Ghost email troubleshooting: when sign-in links and signup emails miss

A reader signs up on your Ghost site but never gets the confirmation email. A member tries to sign in, and the sign-in link never arrives. On self-hosted Ghost, the cause is usually the mail settings in your config file.

Ghost has two email systems

1. Transactional email: sign-in and signup links, email confirmation, staff invitations, password resets. Self-hosted Ghost sends these with the mail settings in config.production.json.
2. Newsletters: posts sent to your members. Ghost sends these through Mailgun only. They cannot go through SMTP, so SecureSMTP cannot send them.

Why transactional email fails on self-hosted Ghost

1. No SMTP server configured

If mail is not set in your config, Ghost tries to deliver mail directly from your server. Most VPS providers block or limit outgoing mail on port 25, and mail sent straight from a VPS IP is often rejected or filtered.

2. The From address is not authenticated

If Ghost sends from an address on your domain through a server that is not allowed to send for it (no SPF, no DKIM), Gmail and Outlook often send the message to spam.

3. Mailgun is set up but transactional mail is not

The Mailgun settings in Ghost Admin are for newsletters only. They do not cover sign-in links. Transactional email still needs the mail block in the config file.

Check where it breaks

1. Request a sign-in link from a private browser window, using an address you control. Wait a few minutes. Check the inbox and spam folder.
2. Read the Ghost log. Look in content/logs/ in your Ghost install for mail errors such as timeouts or failed logins.
3. Check the mail block in config.production.json. If there is no mail section, Ghost has no SMTP server.
4. Check the headers of an email that did arrive (Gmail: Show original). SPF, DKIM and DMARC should say PASS.

Point self-hosted Ghost at SecureSMTP

1. Sign up at securessmtp.com/signup (the Free plan includes 5,000 emails a month).
2. Dashboard → Forms → Sites → + Add Site. Copy the API key from the last step. It is shown only once. It is your SMTP password.
3. Edit config.production.json:

   "mail": {
     "transport": "SMTP",
     "from": "Your Site <[email protected]>",
     "options": {
       "host": "smtp.securessmtp.com",
       "port": 587,
       "secure": false,
       "auth": {
         "user": "securessmtp",
         "pass": "qcs_live_..."
       }
     }
   }

   Port 587 uses STARTTLS ("secure": false is correct). For port 465 set "secure": true. Then restart Ghost: ghost restart.
4. Request a sign-in link again. The email shows up in the Email log in your SecureSMTP dashboard.
5. To send from your own address, add a sending domain in the dashboard (any plan, including Free) and publish its DKIM record. New accounts need this to send. See Domains and DNS.

Full SMTP details are in the SMTP guide.

Frequently asked questions