SMTP password not persisted in SuiteCRM 8.9.2, authentication fails after reload

đź’¬ General Discussion
1

Environment

  • OS: Ubuntu (kernel 6.8.0-87-generic)

  • Web server: Apache/2.4.58 (Ubuntu)

  • PHP: 8.3.30 (NTS)

  • SuiteCRM: 8.9.2 (legacy app under /public/legacy)

  • Mail provider: IONOS (smtp.ionos.com)

Issue description
I am testing outbound email in SuiteCRM 8.9.2 and observe inconsistent SMTP authentication behavior that looks like the SMTP password is not reliably persisted or reloaded.

Observed behavior

  1. Configure an Outbound Email Account (Admin → Outbound Email Accounts) with:

  2. Enter the SMTP password and save.

  3. Immediately after saving:

    • “Send Test Email” works.

    • Sending an email from a record (Target / Contact) works.

  4. After logging out and logging back into SuiteCRM (or after some navigation):

    • Sending email fails.

    • Error shown:
      SMTP Error: Could not authenticate

    • SMTP log shows successful STARTTLS, AUTH LOGIN attempted, but fails with:
      535 Authentication credentials invalid

  5. Re-entering the same SMTP password, saving again:

    • Email sending works again immediately.

    • After another reload / logout, it fails again.

This cycle is 100% reproducible.

Important details

  • The mailbox credentials are correct and work consistently in:

    • IONOS webmail

    • Other applications (e.g. Nextcloud)

  • TLS handshake and SMTP protocol negotiation succeed every time.

  • Failure always happens at AUTH with 535, unless the password was just re-entered.

  • The error occurs both via “Send Test Email” and when sending real emails from records.

  • UI sometimes shows a generic “Unexpected error when calling action” when sending from a record.

Expectation
SMTP credentials should remain valid after being saved once. Authentication should not depend on re-entering the password each session.

Question
Is this a known issue in SuiteCRM 8.x regarding outbound email password storage (encryption, truncation, or cache persistence)?
Are there recommended fixes or patches (DB schema, config, or code-level) for this behavior?

2

You could try to find related issue here:

If you do not find it, you can create a new one.

3

Thank you picking this topic up.
I really think it is a SuiteCRM bug and I raised a ticket (when I found out that there was an identical ticket raised already).

I setup the outbound account and are able to send a Test email or an email from a Target or Lead. When I log out and logging in again, it does not work any more.

Interesting is though that the account setup on the inbound side seems to be stable

Thanks anyway