The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address

Question

I have searched and searched and searched for an answer to this problem...

I have been using the System.Net.Mail namespace for quite a while to send emails from my websites. A problem occurs though on certain (VALID) email addresses. For example, when the name field of the email address has a dot (.) in it (example: [e-mail]), an exception is raised when this address is added to the TO property of the MailAdddress object. It seems the dot between my and name causes the exception.

Please note that these are valid email addresses, but the MailAddress object considers them to be invalid.

Any suggestions/workarounds?

Error Message: The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address.
Stack Trace: at System.Net.Mime.MailBnfHelper.ReadMailAddress(String data, Int32& offset, String& displayName)
at System.Net.Mail.MailAddress.ParseValue(String address)
at System.Net.Mail.MailAddress..ctor(String address, String displayName, Encoding displayNameEncoding)
at System.Net.Mail.MailAddress..ctor(String address, String displayName)

Answer 1

The problem is not the dot:

Code Snippet

Console.WriteLine(new MailAddress("[e-mail]", "Fred"));

gives:

   "Fred" <[e-mail]>

 

But

Code Snippet

Console.WriteLine(new MailAddress("foo@[e-mail]", "Fred"));

gives:

Unhandled Exception: System.FormatException: The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address.
   at System.Net.Mime.MailBnfHelper.ReadMailAddress(String data, Int32& offset, String& displayName)
   at System.Net.Mail.MailAddress.ParseValue(String address)
   at System.Net.Mail.MailAddress..ctor(String address, String displayName, Encoding displayNameEncoding)
   at System.Net.Mail.MailAddress..ctor(String address, String displayName)
   at MailAddressDotted.Main(String[] args) in c:\Temp\2007-08\MailAddressDotted.cs:line 16

 

So there must be something other than the dot wrong with your addresses...

Answer 2

John & Alan,

 

Even am facing same problem since yesterday and finding a solution to fix this weird problem.

 

I get the same messege as John's..which is as below. The weird thing to notice is similar code works fine in one of my other page where I use textboxes to pass values instead of variables as in here, and it works absolutely fine in there and also I receive email to the same email id used below, but it ain't work here while placing the values in variables.

 

Some one please helppppppppppppppppppppp.................ASAP

 

Also appreciate if someone kindly drop me an email to [e-mail] with the solution for this problem. Thanks

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The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.FormatException: The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address.

Source Error:

Line 22: smtpName = "localhost" Line 23: Line 24: Dim emailMsg As New MailMessage(MsgFrom, MsgTo, msgSub, msgBody) Line 25: emailMsg.IsBodyHtml = True Line 26: ''emailMsg.Priority = System.Net.Mail.MailPriority.High

Source File: C:\Documents and Settings\Abdul Rahiman\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\WebSites\sendsms\SendEmail.aspx.vb    Line: 24

Stack Trace:

[FormatException: The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address.] System.Net.Mime.MailBnfHelper.ReadMailAddress(String data, Int32& offset, String& displayName) +898147 System.Net.Mail.MailAddress.ParseValue(String address) +245 System.Net.Mail.MailAddress..ctor(String address, String displayName, Encoding displayNameEncoding) +87 System.Net.Mail.Message..ctor(String from, String to) +127 System.Net.Mail.MailMessage..ctor(String from, String to) +117 System.Net.Mail.MailMessage..ctor(String from, String to, String subject, String body) +13 SendEmail.Button1_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Documents and Settings\Abdul Rahiman\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\WebSites\sendsms\SendEmail.aspx.vb:24 System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e) +105 System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +107 System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +7 System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +11 System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) +33 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +5102

 

My code goes as below..

 

Imports System

Imports System.Data

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Imports System.Net.Mail

 

Partial Class SendEmail

Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

Dim MsgFrom As String

Dim MsgTo As String

Dim msgSub As String

Dim msgBody As String

Dim smtpName As String

 

Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

 

MsgFrom = "Abdulrahiman"

MsgTo = "[e-mail]"

msgSub = "My Subject Test"

msgBody = "Testing Email Msg"

smtpName = "localhost"

Dim emailMsg As New MailMessage(MsgFrom, MsgTo, msgSub, msgBody)

emailMsg.IsBodyHtml = True

''emailMsg.Priority = System.Net.Mail.MailPriority.High

'' emailMsg.SubjectEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding(1256)

''emailMsg.BodyEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding(1256)

Dim mySmtp As New Net.Mail.SmtpClient("" & smtpName & "")

Try

mySmtp.Send(emailMsg)

lblResult.Text = "Email sent successfully"

Catch ex As Exception

lblResult.Text = "Send Failed !!: " + ex.Message

End Try

End Sub

End Class

Answer 3

Abdulrahiman wrote:

Also appreciate if someone kindly drop me an email to [e-mail] with the solution for this problem.

We're not your personal helpdesk. If you ask a question here, you'll get the answer here (this way other people with the same problem can find and answer)

Abdulrahiman wrote:

MsgFrom = "Abdulrahiman"

This is the e-mail address that could not be parsed...

MsgFrom = "[e-mail]" would work...

Answer 4

I just ran into a similiar issue where a dot, ".", preceding the at-sign, "@", would cause an exception to be thrown.

Examples:

Console.WriteLine(new MailAddress("[e-mail]", "Fred")); // OK

Console.WriteLine(new MailAddress("[e-mail]", "Fred")); // Still OK

Console.WriteLine(new MailAddress("[e-mail]", "Fred")); // BOOM!

Apparently, the code is doing the "right" thing. RFC 2822 defines the local part as being atext or "." surrounded by atext characters. From the spec:

"The locally interpreted string is either a quoted-string or a dot-atom. If the string can be represented as a dot-atom (that is, it contains no characters other than atext characters or "." surrounded by atext characters),"

The issue arrises because some email providers (I tested gmail, earthlink, and comcast) allow users to create and deliver to addresses in the aformentioned format. The users will only be confused or frustrated if their pseudo-valid email address is denied on the form, so I'm adding my own hack to remove /^.|.(?=@)/ from the email address.

Hope this post helps someone out running into the same issue.

Sorry about the lack of format. I made earnest attempts in both Firefox and Opera and could not find a reference to the forum's syntax. MSDN forums fail at usability

Answer 5

Hi,

I also came across this issue in my app and found the solution in another forum post. Here is the text from the post: 

It's in your <system.net><mailSettings><smtp> element in your web.config. Make sure the "from" attribute of the <smtp> element contains a valid email address
-----------------
Link: http://forums.asp.net/t/1183968.aspx

Thanks,
Rohan Reddy

Answer 6

Help! Just ran into the similar situation and I've absolutely no idea what's causing that:

Mail To    Address: [e-mail]  (valid)
      CC   Address : [e-mail] (valid)
      From Address: [e-mail] (valid)

system.web.mail throw an error of "The server rejected one or more recipient addresses. The server response was: 501 5.5.4 Invalid Address "
while system.net.mail gives "The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address. "
but everything works after removing the [e-mail] from list. or works fine when sending through outlook manualy 

Could anyone shed some light on this issue?

Answer 7

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Microsoft MVP J# 2004-2008, Borland Spirit of Delphi 2001

Answer 8

Well, I'm pretty sure everybody is now got their problem solved but i thought i spelled out the solution for future comers.
First, i got this error because i was sending email from the CreateUserWizard  controls send email feature.

My problem was that I made the UserName to be the Email and Email be username.
Eventhough i changed the naming in the .aspx file it broke the "TO" field in the email object.

So, to remedy that, i catch one of the routines of the "createUserWizard" prior to sending the email and swaped the values.

Basically, if you're getting this error from "SMTP.send()" ensure that the "TO" field has a valid email address.