Mail settings
Everything Platypus emails on your behalf goes out through the provider chosen here. Open Settings in the admin sidebar and pick the Mail tab. New venues start on Platypus hosted mail, which needs no setup. Your email already works. Come here when you want mail sent through your own provider, from your own domain.
What Platypus sends for you
- Ticket confirmations — the order email with the ticket PDF after a successful checkout
- Contact-form messages — delivered to you when someone uses your public contact page
- Mailing-list mail — the double-opt-in confirmation, unsubscribe links, and campaigns, which hosted mail carries within two limits
- Per-event reminder emails
- Test emails — from the button described below
Every one of these uses this page's settings, so if the provider here breaks, they all stop arriving. That's what the test button is for.
Choosing a provider
Pick one provider; the form shows only the fields that provider needs. Secrets (API keys, passwords) are stored encrypted and never shown again. Leaving a secret field blank on a later save keeps the stored value — it doesn't clear it.
Providers differ in more than deliverability: some also expose their lists, segments, and bounce data to Platypus, shown as badges under the provider picker. Everything a provider adds beyond Sending depends on pasting the right kind of key.
| Provider | What you need | Beyond sending |
|---|---|---|
| Platypus hosted mail | Nothing — works out of the box | — |
| Mailgun | Your verified sending domain and your account (private) API key — a domain sending key (key-...) covers sending only | Lists, bounce info |
| Resend | A full-access API key (re_...) — a sending-only key sends and nothing more | Segments, bounce info |
| SendGrid | An API key (SG....) with Marketing scopes — a Mail Send-only key stops at sending | Bounce info; lists shown but not importable |
| Amazon SES | Your region's SMTP endpoint plus SES SMTP credentials, generated in the SES console — not your IAM keys | — |
| Mailchimp (Mandrill) | Your Mailchimp Transactional username and an API key; the host is fixed at smtp.mandrillapp.com. A Mandrill key can't reach Mailchimp audiences | — |
| Custom SMTP | Host, port (usually 587), encryption (usually tls), username, password | — |
When you save one of the three list-capable providers, Platypus checks what your key can actually reach and shows the result under the picker: that the key is verified for full access, or a note that it can send but can't reach lists. The Verify connection button re-runs that check at any time. A key that can't reach lists still sends perfectly well; you only need the stronger key for list features — and for SendGrid those stop short of member import, so importing that audience means exporting a CSV instead.
Hosted mail's trade-offs: messages come from Platypus sending addresses rather than your own domain, with your theatre's name as the sender. Each kind of mail has its own address:
- Ticket emails, reminders, opt-in confirmations, and the test email come from the Platypus notifications address,
no-reply@notifications.platypus.tickets. - Campaigns come from your venue's own address on the Platypus mailing domain:
yourslug@mailouts.platypus.tickets, whereyourslugis the short name after/t/in your venue's Platypus web address.
Replies still reach you, on every email Platypus sends for you (ticket receipts and reminders included): your From address is set as the Reply-To, with your public contact email as the fallback. The hosted-mail note on this tab shows exactly what recipients see for each kind of email, sender name and address, and where a reply lands. Hosted mail is currently unmetered; there's no sending charge. If you want mail from your own domain, pick any of the other providers.
For a provider you run yourself, your From address must be one that provider lets you send as — the API providers generally require your domain to be verified with them first.
Campaigns on hosted mail
Hosted mail carries email campaigns as well as ticket email, within two limits: 1,000 recipients per campaign, and 2,000 campaign emails per day, with the day starting at midnight in your venue's timezone. While hosted mail is selected, this tab, the campaign wizard's review step, and the draft composer show both limits and how many campaign emails have gone out today. Ticket emails, reminders, and test sends never count towards them.
- A campaign over 1,000 recipients is refused before anything sends. To email a larger list, connect your own provider here; Platypus doesn't cap campaigns sent through it.
- A send that would pass today's limit is refused as over the daily limit. The count includes emails still waiting in your other campaigns, so a second send queued behind an unfinished one is measured against what's left. Send it tomorrow, or narrow the audience with tags.
- Reaching the daily limit part-way through a send pauses the rest. The campaign stops and shows as failed, and pressing Send again the next day delivers only to the people who haven't had it yet; nobody gets it twice.
- Test sends have a limit of their own: 50 campaign test sends a day per venue. The next one is refused with Daily test-send limit reached — try again tomorrow.
- Paused hosted campaigns. Platypus can pause hosted campaigns on an account. The limits line then says so, and campaign sends (test sends included) are refused until Platypus resumes them; contact support, or send through your own provider in the meantime. Ticket emails keep going as normal.
Limits are set per venue. If yours don't fit, email support, or connect your own provider.
The From address
The From address and From name are always required, whichever provider you pick — a save with a missing or invalid email is rejected. On your own provider this is the sender your audience sees on every message; on hosted mail they see your From name beside the Platypus address, and your From address is where their replies go. Use an inbox someone actually reads: contact-form messages and confused ticket buyers end up there.
What every email says about you
Every email Platypus sends on your behalf ends with the same short block: your Organisation Name (your venue name until you set one), your ABN when set, whichever of your public contact email, phone, and address you've filled in, and the line Sent via Platypus Tickets on behalf of your venue. Receipts, reminders, opt-in confirmations, unsubscribe links, campaigns, and the test email all carry it, in the HTML and in the plain-text version every email now has.
That block is the Spam Act 2003's sender-identification rule (s17) made concrete: a commercial email must name the business that authorised it and give a way to reach that business that stays valid for 30 days. The organisation name and ABN come from Settings → General, the contact details from Settings → Contact. Ticket emails always go out; a campaign waits until the organisation name and a contact email (or the From address) are set.
Send a test email
At the bottom of the Mail tab, enter a recipient address and press Send test email. Platypus sends a fixed test message with a generated PDF attached, so one send proves delivery and attachments work. The test uses your saved settings — save first, because it ignores unsaved form changes.
The page reports success, or why the send failed. On your own provider that's the provider's own error message, because the fix is in your provider account. On hosted mail a failure shows a short notice instead: Platypus hosted mail could not send this message. Try again later, or contact Platypus support if it keeps happening. The fault is on Platypus's side, so Platypus keeps the technical detail in its own logs rather than putting it on your screen.
The same notice stands in for the technical error wherever hosted mail fails to send:
- a campaign's Send test
- a campaign's list of failed recipients
- your audit log, on the entries for failed ticket emails, mailing-list confirmation emails sent after checkout, payment-exception alerts, campaign sends, event reminders, and test sends
On hosted mail the test comes from the notifications address, like your ticket emails (a campaign's own Send test comes from your campaign address instead). If Platypus's own sending isn't set up for real delivery, you get a clear hosted mail is not configured for delivery error instead of a false success.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Test send shows a provider error about credentials | Wrong, revoked, or rotated key/password | Re-enter the secret, save, test again |
| Save rejected naming a credential field | The selected provider requires it and nothing is stored yet | Fill in that field |
| Secret field is empty when you revisit the page | Secrets are never redisplayed | Normal — blank keeps the stored value; type a new one only to replace it |
| Test still behaves like the old settings | The test uses saved settings, not the form | Save your changes, then test |
| Hosted mail is not configured for delivery, or the notice Platypus hosted mail could not send this message | A problem on Platypus's side, not your configuration | Nothing to change on your side; Platypus keeps the details in its logs. Try again later, and if it keeps happening, email support or switch to your own provider |
| Mail arrives from a Platypus address, not yours | That's how hosted mail works; replies still reach your From address | Switch to Mailgun, Resend, SendGrid, or SMTP with your own domain |
| A campaign send is refused over the hosted limit | The audience is over 1,000 recipients, or the send would take today past 2,000 | Send tomorrow, narrow the audience with tags, or connect your own provider |
| A campaign stopped part-way and shows as failed | The daily hosted limit was reached mid-send | Press Send after midnight, venue time; only the people still waiting get it |
| The limits line says hosted campaigns are paused | Platypus has paused hosted campaigns on your account | Email support; ticket emails are unaffected, and your own provider can send campaigns meanwhile |
| A campaign's Send test is refused with Daily test-send limit reached | Hosted mail allows 50 campaign test sends a day per venue | Try again tomorrow; your own provider has no test-send limit |
| A campaign send is refused asking for your organisation name or a contact email | The sender-identity check (Spam Act s17) | Fill Organisation Name under Settings → General and Public Contact Email under Settings → Contact, then send again |
| SES rejects the login | IAM access keys used instead of SMTP credentials | Generate SMTP credentials in the SES console |
| Save reports the key can send but can't reach lists | The key is send-scoped (Mailgun domain sending key, Resend sending-only key, SendGrid key without Marketing scopes) | Sending still works; paste the stronger key type only if you want list features |
| Nothing arrives, no errors shown | Provider config broke since it last worked, or spam filtering | Run a test send; check the recipient's spam folder; confirm your domain is verified with the provider |
If the test send succeeds but one kind of email still goes missing, the sending feature's own guide is the next stop: contact form, or mailing list & campaigns. Anything this table can't explain is worth reporting — email support@platypus.tickets.