What causes "Email reminder was not sent" in odysseus-dev/odysseus?

Inspect data.email_error in the response body for the server-captured SMTP error

odysseus-dev/odysseus · error · Error

Email reminder was not sent

Error message

Email reminder was not sent

What it means

Delivery-level failure for email test reminders. The POST succeeded (res.ok), but the response body has email_sent falsy while the channel selector is 'email'. The thrown message is data.email_error when the server provides it, otherwise this literal string.

Source

Thrown at static/js/settings.js:2707

            note_id: 'test-' + Date.now(),
            title: 'Test Reminder',
            body: 'This is a test reminder to verify your settings are working.',
            channel: channelSel.value,
            // Mirror the in-UI AI Synthesis toggle + persona so the test never
            // races a pending save and lets the user preview changes before
            // hitting Save.
            llm_synthesis: !!(llmToggle && llmToggle.checked),
            llm_persona: (personaSel && personaSel.value) || '',
            ...(channelSel.value === 'webhook' ? {
              webhook_integration_id: webhookIntgSel?.value || '',
              webhook_payload_template: webhookTemplateIn?.value.trim() || '',
            } : {}),
          }),
        });
        const data = await res.json();
        if (!res.ok) throw new Error(data.detail || 'Server error');
        if (channelSel.value === 'email' && !data.email_sent) {
          throw new Error(data.email_error || 'Email reminder was not sent');
        }
        if (channelSel.value === 'ntfy' && !data.ntfy_sent) {
          throw new Error(data.ntfy_error || 'ntfy reminder was not sent');
        }
        if (channelSel.value === 'webhook' && !data.webhook_sent) {
          const activeChannel = data.channel ? ` (server used channel: "${data.channel}")` : '';
          throw new Error((data.webhook_error || 'Webhook reminder was not sent') + activeChannel);
        }
        let status = 'Delivered via ' + channelSel.value;
        if (data.synthesis) status += ' (AI: "' + data.synthesis.slice(0, 60) + '...")';
        if (data.email_sent) status += ' — email sent';
        if (data.ntfy_sent) status += ' — ntfy sent';
        if (data.webhook_sent) status += ' — webhook sent';
        if (testMsg) { testMsg.textContent = status; testMsg.style.color = 'var(--green, #50fa7b)'; }
        // Also fire a browser notification so user can see it
        if ('Notification' in window && Notification.permission === 'granted') {
          try {
            new Notification('Test Reminder', {

View on GitHub (pinned to f9235ebbf1)

Solutions

Inspect data.email_error in the response body for the server-captured SMTP error
Verify SMTP settings (host, port, user, password, TLS) on the server
Confirm outbound SMTP is reachable from the server host
Fall back to a fuller message when email_error is missing, e.g. include 'check SMTP config'

Example fix

// before
        if (channelSel.value === 'email' && !data.email_sent) {
          throw new Error(data.email_error || 'Email reminder was not sent');
        }

// after
        if (channelSel.value === 'email' && !data.email_sent) {
          throw new Error(data.email_error || 'Email reminder was not sent (check SMTP config)');
        }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// client can only pre-check channel selection; SMTP health is server-side
if (channelSel.value !== 'email') return;

Try / catch

if (channelSel.value === 'email' && !data.email_sent) { throw new Error(data.email_error || 'Email reminder was not sent (check SMTP config)'); }

Prevention

Always log data.email_error when present — it carries the SMTP failure
Validate SMTP settings server-side before enabling the email channel
Prefer surfacing email_error over the generic fallback in the UI
Keep a server-side SMTP connectivity self-check endpoint for pre-flight

When it happens

Trigger: Channel 'email' selected and POST /api/.../test returns 200 with {email_sent: false} — SMTP host unreachable, bad credentials, missing from-address, or a server-side send exception captured into email_error.

Common situations: SMTP not configured or credentials rotated; firewall blocking outbound SMTP (port 25/587); typo'd mail server; provider rejecting the test message; email_error field absent so the generic text shows.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of odysseus-dev/odysseus@f9235ebbf1 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ed442d750d57a85f. Report an issue: GitHub.