When using SMTP you would have to uncomment and change

//$CONFIG->emailer_transport = 'sendmail';

to

$CONFIG->emailer_transport = 'smtp';

I think it won't use SMTP otherwise at all regardless what you have set in the $CONFIG->emailer_smtp_settings array. As for the values in the array are you using the very same you have used with the plugin before on the older Elgg version? Connection class might be 'plain' instead of 'login'. And you might also have to define 'ssl' and 'port' (twice?) depending what the smtp mail server requires. I never tried SMTP myself so I can't give any other first hand advice.

As for sendmail it shouldn't be necessary to make any settings at all as long as sendmail it correctly set up on your server. If the test works as explained in the docs but no email notifications are sent on site I wonder if you use an email address as site email that's not matching your domain. In this case sendmail might block it (as anti-spam measure). There's also the question if the receiver of the email notification has enabled emails as allowed notification method in his notification settings. In case of verification emails the question is if the email goes out but gets blocked somewhere on the way to the receiver or ends in the spam folder of the receiver.

Well, I managed to get sendmail to work. I probably had messed up some comment line.

But out of curiosity, I tried every SMTP setting I could and didn't get it to work. 'plain' and 'login'; ssl and not ssl; different ports etc.

also tried different combinations of uncommenting/changing the $CONFIG->emailer_transport = 'smtp';
and $CONFIG->emailer_sendmail_settings = '';

Anyways, sendmail is working now. Thank you!

To answer your question I believe it's Elgg 3.3.

However since MySQL 5.6 has reached End-of-life on Feb 1 2021 maybe GoDaddy should update to supported software.

• https://www.mysql.com/support/eol-notice.html (search for mysql 5.6)
• https://endoflife.software/applications/databases/mysql

Thanks a lot, Jerome, for your very fast and helpful reply.  I appreciate it.

Yes, GoDaddy dropped the ball on this one as the biggest hosting provider in the world.  MySQL version 5.7 was released on 21st October, 2015 and you're right that version 5.6 has not been supported since February, 2021.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL#Release_history

Welcome to Elgg!

does it matter how I name the directory?

It doesn't make any difference.

We usually follow this pattern:

/var/elggdata/ - for data directory

/var/www/elgg/ - for Elgg root installed directory

http://learn.elgg.org/en/stable/intro/install.html#create-a-data-folder