Newsletters: POP/IMAP Mailbox Bounce

The WordPress Newsletters plugin has a POP/IMAP mailbox bounce method which retrieves bounced emails directly from a POP3 or IMAP mailbox using a host, port, username and password (just like an email client such as Outlook, Mac OS Mail, Thunderbird, etc) and then takes action based on your configuration settings. See under Newsletters > Configuration in the ‘Bounce Configuration’ settings box for easy to follow POP/IMAP settings.

Using Gmail/Google Apps as a bounce mailbox

You can use your Gmail or Google Apps mailbox as a bounce mailbox to which bounce emails will go but there are some requirements in order to use this.

Requirements

  1. PHP OpenSSL extension is required since Gmail/Google Apps requires an SSL connection.
  2. Port 995 for POP3 must be open and allowed on your server for outgoing PHP socket connections. Ask your hosting provider, if you’re not sure.
  3. Google account “Allow access for less secure apps” turned On.

For #1 and 2 above, you can check with your hosting provider if PHP OpenSSL and socket connections are enabled and also ask them if port 995 is open for outgoing PHP socket connections. If you need reliable hosting, check out our hosting plans.

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For #3, go to your Google account and in the security settings, you can turn On the “Allow access for less secure apps”, which allows non-Google apps (such as the Newsletter plugin) to log in to and access your Gmail account.

Settings

Here is an example of the settings you can use for your Gmail/Google Apps bounce mailbox. Remember to put ssl:// before the POP host. Also, set the port to 995, which is the default POP SSL port for Gmail and Google Apps.

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