Suggestion: Clarify Email Client Configuration UI (Port 465 labelling/ inclusion)

[jdaviescoates]

Just a small suggestion to improve the "Configuring Email Clients" dialog that appears when selecting Configure Email Clients from the mail UI.

At the moment, it lists:

Outgoing Mail (SMTP)
Server: my.domain.coop
Port: 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (TLS)

This is potentially misleading. Port 465 uses implicit SSL, not STARTTLS — and many email clients (like Calibre, Thunderbird, etc.) distinguish between:

• STARTTLS (587 – modern standard)
• SSL/TLS (465 – legacy support)

Labeling 465 as “TLS” can lead users to select “TLS” in their client with port 465, which silently fails or throws confusing authentication errors. This catches me out nearly every time I have to configure something!

e.g. Calibre desktop app has this:

I was using port 465 and TLS as that is literally what the Configure Email Clients from the mail UI told me to do! But that doesn't work.

Suggested wording:

Port: 587 (STARTTLS – recommended)
      465 (SSL – legacy support; may not work in all apps)

Or even:

Port: 587 (STARTTLS – modern standard)
      465 (Implicit SSL – older method)

Or even just:

Port: 587 (STARTTLS)

This would better align with Cloudron’s own docs, which only recommend port 587 anyway.

Thanks!

[james]

Hey @jdaviescoates
I think this is a good suggestion.
These strings are handled by the @translator group/people via https://translate.cloudron.io/projects/cloudron/
If you'd like, we could add you to that group and give you access so you can submit these changes.

But since you stated in the past:

@jdaviescoates said in 33 GB of usage, 177 GB system space occupied - how to find ghost files?:

I'm a bit over stretched at the mo so if you could do it that'd be great, thanks

I can make this change for you.

[james]

Ah, this specific string is not in the translation but coming from the box code.
Working on it.

[girish]

We can maybe remove port 465 altogether. That port is now deprecated. In fact, it's been reassigned to something else. See also https://www.mailgun.com/blog/email/which-smtp-port-understanding-ports-25-465-587/#chapter-3

edit: but atleast per https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.txt it's not marked deprecated

[girish]

Of course, if one searches hard enough internet, one can always find comments to the contrary https://community.cloudflare.com/t/outdated-information-on-smtp-ports-port-465-vs-587/777312/7 says "Most end-user client software seems to prefer 465" . Best to leave it as-is

[jdaviescoates]

@girish said in Suggestion: Clarify Email Client Configuration UI (Port 465 labelling/ inclusion):

Best to leave it as-is

But don't say 465 (TLS).

This:

Port: 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (TLS)

Which is says when you click here:

Is confusing/ wrong, as it seems in actually existing UIs they never actually go together and TLS tends to actually mean STARTTLS which goes with 587.

I think perhaps something like:

Port: 587 (STARTTLS – often just called TLS. Recommended) or 465 (SSL – older method)

?

[nebulon]

Yeah it is very confusing from a client perspective. The gnome mail clients use:

Thunderbird also does so

Same K9 and the random email app I have on my Android phone.

Can't say much about how the situation on mac or windows is though, as I don't have such environments.