Sql-server – sp_send_dbmail fails: Cannot send mails to mail server

I am trying to set up email from my SQL Server 2014 installation. As I have the Express Edition, I do not have the Database mail wizard, but I seem to have all the stored procedures in the msdb database.

The error message is:
The mail could not be sent to the recipients because of the mail server failure. (Sending Mail using Account X (date). Exception Message: Cannot send mails to mail server. (Failure sending mail.).

It seems to me that the error indicates a problem with the email connection, rather than SQL Server, so I tried to send from a different email address – but with the same error. Both of these outgoing email addresses work reliably for my normal work (using Thunderbird). The set-up data was copied from Thunderbird.

I have used the set-up SQL from https://www.codeproject.com/articles/485124/configuring-database-mail-in-sql-server

-- Enable service broker in the MSDB database.
USE [master]
GO
ALTER DATABASE [MSDB] SET ENABLE_BROKER WITH NO_WAIT
GO

--Enabling Database Mail
sp_configure 'show advanced options',1
reconfigure;
GO

-- Enable the db mail feature at server level
sp_configure 'Database Mail XPs',1
reconfigure;

--Creating a Profile
EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_profile_sp
@profile_name = 'SQLProfile',
@description = 'Mail Service for SQL Server' ;

-- Create a Mail account 
EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_account_sp
@account_name = 'SQL_Email_Account',
@email_address = 'somebody@gmail.com',
@mailserver_name = 'smtp.googlemail.com',
@port=465,
@enable_ssl=1,
@username='somebody@gmail.com',
@password='Emailid password'
-- TODO ENSURE VALID PASSWORD FOR THE ACCOUNT IS ENTERED ABOVE

-- Adding the account to the profile
EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_profileaccount_sp
@profile_name = 'SQLProfile',
@account_name = 'SQL_Email_Account',
@sequence_number =1 ;

-- Granting access to the profile to the DatabaseMailUserRole of MSDB
EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_principalprofile_sp
@profile_name = 'SQLProfile',
@principal_id = 0,
@is_default = 1;

The above is not intended to be run as a single script; each step was performed separately and each step worked.

Email was tested with:

--Sending Test Mail
-- See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190307.aspx for all arguments
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
@profile_name = 'SQLProfile',
@recipients = 'somebodyelse@yahoo.co.uk',
@body = 'Database Mail Testing',
@subject = 'Database Mail from SQL Server';

select * from msdb.dbo.sysmail_event_log

Then try a different email address:

USE [master]
GO

-- Create a Database Mail account 2
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_account_sp
@account_name = 'SQL_Email_Account 2',
@description = 'Alternative Mail account',
@email_address = 'somebody3@gmx.co.uk',
@display_name = 'Alternate GMX',
@port=465,
@enable_ssl=1,
@username='somebody3@gmx.co.uk',
@password='ValidPassword',
@mailserver_name = 'mail.gmx.com';
GO

-- Add the account 2 to the profile
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_profileaccount_sp
@profile_name = 'SQLProfile',
@account_name = 'SQL_Email_Account 2',
@sequence_number = 2 ;

-- Make one not the default
EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_update_principalprofile_sp
@profile_name = 'SQLProfile',
@principal_name = 'public',
@is_default = 0 ;

-- Show the new default profile
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_help_principalprofile_sp

But this also failed with the same error. There are no messages in the SQL Server logs nor my firewall log.

I have tried some diagnostics that web searches have suggested:

Use msdb
Go

select * from sysmail_profile
select * from sysmail_account
select * from sysmail_profileaccount where profile_id=1
select * from sysmail_server
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_help_account_sp;
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_help_profileaccount_sp @profile_name = 'SQLProfile';
EXEC msdb.sys.sp_helprolemember 'DatabaseMailUserRole';
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_help_principalprofile_sp;
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_help_status_sp;
exec [dbo].[sysmail_configure_sp] 'LoggingLevel', 3

All the return values are normal, so I’ve not posted a duplicate of the set-up data. My only problem is that setting LoggingLevel to verbose does not seem to have any effect – is that data stored elsewhere that I have not looked?

Any hints would be appreciated, either to fix the problem or for more diagnostics. Thank you.