Missing credentials for “PLAIN” nodemailer

Question

I\'m trying to use nodemailer in my contact form to receive feedback and send them directly to an email. This is the form below.

Answer 1

We don't need to lower our Google Account Security for this. This works for me on localhost and live server. Versions: node 12.18.4, nodemailer ^6.4.11.

STEP 1: Follow setting up your Google Api Access in this video AND IGNORE his code (it didn't work for me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ44WA_eV8E

STEP 2: Try this code in your main app file after you install nodemailer and dotenv via npm i nodemailer dotenv:

    require('dotenv').config();  //import and config dotenv to use .env file for secrets
    const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');

    function sendMessage() {
      try {
        // mail options
        const mailOptions = {
          from: "MySite@mysite.com",
          to: "my_gmail@gmail.com",
          subject: "Hey there!",
          text: "Whoa! It freakin works now."
        };
        // here we actually send it
        transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, function(err, info) {
          if (err) {
            console.log("Error sending message: " + err);
          } else {
            // no errors, it worked
            console.log("Message sent succesfully.");
          }
        });
      } catch (error) {
        console.log("Other error sending message: " + error);
      }
    }

    // thats the key part, without all these it didn't work for me
    let transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
      host: 'smtp.gmail.com',
      port: 465,
      secure: true,
      service: 'gmail',
      auth: {
            type: "OAUTH2",
            user: process.env.GMAIL_USERNAME,  //set these in your .env file
            clientId: process.env.OAUTH_CLIENT_ID,
            clientSecret: process.env.OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET,
            refreshToken: process.env.OAUTH_REFRESH_TOKEN,
            accessToken: process.env.OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN,
            expires: 3599
      }
    });

    // invoke sending function
    sendMessage();

Your .env file for the above code should look similar to this:

GMAIL_USERNAME=your_mail@gmail.com
GMAIL_PASSWORD=lakjrfnk;wrh2poir2039r
OAUTH_CLIENT_ID=vfo9u2o435uk2jjfvlfdkpg284u3.apps.googleusercontent.com
OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=og029503irgier0oifwori
OAUTH_REFRESH_TOKEN=2093402i3jflj;geijgp039485puihsg[-9a[3;wjenjk,ucv[3485p0o485uyr;ifasjsdo283wefwf345w]fw2984329oshfsh
OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN=owiejfw84u92873598yiuhvsldiis9er0235983isudhfdosudv3k798qlk3j4094too283982fs

Answer 2

Gmail / Google app email service requires OAuth2 for authentication. PLAIN text password will require disabling security features manually on the google account.

To use OAuth2 in Nodemailer, refer: https://nodemailer.com/smtp/oauth2/

Sample code:

var email_smtp = nodemailer.createTransport({      
  host: "smtp.gmail.com",
  auth: {
    type: "OAuth2",
    user: "youremail@gmail.com",
    clientId: "CLIENT_ID_HERE",
    clientSecret: "CLIENT_SECRET_HERE",
    refreshToken: "REFRESH_TOKEN_HERE"                              
  }
});

And if you still want to use just plain text password, disable secure login on your google account and use as follows:

var email_smtp = nodemailer.createTransport({      
  host: "smtp.gmail.com",
  auth: {
    type: "login", // default
    user: "youremail@gmail.com",
    pass: "PASSWORD_HERE"
  }
});

Answer 3

For me it was because I forgot to add my Gmail password to my .env file.

Answer 4

You have

auth: {
    user: 'user@gmail.com',
    password: 'password'
}

But you should write this

auth: {
    user: 'user@gmail.com',
    pass: 'password'
}

Just rename password to pass.

Answer 5

For me it happened because I forgot to npm install dotenv and require('dotenv').config();

Answer 6

I was able to solve this problem by using number 3, Set up 3LO authentication, example from the nodemailer documentation (link: https://nodemailer.com/smtp/oauth2/). My code looks like this:

let transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
    host: 'smtp.gmail.com',
    port: 465,
    secure: true,
    auth: {
        type: 'OAuth2',
        user: 'user@example.com',
        clientId: '000000000000-xxx0.apps.googleusercontent.com',
        clientSecret: 'XxxxxXXxX0xxxxxxxx0XXxX0',
        refreshToken: '1/XXxXxsss-xxxXXXXXxXxx0XXXxxXXx0x00xxx',
        accessToken: 'ya29.Xx_XX0xxxxx-xX0X0XxXXxXxXXXxX0x'
    }
});

If you looked at the example in the link that I stated above, you can see there that there is a 'expires' property but in my code i didn't include it and it still works fine.

To get the clientId, clientSecret, refreshToken, and accessToken, I just watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ44WA_eV8E .

I don't know if this is still helpful to you tho.