---
slug: "django-send-mail-ssl-unverified-error"
title: "After Upgrading to Django 5 and Updating Dependencies, SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED Error Occurs When Sending Emails"
description: "I updated Django to version 5.0 and also updated other libraries. When I executed the code for sending an email, an ssl.SSLCertVerificationError occurred."
url: "https://www.ytyng.com/en/blog/django-send-mail-ssl-unverified-error"
publish_date: "2024-04-15T08:35:38Z"
created: "2024-04-15T08:35:38Z"
updated: "2026-02-26T14:35:35.704Z"
categories: ["Django"]
keywords: ""
featured_image_url: "https://media.ytyng.com/resize/20250611/af6b18f690a5451386584fdc748a99c5.png.webp?width=768"
has_video: true
has_music: true
video_urls: ["https://media.ytyng.net/ytyng-blog/305/featured-video-1.mp4", "https://media.ytyng.net/ytyng-blog/305/featured-video-2.mp4", "https://media.ytyng.net/ytyng-blog/305/featured-video-3.mp4"]
music_urls: ["https://media.ytyng.net/ytyng-blog/305/featured-music-305-3.mp3", "https://media.ytyng.net/ytyng-blog/305/featured-music-305-4.mp3"]
lang: "en"
---

# After Upgrading to Django 5 and Updating Dependencies, SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED Error Occurs When Sending Emails

# Issue Description

After upgrading Django to version 5.0 and updating other libraries, an error occurred when executing the following email sending code:

```python
message = EmailMessage(
    subject='Verification Email',
    body='This is a verification email. Please ignore it.',
    from_email='developer@example.com',
    to=['test-user@example.com'],
    reply_to=['developer@example.com'],
)
send_result = message.send()
```

The following error message was displayed:

```
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<...>python3.11/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 413, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "<...>python3.11/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 459, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<...>management/commands/send_test_mail.py", line 34, in handle
    send_result = message.send()
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<...>python3.11/site-packages/django/core/mail/message.py", line 300, in send
    return self.get_connection(fail_silently).send_messages([self])
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<...>python3.11/site-packages/django/core/mail/backends/smtp.py", line 128, in send_messages
    new_conn_created = self.open()
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<...>python3.11/site-packages/django/core/mail/backends/smtp.py", line 93, in open
    self.connection.starttls(context=self.ssl_context)
  File "<...>lib/python3.11/smtplib.py", line 790, in starttls
    self.sock = context.wrap_socket(self.sock,
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<...>lib/python3.11/ssl.py", line 517, in wrap_socket
    return self.sslsocket_class._create(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<...>lib/python3.11/ssl.py", line 1108, in _create
    self.do_handshake()
  File "<...>lib/python3.11/ssl.py", line 1379, in do_handshake
    self._sslobj.do_handshake()
ssl.SSLCertVerificationError: [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: self-signed certificate (_ssl.c:1006)
```

The SMTP server being connected to is one created by installing Postfix on an EC2 instance.

It seems that this error occurs because the self-signed certificate cannot be verified.

## Email Sending Using smtplib

Incidentally, when using the same server with smtplib:

```python
s = smtplib.SMTP(...)
s.starttls()
s.ehlo()
s.login(...)
s.sendmail(...)
```

The above error does not occur.

## Proposed Solutions

As a temporary measure, by modifying the following part of the [email sending code](https://github.com/django/django/blob/main/django/core/mail/backends/smtp.py#L93):

```python
self.connection.starttls(context=self.ssl_context)
```

If you pass `ssl._create_unverified_context()` to `context`, it will work. (By default, `ssl.create_default_context()` is used.)

However, skipping certificate verification is not a good practice.

## Emergency Measures

For instance, creating a function like the one below and using it in place of `EmailMessage.send` will allow sending the email while skipping the verification and issuing a warning:

```python
def send_message_use_unverified_backend(email_message, *, fail_silently=False):
    if not email_message.recipients():
        return 0
    connection = email_message.get_connection(fail_silently=fail_silently)
    connection.ssl_context = ssl._create_unverified_context()
    return connection.send_messages([email_message])

message = EmailMessage(...)

send_message_use_unverified_backend(message)
```

Ideally, instead of the above workaround, it's better to use managed SMTP services like Amazon SES or Sendgrid.