.login(user, password)

So, I think, for django you can either fix django code, or write you own simple email backend [based on default django email backend].

UPD:

I found another solution (but not tested it by myself): use SSLEmailBackend from link below

// settings.py
EMAIL_BACKEND = 'backends.smtp.SSLEmailBackend'

(From here: Mysterious issue with Django + uWSGI + send email )

UPD2:

AmazonSES supports STARTTLS from now :)

Amazon SES supports expanded attachment types, VERP, and STARTTLS for SMTP

(from Amazon Newsletter)

View more solutions

Comments

[GivP]

Not sure what that backend it but it doesn't come with Django out of the box. See my similar solution below.

[vsvasya]

(Also, I forgot to mention beautiful django-ses app :))

[mtnpaul]

Since your using a SSL backend, do you really need to set EMAIL_USE_TLS = True ?

[bobc]

Setting EMAIL_USE_TLS = False doesn't make a difference.

[pooja]

this answer is extremely out of date. You can simply use the built in django configuration to do this now.

[panchicore]

bear in mind: ValueError EMAIL_USE_TLS/EMAIL_USE_SSL are mutually exclusive, so only set one of those settings to True.

[Leoog]

This does not work for me. I never receive an email.