How do I schedule an email to send at a certain time using cron and smtp, in python?

python email cron smtp smtplib

17,408

Assuming you already have your send_email() function working I would do:

import datetime as dt
import time
import smtplib

def send_email():
    email_user = '[email protected]'
    server = smtplib.SMTP ('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
    server.starttls()
    server.login(email_user, 'email pass')

    #EMAIL
    message = 'sending this from python!'
    server.sendmail(email_user, email_user, message)
    server.quit()

send_time = dt.datetime(2018,8,26,3,0,0) # set your sending time in UTC
time.sleep(send_time.timestamp() - time.time())
send_email()
print('email sent')

If you want to send the email regularly, you can do:

import datetime as dt
import time
import smtplib

def send_email():
    email_user = '[email protected]'
    server = smtplib.SMTP ('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
    server.starttls()
    server.login(email_user, 'email pass')

    #EMAIL
    message = 'sending this from python!'
    server.sendmail(email_user, email_user, message)
    server.quit()

def send_email_at(send_time):
    time.sleep(send_time.timestamp() - time.time())
    send_email()
    print('email sent')

first_email_time = dt.datetime(2018,8,26,3,0,0) # set your sending time in UTC
interval = dt.timedelta(minutes=2*60) # set the interval for sending the email

send_time = first_email_time
while True:
    send_email_at(send_time)
    send_time = send_time + interval

You can also spawn a thread and leave this thread handle the sending of the email.

17,408

Author by

Here

Updated on June 05, 2022

Comments

Here almost 2 years

So far I have only been able to send emails. Here's my code:

import smtplib

email_user = '[email protected]'
server = smtplib.SMTP ('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
server.starttls()
server.login(email_user, 'email pass')

#SET TIME HERE?
from crontab import CronTab

#EMAIL
message = 'sending this from python!'
server.sendmail(email_user, email_user, message)
server.quit()

I'm struggling to set a time to send the email. If someone can also help me figure out how to add attachments, that would be great!

T.Woody over 5 years

What is your os?
Here over 5 years

Windows is my os

Here over 5 years

I'm sorry I'm really new at this. Can you explain what the values mean inside the parentheses in line 4?
Pedro over 5 years

@Here the format is dt.datetime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
Here over 5 years

I'm getting the error that send_email is not defined.
Pedro over 5 years

That's why I wrote "assuming you already have your send_email() function working", just put your code to send the email under a send_email() function.
Pedro over 5 years

@Here great, please accept my answer so I can have enough points to comment on other people's questions :P