503 Need Rcpt command error

Problem Description

When trying to send an email message with AspEmail, the following error is generated by the Send method:

Persits.MailSender.4 (0x800A0006)
503 5.5.2 Need Rcpt command.

Other variations of this error for different SMTP implementations include:

503 5.0.0 Need RCPT (recipient)

503 must have sender and recipient first

503 Need RCPT

503 Need RCPT (recipient)

503 No recipients specified

503 No recipients: need RCPT

503 RCPT first (#5.5.1)

503 Unexpected command or sequence of commands

Solution

Most probably, this error means your script is not calling any of these methods:

AddAddress
AddCC
AddBcc

As a result, AspEmail gets no recipient addresses to send a message to. Check the logic of your code. If you are calling AddAddress/AddCC/AddBcc in a loop, make sure the body of the loop is entered at least once.

For example, if you are looping through a recordset to obtain your recipient addresses, make sure your database query returns at least one record.