I did a post one year ago for PHPBB2 and Gmail. Now I have a PHPBB 3.0.4.
How to config phpBB 3 forum board to make its email setting working with Gmail or Google Apps?
The old way does not work. How can I do?
I find a way to use Gmail smtp facility to send out email.


1) Have the Gmail or Goolge Apps’s email account works.
2) Using the menu at the top right edge of the main Gmail window (the one that shows up after you log in), click on Settings, and then Forwarding and POP / IMAP. Under POP Download, click either Enable POP for all Mail, or Enable POP for Mail that Arrives Now (which ever suits your purpose). Configure anything else that appeals to you too. Exit from the Gmail Settings Window after saving your selections (this is important).


3) Login the phpBB administrator panel.
Goto General Admin > Configuration > Email Settings
SMTP Server Address:tls://smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Ports: 465
Authentication method for SMTP: PLAIN
SMTP Username: enter your email address
SMTP Password: enter the password of your email account.
After that, the email setting is fine on your phpBB3 system. Any emails through the system email account will be OK.

David Yin

David is a blogger, geek, and web developer — founder of FreeInOutBoard.com. If you like his post, you can say thank you here

16 Replies to “phpBB3 Email settings with Gmail or Google Apps

  1. David, I appreciate very much your explanation about this SMTP issue.
    I’ve been looking for tutorials, comments, forum posts, etc, for many hours to solve this problem and really I was ready to give up but fortunately I hit your page and my problem is solved now!
    Thank you very much!

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