See also https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting
As an example, add this to your config.php file
$phpmailer_smtpoptions = array( 'ssl' => array( 'verify_peer' => false, 'verify_peer_name' => false, 'allow_self_signed' => true ) );
which will avoid certificate checking on SSL connections. Quite useful for development systems with self-signed certificates.