Send mail via Gmail with PowerShell V2's Send-MailMessage

I'm trying to figure out how to use PowerShell V2's Send-MailMessage with Gmail.

Here's what I have so far.

$ss = New-Object Security.SecureString
foreach ($ch in "password".ToCharArray())
{
    $ss.AppendChar($ch)
}
$cred = New-Object Management.Automation.PSCredential "[email protected]", $ss
Send-MailMessage  -SmtpServer smtp.gmail.com -UseSsl -Credential $cred -Body...

I get the following error

Send-MailMessage : The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated. The server response was: 5.5.1 Authentication Required. Learn
 more at
At foo.ps1:18 char:21
+     Send-MailMessage <<<<      `
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient:SmtpClient) [Send-MailMessage], SmtpException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : SmtpException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SendMailMessage

Am I doing something wrong, or is Send-MailMessage not fully baked yet (I'm on CTP 3)?

Some additional restrictions:

1. I want this to be non-interactive, so Get-Credential won't work.
2. The user account isn't on the Gmail domain, but a Google Apps registered domain.
3. For this question, I'm only interested in the Send-MailMessage cmdlet. Sending mail via the normal .NET API is well understood.

Solution 1:

Here's my PowerShell Send-MailMessage sample for Gmail...

Tested and working solution:

$EmailFrom = "[email protected]"
$EmailTo = "[email protected]"
$Subject = "Notification from XYZ"
$Body = "this is a notification from XYZ Notifications.."
$SMTPServer = "smtp.gmail.com"
$SMTPClient = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($SmtpServer, 587)
$SMTPClient.EnableSsl = $true
$SMTPClient.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password");
$SMTPClient.Send($EmailFrom, $EmailTo, $Subject, $Body)

Just change $EmailTo, and username/password in $SMTPClient.Credentials... Do not include @gmail.com in your username...

Solution 2:

This should fix your problem:

$credentials = New-Object Management.Automation.PSCredential “[email protected]”, (“password” | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force)

Then use the credential in your call to Send-MailMessage -From $From -To $To -Body $Body $Body -SmtpServer {$smtpServer URI} -Credential $credentials -Verbose -UseSsl

Solution 3:

I just had the same problem and ran into this post. It actually helped me to get it running with the native Send-MailMessage command-let and here is my code:

$cred = Get-Credential
Send-MailMessage ....... -SmtpServer "smtp.gmail.com" -UseSsl -Credential $cred -Port 587 

However, in order to have Gmail allowing me to use the SMTP server, I had to log in into my Gmail account and under this link https://www.google.com/settings/security set the "Access for less secure apps" to "Enabled". Then finally it did work!!

Solution 4:

I'm not sure you can change port numbers with Send-MailMessage since Gmail works on port 587. Anyway, here's how to send email through Gmail with .NET SmtpClient:

$smtpClient = New-Object system.net.mail.smtpClient
$smtpClient.Host = 'smtp.gmail.com'
$smtpClient.Port = 587
$smtpClient.EnableSsl = $true
$smtpClient.Credentials = [Net.NetworkCredential](Get-Credential GmailUserID)
$smtpClient.Send('[email protected]', '[email protected]', 'test subject', 'test message')