Magento 2 Unable to Send Mail

Question

How would solve this? Magento is unable to send mail. I am on a localhost and have the Mageplaza SMTP module installed.

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Here is an excerpt my controller code. the $to and $from emails are actual emails (just changed it for this post)

$postObject = new \Magento\Framework\DataObject();
$postObject->setData($post);
$storeScope = \Magento\Store\Model\ScopeInterface::SCOPE_STORE;
$userSubject='test mail';
$from = [
 'name' => 'sample',
 'email' => '[email protected]',
];
$to = [
 'email' => '[email protected]',
 'name' => 'stuff',
];
$template = "course_request";
$transport = $this->_transportBuilder
 ->setTemplateIdentifier($template) // email template
 ->setTemplateOptions( [
 'area' => \Magento\Framework\App\Area::AREA_FRONTEND, \Magento\Backend\App\Area\FrontNameResolver::AREA_CODE
 'store' => \Magento\Store\Model\Store::DEFAULT_STORE_ID,
 ])
 ->setTemplateVars(['data' => $postObject])
 ->setFrom($from, $storeScope)
 ->addTo($to, $storeScope)
 ->getTransport();
$transport->sendMessage();
$this->messageManager->addSuccess(__('Email was succesfully sent!'));

I am a little new to Magento and it would help if you can explain a little. Thank you very much!

• Shorabh: Please review this answer magento.stackexchange.com/a/180798 I hope it will work for you
• ralp930: I forgot to mention that I'm on localhost rather than on a server. I have also read that post and sadly it has not been helpful.