phpmailer loop duplicated email addresses (and possible message) in loop - php

Question

I have the following code sending email shipping confirmations to my customers:
while ($i < count($tracked) ) {
try {
//Server settings
//$mail->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_SERVER; // Enable verbose debug output
$mail->isSMTP(); // Send using SMTP
$mail->Host = 'smtp.office365.com'; // Set the SMTP server to send through
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // Enable SMTP authentication
$mail->Username = 'support#mycompany.com'; // SMTP username
$mail->Password = 'password'; // SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_STARTTLS; // Enable TLS encryption; `PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_SMTPS` also accepted
$mail->Port = 587; // TCP port to connect to
//Recipients
$mail->setFrom('support#mycompany.com', 'mycompany');
$mail->addAddress($tracked[$i]['customers_email_address'], $tracked[$i]['customers_name']); // Add a recipient
$mail->addReplyTo('support#mycompany.com', 'mycompany');
// Content
$mail->isHTML(true); // Set email format to HTML
$mail->Subject = EMAIL_TEXT_SUBJECT;
$mail->Body = $html;
$mail->AltBody = 'Your order with mycompany.com has shipped';
$mail->send();
echo 'order confirmation sent to order#:'.$tracked[$i]['orders_id'].'<br/>';
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo "Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: {$mail->ErrorInfo}";
}
$i++;
}
It appears to be sending to multiple emails. What I believe is happening is that in the while loop each new customers address is added to the list without clearing it. What doesnt seem to be happening though is the message does not seem to be duplicated? Wouldn't that duplicate at as well with each pass in the loop?
In any case I think the best thing to do before the try is:
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
so that with each pass of the while loop the $mail object would be instantiated again. Is that proper? I know that the clearAllRecipients() function exists but i also want to be sure the body is cleaned as well.

Answer 1

it looks like your looping through an array of $tracked. Why not use a foreach loop? Then you don't need to use a counter.
foreach ($tracked as $track ) {
try {
//Server settings
//$mail->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_SERVER; // Enable verbose debug output
$mail->isSMTP(); // Send using SMTP
$mail->Host = 'smtp.office365.com'; // Set the SMTP server to send through
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // Enable SMTP authentication
$mail->Username = 'support#mycompany.com'; // SMTP username
$mail->Password = 'password'; // SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_STARTTLS; // Enable TLS encryption; `PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_SMTPS` also accepted
$mail->Port = 587; // TCP port to connect to
//Recipients
$mail->setFrom('support#mycompany.com', 'mycompany');
$mail->addAddress($track['customers_email_address'], $track['customers_name']); // Add a recipient
$mail->addReplyTo('support#mycompany.com', 'mycompany');
// Content
$mail->isHTML(true); // Set email format to HTML
$mail->Subject = EMAIL_TEXT_SUBJECT;
$mail->Body = $html;
$mail->AltBody = 'Your order with mycompany.com has shipped';
$mail->send();
echo 'order confirmation sent to order#:'.$track['orders_id'].'<br/>';
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo "Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: {$mail->ErrorInfo}";
}
}

Answer 2

It's because addAddress() does exactly what its name suggests; it adds an address that a message will be sent to. It doesn't set the addresses a message will be sent to.
Unsurprisingly there is a method that allows you to clear the list of addresses, called clearAddresses(), so just call that at the end of your sending loop after send() and your issue will be solved.
I'd also recommend that you base your code on the mailing list example provided with PHPMailer as it will be much faster than the code you have here. Also read the docs on sending to listshttps://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Sending-to-lists) for furtehr advice.