How to Send Emails with Attachments Using PHPMailer in WordPress

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We received a question from one of our website visitors regarding how to send emails with attachments using PHPMailer in WordPress.

Many WordPress developers and website owners often face challenges when trying to send emails with file attachments.

While WordPress has built-in mailing functions, using PHPMailer in WordPress offers greater flexibility and reliability, especially for adding attachments such as PDFs, images, or plugin files.

Hopefully, this article shared by Mangcoding can help you save time! Feel free to leave a comment below or ask questions via Mangcoding’s social media.

PHPMailer is a popular PHP class that makes it easy to send emails directly from your server. Unlike the default wp_mail() function, PHPMailer allows more customization — including HTML emails, SMTP authentication, and the ability to send multiple file attachments.

This is especially useful for websites that need to deliver downloadable products, invoices, or form submissions with attached documents.

PHPMailer is a PHP class that allows you to send emails. This step is quite simple in our opinion. And here, Mangcoding will explain how to add attachments and provide some examples.

How to Add an Attachment in PHPMailer

To attach a file to your email, use the following syntax:

$phpmailer->AddAttachment('path to file', 'file name with extension');

This simple method tells PHPMailer which file to send and how it should be named in the recipient’s inbox.

Full Code Example:

global $phpmailer; // define the global variable
if ( !is_object( $phpmailer ) || !is_a( $phpmailer, 'PHPMailer' ) ) { // check if $phpmailer object of class PHPMailer exists
    // if not - include the necessary files
    require_once ABSPATH . WPINC . '/class-phpmailer.php';
    require_once ABSPATH . WPINC . '/class-smtp.php';
    $phpmailer = new PHPMailer( true );
}
$phpmailer->ClearAttachments(); // clear all previous attachments if exist
$phpmailer->ClearCustomHeaders(); // the same about mail headers
$phpmailer->ClearReplyTos();
$phpmailer->From = '[email protected]';
$phpmailer->FromName = 'Misha Rudrastyh';
$phpmailer->Subject = 'Plugin: ' . $plugin_display_name; // subject
$phpmailer->SingleTo = true;
$phpmailer->ContentType = 'text/html'; // Content Type
$phpmailer->IsHTML( true );
$phpmailer->CharSet = 'utf-8';
$phpmailer->ClearAllRecipients();
$phpmailer->AddAddress( $_POST['email'] ); // the recipient's address
$phpmailer->Body = 'Thanks for buying my plugin (the plugin archive is attached to this email).If you have any questions, contact me.';
$phpmailer->AddAttachment(getcwd() . '/plugins/' . $plugin_name . '.zip', $plugin_name . '.zip'); // add the attachment
$phpmailer->Send(); // the last thing - send the email

Final Thoughts

Using PHPMailer in WordPress gives you complete control over how your emails are sent, formatted, and delivered.

By following the steps above, you can easily attach files to your WordPress emails, improving communication and providing a better experience for your users.

Please try practicing what Mangcoding has explained in the article above. Hopefully, this article can be useful and help you solve your issue, especially in sending Email with attachments using PHPMailer in WordPress.

That’s the article Mangcoding wanted to share. Hopefully, it’s helpful and provides you with new insights. If you have constructive feedback or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment or reach out via email and Mangcoding’s social media.

Source: Rudrastyh.com