i'm using phpmailer for sending email with my gmail account.

sometimes i'm getting the error could not authenticate.

is there a solution for it?

Post your code and any error messages you're getting.

 $mail = new PHPMailer(true); 
 
 $mail->IsSMTP();
 
 try {
  $mail->SMTPSecure = 'ssl';
  $mail->Host       = $config['smtp_host']; // = 'smtp.gmail.com'
  $mail->SMTPAuth   = $config['smtp_auth'];  // = true             
  $mail->Port       = $config['smtp_port'];       // = 465           
  $mail->Username   = $config['smtp_user']; 
  $mail->Password   = $config['smtp_pass'];
  $mail->IsHTML   = $config['smtp_html']; //=true
  $mail->Subject    = $subject; 
  $mail->SetFrom($config['smtp_from'], get_gvar('site_name'));
  $mail->AddReplyTo($config['smtp_from'], get_gvar('site_name'));
  $mail->AddAddress($to);
  $mail->MsgHTML($message);
 
  return $mail->Send();
 }
 catch (phpmailerException $e) {   
  send_note(1, $e->errorMessage()); //Pretty error messages from PHPMailer 
 } 
 catch (Exception $e) {   
  echo send_note(1,$e->getMessage()); //Boring error messages from anything else! 
 }

error: SMTP Error: Could not authenticate

the error happens sometime, not all the time.

Are you sending from local machine or a hosted site? Can you get full text for the error.

from a hosted site. from the local computer untill now no problems.

and that is the error code i get.

Several things can cause "SMTP Error: Could not authenticate" - it usually comes with more info. Does it sometimes work and sometimes not if you send repeatedly to the same recipient? Are you checking correctness of recipient? Can you note the date/time it next fails and ask your host what the mail server log says for whoever you're sending to. Given it's intermittent I'd look at the variables - which is recipient or mail server itself - eg if it's busy at certain times.

Originally Posted by PaulW

Several things can cause "SMTP Error: Could not authenticate" - it usually comes with more info. Does it sometimes work and sometimes not if you send repeatedly to the same recipient? Are you checking correctness of recipient? Can you note the date/time it next fails and ask your host what the mail server log says for whoever you're sending to. Given it's intermittent I'd look at the variables - which is recipient or mail server itself - eg if it's busy at certain times.

let's say the mail server is busy. What can you do about it to eliminate this kind of errors.

Messages should usually be queued even if the mail server is busy. What I should have said was "if the machine that the mail server runs on " -- ie if it's competing for scarce resources. Have a word with your hosting company if it's happening too frequently (though it sounds like it is already if you've noticed in testing one script).

it seems you are sending too many emails in a speedy way thats the reason you are getting errors
same thing happened to me when i try to send out too many