Laravel 5.6 Notifications "Cannot send message without a sender address"

Question

I am trying to send an email notification after a user registers through the default login page, but it's displaying this error

But checking everything and the last time I used it, it was properly sending me an email

Here are my configs:

.env file

MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.googlemail.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=""
MAIL_PASSWORD=""
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=""
MAIL_FROM_NAME=""
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls

omitted some details above, but please presume I have entered the right gmail credentials

-----------------------------------------------

mail.php :

<?php

return [

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Mail Driver
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Laravel supports both SMTP and PHP's "mail" function as drivers for the
    | sending of e-mail. You may specify which one you're using throughout
    | your application here. By default, Laravel is setup for SMTP mail.
    |
    | Supported: "smtp", "sendmail", "mailgun", "mandrill", "ses",
    |            "sparkpost", "log", "array"
    |
    */

    // 'driver' => env('MAIL_DRIVER', 'smtp'),
    'driver' => env('MAIL_DRIVER', 'sendmail'),

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | SMTP Host Address
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Here you may provide the host address of the SMTP server used by your
    | applications. A default option is provided that is compatible with
    | the Mailgun mail service which will provide reliable deliveries.
    |
    */

    'host' => env('MAIL_HOST', 'smtp.mailgun.org'),

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | SMTP Host Port
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | This is the SMTP port used by your application to deliver e-mails to
    | users of the application. Like the host we have set this value to
    | stay compatible with the Mailgun e-mail application by default.
    |
    */

    'port' => env('MAIL_PORT', 587),

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Global "From" Address
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | You may wish for all e-mails sent by your application to be sent from
    | the same address. Here, you may specify a name and address that is
    | used globally for all e-mails that are sent by your application.
    |
    */

    'from' => [
        'address' => env('MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS'),
        'name' => env('MAIL_FROM_NAME'),
    ],

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | E-Mail Encryption Protocol
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Here you may specify the encryption protocol that should be used when
    | the application send e-mail messages. A sensible default using the
    | transport layer security protocol should provide great security.
    |
    */

    'encryption' => env('MAIL_ENCRYPTION', 'tls'),

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | SMTP Server Username
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | If your SMTP server requires a username for authentication, you should
    | set it here. This will get used to authenticate with your server on
    | connection. You may also set the "password" value below this one.
    |
    */

    'username' => env('MAIL_USERNAME'),

    'password' => env('MAIL_PASSWORD'),

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Sendmail System Path
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | When using the "sendmail" driver to send e-mails, we will need to know
    | the path to where Sendmail lives on this server. A default path has
    | been provided here, which will work well on most of your systems.
    |
    */

    'sendmail' => '/usr/sbin/sendmail -bs',
    //'sendmail' => '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i',

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Markdown Mail Settings
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | If you are using Markdown based email rendering, you may configure your
    | theme and component paths here, allowing you to customize the design
    | of the emails. Or, you may simply stick with the Laravel defaults!
    |
    */

    'markdown' => [
        'theme' => 'default',

        'paths' => [
            resource_path('views/vendor/mail'),
        ],
    ],

];

-----------------------------------------------

User Model:

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;

class User extends \TCG\Voyager\Models\User
{
    use Notifiable;

    const ACTIVE = 1;
    const INACTIVE = 0;
    /**
     * The attributes that are mass assignable.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $fillable = [
        'name', 'fname', 'lname', 'email', 'password', 'institute', 'cellphone_no', 'telephone_no', 'token', 'active'
    ];

    /**
     * The attributes that should be hidden for arrays.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $hidden = [
        'password', 'remember_token',
    ];

    public function events(){
        return $this->belongsToMany('App\Event');
    }
}

-----------------------------------------------

RegisterController@create method:

use App\User;
use App\Notifications\UserActivate;

protected function create(array $data)
{
    $user = User::create([
        'fname' => ucfirst(strtolower($data['fname'])),
        'lname' => ucfirst(strtolower($data['lname'])),
        'name'  => $data['fname'] . " " . $data['lname'],
        'institute' => $data['institute'],
        'cellphone_no' => $data['cellphone_no'],
        'telephone_no' => $data['telephone_no'],
        'lname' => ucfirst(strtolower($data['lname'])),
        'lname' => ucfirst(strtolower($data['lname'])),
        'email' => $data['email'],
        'password' => Hash::make($data['password']),
        'token' => str_random(40) . time(),
    ]);

    $user->notify(new UserActivate($user));

    return $user;
}

-----------------------------------------------

UserActivate Notification:

<?php

namespace App\Notifications;

use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\MailMessage;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notification;

class UserActivate extends Notification
{
    use Queueable;

    /**
     * Create a new notification instance.
     *
     * @param $user
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct($user)
    {
        $this->user = $user;
    }

    /**
     * Get the notification's delivery channels.
     *
     * @param  mixed  $notifiable
     * @return array
     */
    public function via($notifiable)
    {
        return ['mail'];
    }

    /**
     * Get the mail representation of the notification.
     *
     * @param  mixed  $notifiable
     * @return \Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\MailMessage
     */
    public function toMail($notifiable)
    {
        return (new MailMessage)
            ->from(env('MAIL_USERNAME'))
            ->subject('Account Activation')
            ->greeting(sprintf('Hi, %s', $this->user->name))
            ->line('We just noticed that you created a new account. You will need to activate your account to sign in.')
            ->action('Activate', route('activate', [$this->user->token]))
            ->line('Thank you and welcome!');
    }

    /**
     * Get the array representation of the notification.
     *
     * @param  mixed  $notifiable
     * @return array
     */
    public function toArray($notifiable)
    {
        return [
            //
        ];
    }
}

?>

I'm really confused because with my previous Laravel projects, the Notification already accepts the email of the $user object and then sends it right away. But now, it's asking for the sender address... Am I missing anything? Been fixing this since yesterday

Thank you very much in advance!

Answer 1

You need to add MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS & MAIL_FROM_NAME on your connfig.mail.php or .env

config/mail.php

'from' => [
     'address' => env('MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS', 'noreply@domain.com'),
     'name' => env('MAIL_FROM_NAME', 'System'),
 ],

.env

MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=noreply@domain.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME=System

After update .env dont forget to clear your configration and cache :

$ php artisan config:clear
$ php artisan cache:clear

Answer 2

There's nothing I see wrong with your code.

The error indicates it is the "From" (sender) address missing.

Make sure MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS and MAIL_FROM are set in your .env and refresh config cache, if you're using it ( ./artisan cache:config ).