# Illegal User Settings
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 10, 2016, 9:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610 "2016-11-10T09:20:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sudhir\_Kumar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sudhir_Kumar)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2016, 9:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610/1 "2016-11-10T09:20:12Z")
Hi I am getting an illegal User Settings error while updating user settings.
I am using Elasticsearch 2.4.1 when i have updated user settings and click on Update getting an error saying Illegal User Settings. I am trying to update SMTP settings
Below is the configuration I am trying to update
xpack.notification.email.account:
gmail\_account:
profile: gmail
smtp:
auth: true
starttls.enable: true
host: [smtp.gmail.com](http://smtp.gmail.com)
port: 587
user: _username_
password: _password_
Error message is as below:
{
"msg": "Illegal user settings",
"ok": false,
"detail": {
"errors": [
"'xpack.notification.email.account.gmail\_account.smtp.starttls.enable': is not allowed",
"'xpack.notification.email.account.gmail\_account.smtp.password': is not allowed",
"'xpack.notification.email.account.gmail\_account.smtp.port': is not allowed",
"'xpack.notification.email.account.gmail\_account.smtp.user': is not allowed",
"'xpack.notification.email.account.gmail\_account.profile': is not allowed",
"'xpack.notification.email.account.gmail\_account.smtp.host': is not allowed",
"'xpack.notification.email.account.gmail\_account.smtp.auth': is not allowed"
]
},
"error": "BadRequest"
}
Can someone please provide me a sample for elasticsearch 2.4.1
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2016, 9:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610/2 "2016-11-10T09:34:07Z")
Hey,
x-pack configuration settings are supposed to work with Elasticsearch 5.0 and upwards. You need to configure those settings using the `watcher` prefix. See [the docs](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/watcher/2.4/email-services.html#email-account) for an example.
--Alex
---
### Author:  [@Sudhir\_Kumar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sudhir_Kumar)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2016, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610/3 "2016-11-10T09:57:46Z")
Hi Alexander,
Thanks for responding. I have tried with watcher prefix as well. I got the similar Error Response.
watcher.actions.email.service.account:
gmail\_account:
profile: gmail
smtp:
auth: true
starttls.enable: true
host: [smtp.gmail.com](http://smtp.gmail.com)
port: 587
user: username
password: password
{
"msg": "Illegal user settings",
"ok": false,
"detail": {
"errors": [
"'watcher.actions.email.service.account.gmail\_account.smtp.host': is not allowed",
"'watcher.actions.email.service.account.gmail\_account.profile': is not allowed",
"'watcher.actions.email.service.account.gmail\_account.smtp.port': is not allowed",
"'watcher.actions.email.service.account.gmail\_account.smtp.user': is not allowed",
"'watcher.actions.email.service.account.gmail\_account.smtp.password': is not allowed",
"'watcher.actions.email.service.account.gmail\_account.smtp.auth': is not allowed",
"'watcher.actions.email.service.account.gmail\_account.smtp.starttls.enable': is not allowed"
]
},
"error": "BadRequest"
}
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2016, 10:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610/4 "2016-11-10T10:29:20Z")
Hey,
sorry I misread your initial post and was focused on x-pack. The email settings are not dynamic properties, but have to be configured statically in your config file and cannot be updated at run-time.
However I am still confused a bit by this JSON. Which call did you execute to get that response? Was it a cluster udpate settings call? Can you show the exact HTTP call you executed including URL, host and body?
--Alex
---
### Author:  [@Sudhir\_Kumar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sudhir_Kumar)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610/5 "2016-11-10T14:24:17Z")
Hi Alex,
I am using the hosted cluster. I am trying to update user settings from portal.
URL: [https://api.found.no/api/v0/clusters/us-east-1/b0a4ab1f733156e01cb0197bd8761302](https://api.found.no/api/v0/clusters/us-east-1/b0a4ab1f733156e01cb0197bd8761302)
PayLoad
{"scripting":{"inline":"sandbox","indexed":"sandbox","file":"sandbox"},"auto\_create\_index":true,"capacity":"1024","region":"us-east-1","availability\_zones":"1","version":"5.0.0","destructive\_requires\_name":false,"ssd":true,"user\_plugins":,"plugins":,"user\_id":19283115,"created":"2016-11-10T14:12:10Z","txid":79664045,"cluster\_id":"b0a4ab1f733156e01cb0197bd8761302","is\_hidden":false,"identifier":null,"data":{"name":"sudhir"},"extra\_user\_settings\_source":"watcher.actions.email.service.account:\n gmail\_account:\n profile: gmail\n smtp:\n auth: true\n starttls.enable: true\n host: [smtp.gmail.com](http://smtp.gmail.com)\n port: 587\n user: username\n password: 'password'"}
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610/6 "2016-11-11T13:47:28Z")
Hey,
that was the missing piece of information. When you use Elastic Cloud, you do not need to configure a dedicated email account, see the [respective documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/cloud/current/watcher.html#watcher-whitelist).
Hope this helps!
--Alex
---
### Author:  [@Sudhir\_Kumar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sudhir_Kumar)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610/7 "2016-11-15T13:04:55Z")
Thanks Alex. This worked
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 1:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/illegal-user-settings/65610/8 "2016-12-13T13:05:30Z")
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