I need a powershell script to send an email.

Question

Powershell 7.3.3 OR 5.1.22621.963 (I have both) running as admin

Gmail SMTP server

I just want a known good script that somebody has and work from there.

Answer 1

sorry for the outdated information

Google offers app passwords because of 2-Step-Verification instead of Less secure app access now you can check the following

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833

and Send-MailMessage is obsolete but the other alternatives are not one line by default

maybe you can use the following

# Install the MailKit module if it is not already installed
Install-Module MailKit -Scope CurrentUser
# Import the MailKit module
Import-Module MailKit
# Define email properties
$From = "******@gmail.com"
$To = "******@gmail.com"
$Subject = "Test email"
$Body = "This is a test email sent from PowerShell."
# Create a new SMTP client
$SMTPClient = New-Object MailKit.Net.Smtp.SmtpClient
# Connect to the Gmail SMTP server
$SMTPClient.Connect("smtp.gmail.com", 587, [MailKit.Security.SecureSocketOptions]::StartTls)
# Authenticate with the Gmail SMTP server using the App Password
$SMTPClient.Authenticate("******@gmail.com", "<App Password>")
# Create a new email message
$EmailMessage = New-Object MailKit.Mime.Message
$EmailMessage.From.Add([MailKit.InternetAddress]::Parse($From))
$EmailMessage.To.Add([MailKit.InternetAddress]::Parse($To))
$EmailMessage.Subject = $Subject
$EmailMessage.Body = New-Object MailKit.Mime.TextPart("plain")
$EmailMessage.Body.Text = $Body
# Send the email message
$SMTPClient.Send($EmailMessage)
# Disconnect from the Gmail SMTP server
$SMTPClient.Disconnect($true)

Answer 2

Send-MailMessage -To "recipient@example.com" -Subject "Test Email" -Body "This is a test email." -SmtpServer "smtp.gmail.com" -Port 587 -From "******@gmail.com" -Credential (Get-Credential) -UseSsl

he Get-Credential cmdlet prompts you for your Gmail username and password. Make sure to enable "Less secure apps" in your Gmail account settings or create and use an App Password for better security.

Keep in mind that storing credentials in plain text or hardcoding them in a script is not recommended

Answer 3

OK, so what I get with that is:

WARNING: The command 'Send-MailMessage' is obsolete. This cmdlet does not guarantee secure connections to SMTP servers. While there is no immediate replacement available in PowerShell, we recommend you do not use Send-MailMessage at this time. See https://aka.ms/SendMailMessage for more information.
Send-MailMessage:SendEmail.ps1:1
Line |
   1 |  Send-MailMessage -From "******@domain.com" -To "******@domain.com …
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
     | [::ffff:142.251.163.108]:25

So I assume this is because I don't have "Less secure apps" in my Gmail account settings.

Looks like you can't do that anymore:

Less secure app access
To protect your account, apps and devices that use less secure sign-in technology are blocked. To keep your account secure, Google will automatically turn this setting OFF if it’s not being used.

This setting is no longer available. 

Now to use App Password I need to use 2-step verification which I don't want to do because I don't want to add this account to my phone for a number of reasons.

My conclusion is this is not the solution to my problem and I'll need to more likely use my 365 Small Business account to send the email. I guess I need to find out how to do that as it has 2 step already on it. I am the admin there so I'll start researching how to create an app password.

Thanks for your help on this.

If you do have a pointer to a good doc on using 365 Exchange to do this that would be great.

Answer 4

For Gmail:

$From = "******@gmail.com"

$To = "******@domain.com"

$Subject = "Email subject goes here"

$Body = "Email body goes here"

The password is an app-specific password if you have 2-factor-auth enabled

$Password = "app-specific-password-here" | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force

$Credential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $From, $Password

Send-MailMessage -From $From -To $To -Subject $Subject -Body $Body -SmtpServer "smtp.gmail.com" -port 587 -UseSsl -Credential $Credential