php headers mail headers "554 Message not allowed - Headers are not RFC compliant[291]"

Question

I'm having problems sending email to yahoo.com email addresses, the mail I send from my php script works perfectly for every other domain i send it to apart from one of our users who insists on keeping her yahoo email.

here are my headers

    $headers = array();
$headers[] = "MIME-Version: 1.0";
$headers[] = "Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1";
$headers[] = "Date: $date";
$headers[] = "From: 'DSAC Events' <$from>";
$headers[] = "Reply-To:  <$replyto>"; 
$headers[] = "Subject: {$subject}";
$headers[] = "Return-Path: <$from>";
$headers[] = "X-Priority: 3";//1 = High, 3 = Normal, 5 = Low
$headers[] = "X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();

mail($to, $subject, $msg, implode("\r\n", $headers));

I've read lots posts about people with the same problem, I've tried adding a message-id and return-path I've added the date: after reading that might be the problem and various other things to no avail.

Here is an example of the bounced mail source.

Envelope-to: d11dsa@zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk
Delivery-date: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:32 +0000
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
From: Mail Delivery System <Mailer-Daemon@zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk>
To: d11dsa@zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk
Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
Message-Id: <E1Xn7Cm-001cxb-8a@zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:32 +0000

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

  user@yahoo.com
    SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
    host mta6.am0.yahoodns.net [63.250.192.46]: 554 Message not allowed - Headers are not RFC compliant[291]

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------

Return-path: <d11dsa@zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk>
Received: from d11dsa by zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk with local (Exim 4.82)
    (envelope-from <d11dsa@zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk>)
    id 1Xn7Ci-001cl4-9S
    for user@yahoo.com; Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:29 +0000
To: user@yahoo.com
Subject: 
X-PHP-Script: www.dsa.co.uk/eventmail.php for 2.218.47.72
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:28 +0000
From: DSACEvents <events@dsa.co.uk>
Reply-To:  <person@live.co.uk>
Subject: 
X-Priority: 3

I think i may have solved my own problem, I see I'm sending $subject twice! — hippytyre, Nov 11 '14 at 10:06

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 08 '15 at 15:54

Thanks for the reply and you're right. Here's what I eventually ended up with which works perfectly.

    function generateMessageID()
{
  return sprintf(
    "<%s.%s@%s>",
    base_convert(microtime(), 10, 36),
    base_convert(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(8)), 16, 36),
    $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']
  );
}

        $headers = array();
$headers[] = "MIME-Version: 1.0";
$headers[] = "Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1";
$headers[] = "Mesaage-id: " .generateMessageID();
$headers[] = "From: 'DSAC Events' <$from>";
$headers[] = "Reply-To: $Arranger <$replyto>"; 
$headers[] = "Date: $date";
$headers[] = "Return-Path: <$from>";
$headers[] = "X-Priority: 3";//1 = High, 3 = Normal, 5 = Low
$headers[] = "X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();


mail($to, $subject, $message, implode("\r\n", $headers));

You forgot mentioning the removing of subject from the headers ! — M at, Dec 02 '19 at 14:37

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 10 '16 at 21:45

According to the error message, it seems Yahoo servers are rejecting email from your domain SMTP server. This can be caused by several reasons including the ones below:

If there are no Message-ID or Date headers in the messages being sent by your program
If the attachments do not follow the exact structure for that file type, these are also considered suspicious and hence quarantined, just in case they pose any form of threat.
If the message has 2 subjects the mail can be rejected.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered May 24 '20 at 14:31

-1

I had the same problems with yahoo. Only the double 'subject' was the problem. Great Job, works fine for me.

answered May 24 '20 at 14:31

Lars Martin

1

2

it is more of an appreciation to another answer. you can leave a comment there or upvote. that would be more appropriate. – lucid May 24 '20 at 14:55

php headers mail headers "554 Message not allowed - Headers are not RFC compliant[291]"

3 Answers3