Sharepoint Subscription Edition: Does the Local SMTP Service need to be configured for Alerts to work?

Question

I've configured SMTP services for Sharepoint through Central Admin.

I have verified email is sending with this script:
$web = Get-SPWeb "https://site.internal.com/"

$email = "sendto@user.com"

$subject = "Test Email from SharePoint"

$body = "This is a test email sent from SharePoint."

[Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility]::SendEmail($web, 0, 0, $email, $subject, $body)

$web.Dispose()

Email sends like it should.

I the setup an alert in a Sharepoint site. It is set to alert on any change.

I have not received any email.

Do alerts require the local SMTP service? Docs are confusing.

Answer 1

Ugg Microsoft Docs CONFLICT THEMSELVES>>>

I don't know wtf to do?

Install or not install SMTP service?????????

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/administration/incoming-email-configuration

What does this mean?

Answer 2

I switched to not using TLS and alerts started working.

Now to understand incoming email and using a special exchange connector now.

Can I still use SMTP service?

Answer 3

Seems like it is something to do with TLS

Answer 4

Hi @ComputerHabit,

A properly configured SMTP service is necessary for SharePoint alerts to function. You will also need to configure the "Outgoing Email Settings" under the System Settings section.

If you are using TLS Connection Encryption, you could refer to following article

https://bamboosolutions.com/blog/configuring-outgoing-email-in-sharepoint-2016-with-exchange-2010-using-use-tls-connection-encryption/

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.