Email (SMTP)

Email notifications let ChannelWatch send alerts to any inbox using your own SMTP server or a hosted provider. ChannelWatch v1.5.3 passes this field to Apprise’s email service. The dedicated Email field supports SMTP credentials and app passwords; it does not provide an OAuth sign-in or token flow.

What you need

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

Gmail can use an App Password. Outlook.com requires OAuth2, so it cannot use ChannelWatch’s dedicated Email field. See the provider-specific sections below.

Configure in the web UI

Open the web UI at http://your-server-ip:8501, go to Settings > Notifications, stay on the Global scope, and enable Email.

Fill in the following fields:

Field	What to enter
SMTP Connection	A built-in provider credential or the custom SMTP parameter format shown below
Recipient	The email address that receives alerts

Save the settings, then open Diagnostics, find Diagnostic Tests > Notifications, and send a test notification to confirm delivery.

Note

ChannelWatch automatically sets ChannelWatch as the sender display name. Apprise derives the sender address from the SMTP username unless you supply a from= parameter for a custom server.

Port and TLS selection

Use an encrypted SMTP mode. ChannelWatch v1.5.3 turns a parameter string into an Apprise mailtos:// configuration. For a custom server, enter one of these exact forms in SMTP Connection:

Mode	SMTP Connection value
STARTTLS on port 587	user=user@example.com&pass=<smtp-password>&smtp=smtp.example.com&port=587
Implicit TLS on port 465	user=user@example.com&pass=<smtp-password>&smtp=smtp.example.com&port=465&mode=ssl

Apprise uses mailtos:// with STARTTLS by default. Port 465 requires mode=ssl; a port number by itself does not select implicit TLS. These rules follow the Apprise custom SMTP configuration.

Caution

Do not send credentials over an unencrypted SMTP connection. Use port 587 with STARTTLS or port 465 with mode=ssl, according to your provider’s published settings.

Gmail setup

Gmail supports an App Password after you enable 2-Step Verification. Google recommends App Passwords only for apps that cannot use Sign in with Google, which includes ChannelWatch’s SMTP-only Email field.

1. Enable 2-Step Verification for your Google Account.
2. Open Google’s App Passwords page and sign in.
3. Enter ChannelWatch as the app name, select Create, and copy the 16-digit password. Google shows it only once.
4. In ChannelWatch, enter your SMTP connection as:

<gmail-username>:<gmail-app-password>@gmail.com

Replace <gmail-username> with the part before @gmail.com. Apprise recognizes the gmail.com provider and selects Gmail’s secure SMTP settings. Remove spaces from the generated App Password when you enter it.

Note

If the App Passwords option is missing after you enable 2-Step Verification, your account may use security keys only, belong to an organization that blocks App Passwords, or have Advanced Protection enabled. See Google’s current App Password help.

Outlook / Microsoft 365 setup

Personal Outlook.com, Hotmail, and Live accounts require OAuth2/Modern Auth for SMTP. Microsoft’s current settings specify smtp-mail.outlook.com, port 587, STARTTLS, and OAuth2. ChannelWatch v1.5.3’s dedicated Email field cannot complete that OAuth flow, so do not enter a Microsoft account password or app password there. See Microsoft’s Outlook.com SMTP settings.

Apprise provides Microsoft OAuth through its azure:// service rather than the SMTP Email service. If you configure that route, put the complete version-compatible azure:// URL in ChannelWatch’s Custom Apprise field. Follow the Apprise Microsoft email instructions to create the Microsoft application and URL; the dedicated Email field cannot substitute for those credentials.

For an Exchange Online work or school mailbox, ask your Microsoft 365 administrator whether Authenticated SMTP is enabled for that mailbox and whether the tenant’s authentication policy permits a credential method supported by the ChannelWatch Email field. Microsoft recommends leaving SMTP AUTH disabled across the organization and enabling it only for mailboxes that still require it. Security Defaults or an authentication policy can continue to block password-based SMTP AUTH even when the mailbox switch is enabled. See Microsoft’s authenticated client SMTP submission guidance.

Only when your administrator confirms that password-based SMTP AUTH is permitted for the mailbox, use:

user=user@contoso.com&pass=<smtp-credential>&smtp=smtp.office365.com&port=587

This recipe uses STARTTLS and cannot satisfy an OAuth-only tenant policy.

Caution

Do not disable Security Defaults or weaken an organization’s authentication policy for ChannelWatch. Use an administrator-approved SMTP relay, Apprise’s Microsoft OAuth service through Custom Apprise, or another notification provider.

Generic SMTP setup

For any other SMTP provider, use the parameter format so the TLS mode is explicit:

user=user@example.com&pass=<smtp-password>&smtp=smtp.example.com&port=587

Common examples:

Provider	SMTP host	Port
Fastmail	smtp.fastmail.com	Check the current provider settings
Zoho Mail	smtp.zoho.com	Check the current provider settings
Proton Mail Bridge	An address reachable from the ChannelWatch container	Use the port shown in Bridge
Self-hosted (Postfix, Exim)	Your server IP or hostname	465 or 587

For Proton Mail Bridge, use the SMTP host, port, and security mode shown by Bridge. The Bridge process must listen on an address reachable from inside the ChannelWatch container. 127.0.0.1 inside the container points back to ChannelWatch, not to Bridge on the Docker host. Use an appropriate host, LAN, or container-network address and keep the connection within a trusted network.

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: "<gmail-username>:<gmail-app-password>@gmail.com"
  CW_APPRISE_EMAIL_TO: "recipient@example.com"

Caution

Credentials in environment variables are visible to anyone who can run docker inspect on the container. For shared hosts, prefer the web UI, which stores credentials in /config/settings.json.

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

Troubleshooting

Authentication failed. Double-check the SMTP username and credential. For Gmail, confirm you are using an App Password rather than your account password. For Microsoft accounts that require OAuth2, use Apprise’s Microsoft OAuth service through Custom Apprise instead of the Email field.

Connection timed out. Confirm the SMTP host and port match the provider’s published settings. Check the host firewall and Docker egress rules. For a local Bridge or relay, confirm its address is reachable from inside the ChannelWatch container.

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

• Provider Matrix - compare all notification providers at a glance
• 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