https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27721120/laravel-connection-could-not-be-established-with-host-smtp-gmail-com-0

In Laravel project directory, edit config/mail.php and add the following:

‘stream’ => [
‘ssl’ => [
‘allow_self_signed’ => true,
‘verify_peer’ => false,
‘verify_peer_name’ => false,
],
]
It worked for me.

Fyi, my SMTP settings are:

MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_PORT=465
MAIL_USERNAME=[Full Gmail Address]
MAIL_PASSWORD=[Google App Password obtained after two step verification on Google Account Page]
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=ssl