Mail problems on Ghost

[joseph]

I assume you have seen https://docs.cloudron.io/apps/ghost/#email already?

[bmann]

@nebulon I'm asking where / how you configure email within Ghost if I disable it from Cloudron? I have mailgun set, do I just go into Terminal and set other things there?

I have example.com where the Ghost install is hosted. I have mail.example.com setup on Mailgun and it works for the two working Ghost installs.

[bmann]

@jdaviescoates

you're right, there's the hidden portal settings where support email is, seems things have been shuffled.

I'm not running inbound mailboxes for any of the Ghost installs -- the working ones also have just Mailgun setup for outbound relay and use the regular ghost.app@example.com (with mailgun as smtp relay) and they work.

Yes, I read the setup and have 2 working installs of Ghost.

Yes, I have the IP address whitelisted.

The main difference here is technically I am ghost.example.com, with example.com domain linked to Cloudron, so the emails are attempting to send from example.com.

Is the 550 error from Mailgun? Or from somewhere else?

[bmann]

bump on this -- @nebulon @jdaviescoates, what does changing the setting in the Cloudron settings for a Ghost install do?

"Do not configure app's mail delivery settings
The app's mail delivery settings is left alone. You can configure it inside the app."

I think what this means that I can just edit the config file manually?

"mail": {
    "transport": "SMTP",
    "from": "Z-Space News <newsletter@example.com>",
    "options": {
      "host": "whatever",
      "port": "2525",
      "auth": {
        "user": "newsletter@example.com",
        "pass": "somepass"
      }
    }

Going to try it! Wish me luck!

[bmann]

OK! I switched to configure it myself, and edited app/data/config.production.json and it works for me.

I'm unclear why this Ghost instance doesn't work and my others do, but I'm glad I can now toggle this switch -- it means none of the mail is going through Cloudron at all.

[james]

Hello @bmann

@bmann said in Mail problems on Ghost:

bump on this

Sorry that this topic did not get any traction for almost a week!

@bmann said in Mail problems on Ghost:

"Do not configure app's mail delivery settings
The app's mail delivery settings is left alone. You can configure it inside the app."

Where did you find this text? I could not find it in the documentation, the app package or anywhere.
Would like to know where this came from since this might be misleading.

@bmann said in Mail problems on Ghost:

Going to try it! Wish me luck!

If you want to tinker with apps, always create an app backup first or even clone the app so you can take a shotgun approach to the clone.

There are certain settings for each app that Cloudron will override on every app restart.
I know @BrutalBirdie submitted a PR yesterday about this => https://git.cloudron.io/docs/docs/-/merge_requests/75/diffs

According to the app startup https://git.cloudron.io/packages/ghost-app/-/blob/master/start.sh?ref_type=heads#L39
If CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_SERVER is not empty it will set up the mail config on every app restart:

if [[ -n "${CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_SERVER:-}" ]]; then
    json -I -f /app/data/config.production.json \
        -e "this.mail.from = \"${CLOUDRON_MAIL_FROM_DISPLAY_NAME:-Ghost} <${CLOUDRON_MAIL_FROM}>\"" \
        -e "this.mail.options.host = '${CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_SERVER}'" \
        -e "this.mail.options.port = '${CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_PORT}'" \
        -e "this.mail.options.auth.user = '${CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_USERNAME}'" \
        -e "this.mail.options.auth.pass = '${CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD}'"
fi

You may want to disable the mail config for the app to avoid this. See => https://docs.cloudron.io/apps/#disable-email-configuration

[tchangth]

your config.production.json should work as it is identical to the solution here:

https://forum.ghost.org/t/unable-to-invite-new-admin-users-to-account-without-mailgun-setup/56711/11

I had tried it and it is working for me. by default if you set up ghost.example.com cloudron should set up an email account ghost.app@example.com for you, you should use ghost.app@example.com instead of newsletter@example.com.

[David 0]

I've got the same error on one of my Ghost instances:

2026-10-18T04:45:44Z [90mError: Mail command failed: 550 Authenticated user noreply@example.com cannot send mail as support@example.com

I've configured email like documented

Weird thing: I've got two instances of Ghost, both configured exactly in the same way (only difference is the domain and that they're using different mailgun/sinch accounts). One works fine, the other does not.

[jdaviescoates]

@David-0 said:

Weird thing: I've got two instances of Ghost, both configured exactly in the same way (only difference is the domain and that they're using different mailgun/sinch accounts). One works fine, the other does not.

Is the IP of the not working domain whitelisted at the mailgun/ sinch end?

[David 0]

No, it was not whitelisted, and I've never came across any issue regarding the IP.

Changing the "from" address in the app's settings from noreply@example.com to support@example.com did the trick.

Don't know whether something with Cloudron (maybe with the last major update to the built-in mail server) caused the trouble or if I somehow misconfigured the app by accident. Or if any of the updates to Ghost itself caused the change...