I have a fix for this guys:
I had the same problem and spent countless hours looking for an answer. I hope that I can help the community of developers by sharing the solution to the swift_transportexception connection issue. Here it is...
Make the following adjustment to your .env file:
MAIL_DRIVER=sendmail
MAIL_HOST=YOUR_DOMAIN.COM
MAIL_PORT=465
MAIL_USERNAME=YOUR_EMAIL@YOUR_DOMAIN.COM
MAIL_PASSWORD=YOUR_PASSWORD
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=ssl
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=YOUR_EMAIL@YOUR_DOMAIN.COM
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"
Make sure your DNS records is set to: MX - @ - mail.YOUR_DOMAIN.COM - Priority 0
If I have helped you solve the bug, please let us know by up-voting this answer to help others find peace.
~Newton Cazzaro
oopstack.com