Can't Connect Wordpress to Amazon SES

Question

I'm trying to connect my Wordpress site to Amazon SES with this plugin and by following this tutorial but I keep getting the bellow error when I try to send a test email.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, I've verified the domain & email address and created the SMTP credentials. I've also tried it with each of the ports suggested by Amazon SES, 25, 465 or 587.

Test Message Sent
The result was:
bool(false)
The full debugging output is shown below:
object(PHPMailer)#1298 (75) {
  ["Version"]=>
  string(6) "5.2.14"
  ["Priority"]=>
  NULL
  ["CharSet"]=>
  string(5) "UTF-8"
  ["ContentType"]=>
  string(10) "text/plain"
  ["Encoding"]=>
  string(4) "8bit"
  ["ErrorInfo"]=>
  string(43) "SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host."
  ["From"]=>
  string(24) "[email protected]"
  ["FromName"]=>
  string(9) "WordPress"
  ["Sender"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["ReturnPath"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["Subject"]=>
  string(48) "WP Email SMTP: Test mail to [email protected]"
  ["Body"]=>
  string(69) "This is a test email generated by the WP Email SMTP WordPress plugin."
  ["AltBody"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["Ical"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["MIMEBody":protected]=>
  string(70) "This is a test email generated by the WP Email SMTP WordPress plugin.
"
  ["MIMEHeader":protected]=>
  string(384) "Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2017 18:46:22 +0000
To: [email protected]
From: WordPress 
Subject: WP Email SMTP: Test mail to [email protected]
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
X-Mailer: PHPMailer 5.2.14 (https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

"
  ["mailHeader":protected]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["WordWrap"]=>
  int(0)
  ["Mailer"]=>
  string(4) "smtp"
  ["Sendmail"]=>
  string(18) "/usr/sbin/sendmail"
  ["UseSendmailOptions"]=>
  bool(true)
  ["PluginDir"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["ConfirmReadingTo"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["Hostname"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["MessageID"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["MessageDate"]=>
  string(30) "Mon, 2 Jan 2017 18:46:22 +0000"
  ["Host"]=>
  string(34) "email-smtp.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com"
  ["Port"]=>
  string(3) "465"
  ["Helo"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["SMTPSecure"]=>
  string(3) "tls"
  ["SMTPAutoTLS"]=>
  bool(true)
  ["SMTPAuth"]=>
  bool(true)
  ["SMTPOptions"]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["Username"]=>
  string(20) "A??????????????????A"
  ["Password"]=>
  string(44) "A??????????????????????????????????????????r"
  ["AuthType"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["Realm"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["Workstation"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["Timeout"]=>
  int(300)
  ["SMTPDebug"]=>
  bool(true)
  ["Debugoutput"]=>
  string(4) "echo"
  ["SMTPKeepAlive"]=>
  bool(false)
  ["SingleTo"]=>
  bool(false)
  ["SingleToArray"]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["do_verp"]=>
  bool(false)
  ["AllowEmpty"]=>
  bool(false)
  ["LE"]=>
  string(1) "
"
  ["DKIM_selector"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["DKIM_identity"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["DKIM_passphrase"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["DKIM_domain"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["DKIM_private"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["action_function"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["XMailer"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["smtp":protected]=>
  object(SMTP)#1552 (13) {
    ["Version"]=>
    string(6) "5.2.14"
    ["SMTP_PORT"]=>
    int(25)
    ["CRLF"]=>
    string(2) "
"
    ["do_debug"]=>
    bool(true)
    ["Debugoutput"]=>
    string(4) "echo"
    ["do_verp"]=>
    bool(false)
    ["Timeout"]=>
    int(300)
    ["Timelimit"]=>
    int(300)
    ["smtp_conn":protected]=>
    NULL
    ["error":protected]=>
    array(4) {
      ["error"]=>
      string(0) ""
      ["detail"]=>
      string(0) ""
      ["smtp_code"]=>
      string(0) ""
      ["smtp_code_ex"]=>
      string(0) ""
    }
    ["helo_rply":protected]=>
    NULL
    ["server_caps":protected]=>
    NULL
    ["last_reply":protected]=>
    string(0) ""
  }
  ["to":protected]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    array(2) {
      [0]=>
      string(20) "[email protected]"
      [1]=>
      string(0) ""
    }
  }
  ["cc":protected]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["bcc":protected]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["ReplyTo":protected]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["all_recipients":protected]=>
  array(1) {
    ["[email protected]"]=>
    bool(true)
  }
  ["RecipientsQueue":protected]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["ReplyToQueue":protected]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["attachment":protected]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["CustomHeader":protected]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["lastMessageID":protected]=>
  string(49) "<[email protected]>"
  ["message_type":protected]=>
  string(5) "plain"
  ["boundary":protected]=>
  array(3) {
    [1]=>
    string(35) "b1_467d5da13780fca00d3b069c4175de25"
    [2]=>
    string(35) "b2_467d5da13780fca00d3b069c4175de25"
    [3]=>
    string(35) "b3_467d5da13780fca00d3b069c4175de25"
  }
  ["language":protected]=>
  array(19) {
    ["authenticate"]=>
    string(35) "SMTP Error: Could not authenticate."
    ["connect_host"]=>
    string(43) "SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host."
    ["data_not_accepted"]=>
    string(30) "SMTP Error: data not accepted."
    ["empty_message"]=>
    string(18) "Message body empty"
    ["encoding"]=>
    string(18) "Unknown encoding: "
    ["execute"]=>
    string(19) "Could not execute: "
    ["file_access"]=>
    string(23) "Could not access file: "
    ["file_open"]=>
    string(33) "File Error: Could not open file: "
    ["from_failed"]=>
    string(35) "The following From address failed: "
    ["instantiate"]=>
    string(36) "Could not instantiate mail function."
    ["invalid_address"]=>
    string(17) "Invalid address: "
    ["mailer_not_supported"]=>
    string(25) " mailer is not supported."
    ["provide_address"]=>
    string(54) "You must provide at least one recipient email address."
    ["recipients_failed"]=>
    string(45) "SMTP Error: The following recipients failed: "
    ["signing"]=>
    string(15) "Signing Error: "
    ["smtp_connect_failed"]=>
    string(22) "SMTP connect() failed."
    ["smtp_error"]=>
    string(19) "SMTP server error: "
    ["variable_set"]=>
    string(30) "Cannot set or reset variable: "
    ["extension_missing"]=>
    string(19) "Extension missing: "
  }
  ["error_count":protected]=>
  int(2)
  ["sign_cert_file":protected]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["sign_key_file":protected]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["sign_extracerts_file":protected]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["sign_key_pass":protected]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["exceptions":protected]=>
  bool(true)
  ["uniqueid":protected]=>
  string(32) "467d5da13780fca00d3b069c4175de25"
}
The SMTP debugging output is shown below:
2017-01-02 18:46:22 Connection: opening to email-smtp.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com:465, timeout=300, options=array (
                                      )
2017-01-02 18:46:22 Connection: opened
2017-01-02 18:47:22 SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is ""
2017-01-02 18:47:22 SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is  ""
2017-01-02 18:47:22 SERVER -> CLIENT:
2017-01-02 18:47:22 SMTP NOTICE: EOF caught while checking if connected
2017-01-02 18:47:22 Connection: closed
2017-01-02 18:47:22 SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host.
2017-01-02 18:47:22 SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host.

Answer 1

You are using TLS (port 587) but specifying SSL port (465). Change the port to 587 and try.

In fact, the tutorial you are following specifically says:

SMTP Port: Enter 587 (if during testing you encounter errors then try port 25 or 465. The error EOF caught while checking if connected is a good indication that the port number needs changing.

["Port"]=>
  string(3) "465"
  ["Helo"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["SMTPSecure"]=>
  string(3) "tls"
  ["SMTPAutoTLS"]=>