SMTP setup and which events send a message
RKHM sends email for a handful of concrete events — password resets, verification links, purchase receipts, and whatever admin/user notifications you've turned on elsewhere in Setting → Notifications. If this isn't configured, or is configured wrong, those emails silently fail (or worse, hang the request that tried to send them) rather than loudly erroring — so it's worth getting right early rather than discovering it the day a customer can't reset their password.
Where to configure it
Open Setting → Notifications → Email. Two sending modes are available in the Server group:
| Mode | When to use it |
| This Server | Uses your host's own local mail transport. Works out of the box on many shared hosts, but delivery reliability and inbox placement (vs. spam) varies a lot by host — fine for testing, riskier for anything customers depend on |
| SMTP Server | Routes through a real mail provider (your own mailbox, or a transactional service like SendGrid/Mailgun/Amazon SES). More setup, far more reliable delivery — this is what we'd recommend before you're relying on password-reset emails actually arriving |
If you pick SMTP Server, you'll need:
- From — the address your emails are sent as. Leave it empty and RKHM sends as noreply@yourdomain
- SMTP Server Address and SMTP Server Port — from your mail provider (common ports: 587 for TLS, 465 for SSL)
- SMTP Username and SMTP Password — your mailbox or provider credentials. Never share these or commit them anywhere
- SMTP Encryption — match whatever your provider documents (TLS is the modern default; avoid None unless you have a specific reason not to encrypt the connection)
There's also an Unsubscribe link toggle, which appends a working opt-out link to outgoing emails and is worth turning on if you're sending anything beyond transactional mail (password resets don't strictly need it, but marketing-style notifications generally should have one for compliance).
Email subscribe default state decides whether new users start opted in to email notifications or have to turn them on themselves.
Email design
The Design group (added in v2.1.00) sets the look of every outgoing email: an Email theme (Classic, Minimal Light, Modern Dark, Corporate Blue, Warm Rounded or Bold Vibrant — each has a preview link), an Email font (or Automatic, which follows your default language and uses Tahoma for right-to-left languages), and an optional Email logo for themes with a logo slot. Without a logo, those themes use your site logo from the Brand settings, then a text wordmark.
Before you rely on this in production: save your settings, click Send test email at the bottom of the page and send a message to an address you control, then trigger a real password reset and confirm neither lands in spam.