[SOLVED] Appwrite not sending Emails

I’m running a self-hosted Appwrite instance (v1.8.1) and I can’t get invite emails to send when using the team invite flow described in the docs: https://appwrite.io/docs/products/auth/team-invites

My mail server is Mailcow (v2025-12a).

Sending emails manually works fine: if I create and send messages via an Appwrite Function using the Messaging service, the emails are delivered without any issues. However, anything Appwrite is supposed to send on its own (like user/team invite emails) never gets sent.

SMTP is configured and enabled in Appwrite and uses the same credentials as the working Messaging setup.

When Appwrite should send an invite email:

nothing shows up in the Appwrite Docker logs (except a warning about no SMS provider)

nothing shows up in the Mailcow logs either

When emails are sent via the Messaging service, I do see them in the Mailcow logs.

So it looks like Appwrite never even tries to send invite emails, even though SMTP itself is working.

Have you correctly configured the SMTP settings in your environment variables? If you've only configured a custom SMTP server within your project, it will only work within that project.

https://appwrite.io/docs/advanced/self-hosting/configuration/email

I have set the details in .env but im not shure if docker parses it coorectly due to special characters should i use "password" or 'password' in the env? i honestly dont remember 😆

They are no different in this situation.

then ill add "" just to make shure its propperly parsed as i ve got @ * and ! in the password

yes

I'll briefly explain the difference between double quotes and single quotes: double quotes support escape characters, while single quotes are literal and do not support them.

good to know thanks for the insight

you can check logs if it not work

docker compose logs -f appwrite-worker-mails

*if it not work

ive already been in the logs no errors there (besides again from the sms provider being not configured) but i didnt recive an email

If you are using a self-hosted SMTP service provider, you may need to check your spam folder.

I don't think it will be very useful, but I'll mention it anyway.

😆 sorry but ive done that ive also been in the logs where i can see what service connected to the smtp server to send mails and ive looked throught the anti spams history

triggering the user invite using the server sdk shouldnt break it right? cause rgnw the invitation is being handeld in a function

Did you update the container after changing the environment variables?

nope let me do that real quick 😆

Were the invitation emails sent through other methods successful? This includes inviting others to the organization via the control panel and inviting others through the client application.

Oh

nope didnt change anything unfortunately

I thought the email you sent to invite others wasn't working within the organization, but it was actually for inviting people to the project.😅

ahhh no the invite just to the project will get manual notifactions due to me first having to look at the users notification prefences that ive included

Okay, I have no idea why this is happening. I initially thought it was a configuration issue. I sincerely apologize that I haven't been able to resolve it.

oh dont worry about it ive been banging my head against that issue for like a week by now 😆

the only reason that its annoying me is that my workarround didnt work as it always failed to fetch the secret for the user invite