Email (SMTP)

Email notifications let ChannelWatch send alerts to any inbox using your own SMTP server or a hosted provider. ChannelWatch uses Apprise under the hood, so any SMTP server that supports standard AUTH LOGIN or AUTH PLAIN over TLS works.

What you need

• An SMTP server address, port, username, and password
• A sender address (the “From” address)
• A recipient address (the “To” address)

For Gmail and Outlook, you also need an App Password rather than your account password. See the provider-specific sections below.

Configure in the web UI

Open the web UI at http://your-server-ip:8501 and go to Settings > Notifications > Email.

Fill in the following fields:

Field	What to enter
SMTP Connection	Your SMTP credentials in user:[email protected] format
Recipient	The email address that receives alerts

Save the settings, then send a test notification from Diagnostics > Alert Tests to confirm delivery.

Note

ChannelWatch automatically sets ChannelWatch as the sender display name. The “From” address is derived from the username you enter in the SMTP Connection field.

Port and TLS selection

ChannelWatch always uses an encrypted connection. The port you choose determines which TLS mode is used:

Port	Protocol	When to use
465	Implicit TLS (SMTPS)	Preferred. The connection is encrypted from the first byte.
587	STARTTLS	Use when your provider requires it. The connection starts plain and upgrades to TLS.
25	Plain SMTP	Not supported for outbound mail by most providers. Avoid.

To specify a port, append it to the SMTP host in your connection string:

user:[email protected]:587

If you omit the port, Apprise defaults to port 25. Always specify 465 or 587 explicitly.

Caution

Do not use port 25 for outbound notifications. Most ISPs and cloud providers block outbound port 25, and it sends credentials without encryption on many servers. Use 465 (implicit TLS) or 587 (STARTTLS) instead.

Gmail setup

Gmail requires an App Password when two-factor authentication is enabled on your account (which Google now enforces for most accounts).

1. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and sign in.
2. Under “Select app”, choose Mail. Under “Select device”, choose Other and type ChannelWatch.
3. Click Generate. Copy the 16-character password shown.
4. In ChannelWatch, enter your SMTP connection as:

[email protected]:[email protected]:465

Replace [email protected] with your Gmail address and your-app-password with the 16-character code from step 3.

Note

Gmail App Passwords are only available when 2-Step Verification is enabled on your Google account. If you do not see the App Passwords option, enable 2-Step Verification first at myaccount.google.com/security.

Outlook / Microsoft 365 setup

Microsoft deprecated basic SMTP AUTH for most consumer accounts in 2023. If your account is a personal @outlook.com or @hotmail.com address, you may need to enable SMTP AUTH explicitly:

1. Sign in to account.microsoft.com and go to Security > Advanced security options.
2. Enable Allow apps that use less secure sign-in (if available for your account type).
3. Use your full Microsoft account email and password as the SMTP credentials:

[email protected]:[email protected]:587

Caution

Microsoft 365 business accounts managed by an organization may have SMTP AUTH disabled at the tenant level. If you see authentication errors, ask your IT administrator to enable SMTP AUTH for your account, or use a dedicated transactional email service (Mailgun, Postmark, SendGrid) instead.

Generic SMTP setup

For any other SMTP provider, the connection string format is:

username:[email protected]:465

Common examples:

Provider	SMTP host	Port
Fastmail	smtp.fastmail.com	465
Zoho Mail	smtp.zoho.com	465
ProtonMail Bridge	127.0.0.1	1025
Self-hosted (Postfix, Exim)	your server IP or hostname	465 or 587

For ProtonMail, the Bridge application must be running on the same machine as ChannelWatch (or reachable on your LAN). The Bridge handles encryption internally, so port 1025 is plain-text between ChannelWatch and the Bridge.

Environment variable (optional)

You can also configure email via environment variable in your docker-compose.yml. This is useful for automated deployments where you want to avoid the first-run wizard:

environment:
  CW_APPRISE_EMAIL: "[email protected]:[email protected]:465"
  CW_APPRISE_EMAIL_TO: "[email protected]"

Settings entered in the web UI take precedence over environment variables once saved.

Troubleshooting

Authentication failed. Double-check your username and password. For Gmail, confirm you are using an App Password, not your account password. For Outlook, verify SMTP AUTH is enabled on your account.

Connection timed out. Confirm the SMTP host and port are correct. Try port 587 if 465 does not connect. Some Docker network configurations block outbound port 465 — check your firewall rules.

TLS handshake error. Your SMTP server’s certificate may be self-signed or expired. Self-hosted mail servers with self-signed certificates are not supported by default. Use a certificate from a public CA, or switch to a hosted provider.

Emails arrive in spam. This is a sender reputation issue, not a ChannelWatch configuration problem. Ensure your SMTP server has valid SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Using a transactional email service (Mailgun, Postmark) instead of a personal account usually resolves this.

No recipient set. If you configure the SMTP connection but leave the Recipient field empty, ChannelWatch will attempt to send to the sender address. Set an explicit recipient in the Recipient field to avoid this.

Related pages

• Notification Examples — see what email alerts look like
• Delivery Log — check whether notifications were sent and why they may have failed
• Gotify — self-hosted push notifications as an alternative to email