diff --git a/src/content/docs/docs/administration/configuration.mdx b/src/content/docs/docs/administration/configuration.mdx
index a101bda..f5bbc2d 100644
--- a/src/content/docs/docs/administration/configuration.mdx
+++ b/src/content/docs/docs/administration/configuration.mdx
@@ -59,9 +59,10 @@ per-Team settings:
 ## Email
 
 Configured on the same screen and covered in
-[Notifications and email](/docs/administration/notifications-and-email/): it is Gmail over
-OAuth2, it reuses the Google authentication client, and it must be set up on the
-[Authentication](/docs/administration/authentication/) page first.
+[Notifications and email](/docs/administration/notifications-and-email/): pick a mail
+transport, enter its host, port and credentials, and send a test. It depends on nothing
+else on the site — a relay is the recommended posture, a mailbox provider over SMTP the
+simplest, and your own MTA needs no credentials at all.
 
 <Aside type="note" title="Until email is connected, the contact form is a mailto: link">
 That is a deliberate fallback rather than a failure — but it does mean the *Contact email*
diff --git a/src/content/docs/docs/administration/notifications-and-email.mdx b/src/content/docs/docs/administration/notifications-and-email.mdx
index 59bb1de..ed88ce0 100644
--- a/src/content/docs/docs/administration/notifications-and-email.mdx
+++ b/src/content/docs/docs/administration/notifications-and-email.mdx
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 title: Notifications and email
-description: Email over Gmail OAuth2, the announcement pipeline and its legs, the Discord bot, and opt-in push to the mobile app.
+description: Email over SMTP, the announcement pipeline and its legs, the Discord bot, and opt-in push to the mobile app.
 ---
 
 import { Aside } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';
@@ -11,19 +11,62 @@ it.
 
 ## Email
 
-**Admin → Settings → Email delivery.** The site sends contact-form messages (and test
-messages) through **Gmail over OAuth2**, delivered to the *Contact email* setting.
+**Admin → Settings → Email delivery.** The site sends contact-form messages, invitations,
+password resets, team notifications and test messages through **SMTP**. Contact-form mail
+goes to the *Contact email* setting.
 
-It reuses the **Google authentication client**, so the order is fixed: configure Google on
-the [Authentication](/docs/administration/authentication/) page first, then press **Connect
-Gmail** here. Until then the panel reads *Unconfigured* and says exactly that.
+You pick a mail transport and fill in the fields it asks for. There is no consent flow and
+no redirect to bounce through — it is a form, and the credentials go straight into the
+database encrypted at rest, write-only: the panel will tell you a password is *set*, and
+will never show it to you again.
 
-The refresh token it stores is encrypted at rest like every other secret.
+### Three ways to point it somewhere
 
-<Aside type="note" title="There is no SMTP option">
-Gmail over OAuth2 is the only supported delivery path today. Until it is connected, the
-contact form falls back to a `mailto:` link to the contact address — which works, and puts
-the message in the visitor's own mail client rather than in your logs.
+Any SMTP server works. Which one you should use depends on how much mail you expect to send.
+
+**A relay — the recommended one.** Mailgun, SES, Postmark or equivalent: their host, port
+`587`, *Implicit TLS* **off**, and your API key as the password. Deliverability is the hard
+part of sending mail — reputation, DKIM, bounce handling — and this is the option where
+somebody else owns it. Use this for anything with real volume.
+
+**A mailbox provider over SMTP — the simplest.** For example `smtp.gmail.com`, port `587`,
+*Implicit TLS* **off**, your address as the username, and an
+[app password](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833) — not your account
+password, and it requires 2-Step Verification to be on. Fine for a small site; subject to
+the provider's daily send caps.
+
+**Your own MTA.** If you already run mail on the same host: its address, port `25`,
+*Implicit TLS* **off**, username and password blank. The site treats a username with no
+password as incomplete, since that authenticates as nobody.
+
+<Aside type="caution" title="The two fields that cause most failures">
+**Implicit TLS** belongs *on* only for port **465**. On port `587` leave it **off** — the
+connection still upgrades to TLS, using STARTTLS. Port 587 with it on does not report an
+error; it hangs.
+
+**Send from** must be an address the account is allowed to send as. Unlike a username, this
+is not verified when you save it — a server that refuses your sender rejects the mail for
+SPF/DMARC reasons that look like nothing at all from the outside. **Send test** is what
+proves it, and it names this specifically when it happens.
+</Aside>
+
+Until a transport is configured, the contact form falls back to a `mailto:` link to the
+contact address — which works, and puts the message in the visitor's own mail client rather
+than in your logs. Invitations surface a copyable accept link instead, and password resets
+still answer normally.
+
+<Aside type="note" title="Upgrading from the Gmail connect flow">
+Earlier versions authorised a mailbox with a **Connect Gmail** consent flow that borrowed
+the Google authentication client. That flow has been removed.
+
+If your site used it, mail **stops** on upgrade until you enter SMTP credentials — and
+nothing errors when it does, because every sender degrades politely. The admin dashboard
+warns you while it is true. `smtp.gmail.com` port 587 with an app password is the shortest
+route back.
+
+Single sign-on is unaffected: the Google provider exists for SSO in its own right, and email
+merely borrowed its credentials. Removing the borrow also removes a trap — rotating the SSO
+secret used to break outbound mail silently.
 </Aside>
 
 ## Announcements
diff --git a/src/content/docs/docs/administration/troubleshooting.mdx b/src/content/docs/docs/administration/troubleshooting.mdx
index 01d4024..f5baf25 100644
--- a/src/content/docs/docs/administration/troubleshooting.mdx
+++ b/src/content/docs/docs/administration/troubleshooting.mdx
@@ -97,9 +97,18 @@ a Team. See [Teams](/docs/administration/teams/).
 
 ## Email and announcements never arrive
 
-- **The contact form opens a mail client.** Email delivery is not connected; that is the
-  documented fallback. Connect Gmail in **Settings → Email delivery** — after configuring
-  the Google provider, which it reuses.
+- **The contact form opens a mail client.** Email delivery is not configured; that is the
+  documented fallback. Enter SMTP credentials in **Settings → Email delivery**. If this site
+  used to send mail and stopped, the Gmail connect flow was removed — the admin dashboard
+  says so, and [Notifications and email](/docs/administration/notifications-and-email/) has
+  the migration.
+- **Mail is configured but nothing arrives, and there is no error.** Two usual causes, both
+  invisible without a test send. *Implicit TLS* left on for port 587 hangs rather than
+  failing; and a **Send from** address the server will not let you send as is rejected for
+  SPF/DMARC reasons. Press **Send test** — its failure message names both cases.
+- **Email was working and the toggle is still on.** *Enable email sending* now gates every
+  message, not just some of them. If it is off, nothing is sent, including the contact
+  form.
 - **A published post announced nothing.** The Discord bot is a separate container. If the
   Discord Bot screen says *bot unreachable*, it is not running.
 - **A missed announcement does not come back.** Nothing retries; the post itself is still
diff --git a/src/content/docs/docs/architecture/system-architecture.mdx b/src/content/docs/docs/architecture/system-architecture.mdx
index 0d5ca86..ef25ee7 100644
--- a/src/content/docs/docs/architecture/system-architecture.mdx
+++ b/src/content/docs/docs/architecture/system-architecture.mdx
@@ -114,9 +114,10 @@ lifecycle](/docs/modules/module-lifecycle/#failure-is-contained-by-construction)
 
 ### Secrets are encrypted at rest
 
-OAuth client secrets, the sidecar token and the Gmail refresh token are AES-256-GCM
-encrypted, keyed by `SECRET_ENC_KEY`. **The sidecar token is write-only in the API** — it is
-never returned to any client.
+OAuth client secrets, the sidecar token, the Discord bot token and the mail transport's
+credentials are AES-256-GCM encrypted, keyed by `SECRET_ENC_KEY`. **The sidecar token and the
+mail credentials are write-only in the API** — neither is ever returned to any client; the
+email panel reports only that a password is *set*.
 
 <Aside type="caution" title="Rotating that key orphans every stored secret">
 Nothing re-encrypts. What was stored under the old key can no longer be read, and every