Hi David, Many thanks for your advice. I have already spent some time identifying the koha patron records with bad email addresses and have sent them out to the individual libraries to ask if they can correct them. It remains to be seen how successful this will be. I've also turned email off for all the instances for now.
You ask: "Are there particular reasons for choosing the configuration of Postfix over Koha's built-in SMTP server settings?" The reason is purely historical. When we originally set up koha email, it didn't have a built-in SMTP server, and when we updated koha, we didn't bother changing it. I have been reading up on how to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC and plan to have a go. (I used to teach Linux professionally so I'm comfortable working at a Linux command prompt ... it's just getting a little rusty these days.) Am I right in saying that koha's built-in SMTP server won't handle DKIM? Thanks again, and Best Regards, Chris Brown On Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 4:54 PM David Liddle <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Chris, > > Regardless of what email provider you use, having a lot of email bounces > is likely to affect the reputation of your sending domain. Even if you own > the email domain, recipients' domains may mark your messages as spam or > quarantine them on the basis of that reputation. You will need to improve > the quality of your data. Depending on the proportion of addresses that are > incorrect, you might consider turning off email notifications until you can > correct the data. > > Are there particular reasons for choosing the configuration of Postfix > over Koha's built-in SMTP server settings? There is additional > administrative overhead to setting up Postfix—and those settings will not > be included in Koha's regular backup routine. The SMTP server settings, on > the other hand, are backed up with the rest of the database. > > SPF, DKIM, and DMARC will not be configured in Koha, but rather at your > DNS host, which may or may not be your domain host. Your DNS/domain host > may have published guides for setting up these functions, so it should be > your first point of reference. If you're not sure where you need to start, > I encourage you to share more details about your environment—without > exposing operational details that could be exploited. > > Regards, > > David Liddle > Koha System Administrator & Email Administrator > > Seminar für Sprache und Kultur, https://spracheundkultur.org > > > On Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 3:51 PM Chris Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> First, best wishes to all for the new year. >> >> I manage a koha system that supports 7 volunteer-run libraries in >> Sheffield, UK. Since 2018 we have used gmail as a relay for sending >> overdue >> notifications etc. Recently, Google informed me that they have disabled >> the >> service due to violation of their terms of service. We are not sure >> exactly >> what they are unhappy about but we suspect it might be due to a high >> proportion of bounced messages, (We have rather too many incorrect email >> addresses in koha.) >> >> I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had a similar problem, >> and has found a solution. In particular, I would like some guidance on >> setting up Postfix to send out email directly (without using gmail as a >> relay), and setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC. In case it is relevant, we are >> using koha 22.11. >> >> Thanks and Best Regards, >> >> Chris Brown >> _______________________________________________ >> >> Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org >> [email protected] >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha >> > _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
