How can the use of port 587 instead of port 465 potentially resolve SMTP authentication issues with Google SMTP in PHP?

Using port 587 instead of port 465 can potentially resolve SMTP authentication issues with Google SMTP in PHP because port 587 is the recommended port for secure SMTP communication with STARTTLS encryption. Google SMTP servers require STARTTLS encryption for secure communication, and using port 587 ensures that the encryption is properly set up.

<?php
// PHPMailer library is required for this code snippet
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

// Include PHPMailer autoload file
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

// Create a new PHPMailer instance
$mail = new PHPMailer();

// Set SMTP settings
$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com';
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = 'your-email@gmail.com';
$mail->Password = 'your-password';
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';
$mail->Port = 587;

// Set email content
$mail->setFrom('your-email@gmail.com', 'Your Name');
$mail->addAddress('recipient@example.com', 'Recipient Name');
$mail->Subject = 'Test Email';
$mail->Body = 'This is a test email sent using Google SMTP in PHP.';

// Send email
if($mail->send()) {
    echo 'Email sent successfully';
} else {
    echo 'Error sending email: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}
?>