Email alerts are a critical part of monitoring any TrueNAS storage system.
In this tutorial, we walk through the complete TrueNAS email alert configuration, step by step.
You will learn how to properly configure SMTP settings and test email delivery successfully.
We also explain how alert levels work in TrueNAS, including INFO, WARNING, ERROR, and CRITICAL.
Understanding alert severity helps you avoid unnecessary email spam while still catching real issues.
This guide is ideal for home labs, SMB environments, and production NAS systems.
The configuration applies to both TrueNAS CORE and TrueNAS SCALE.
By the end of this video, your TrueNAS system will send reliable and meaningful email alerts.

1. Alert

Select the alert items and levels.

Common alert levels in the system are as follows:
• Info:
This is the mildest alert level. Alerts at this level usually only notify about events or conditions that are not serious, such as configuration changes or system information that does not affect system operation.
Example: Notifications about configuration changes, or routine system activities.

• Warning:
This level indicates that there is a condition that may affect system performance or stability, but has not yet caused a serious problem. Events at the warning level need to be noted and may require adjustments.
Example: Disk space is nearly full, or the CPU is using almost all its resources.

• Critical:
This is the highest level, warning that a serious problem is occurring and could affect system operation. Warnings at this level need to be addressed immediately.
Examples: Drive failure, RAID failure, or network connection loss.

• Emergency:
This is a very high warning level, indicating a serious system problem that could disrupt or damage the entire system. Warnings at this level need to be addressed immediately.
Examples: System fails to boot, primary drive failure, or data loss.

2. Email Alert

Step 1: Configure email for sending notifications

Outgoing Mail Server: Enter your SMTP mail server (for MS365, it’s smtp.office365.com)
Note: For MS365, you must enable SMTP Authentication in the sending email user (MS365 admin portal page)
Port: 587
Security: TLS

Tick SMTP Authentication
Enter the username/password for the email sending notification

Step 2: Configure email for receiving notifications

You can edit or add service alerts.
Level: The level from which you will receive alerts