diff --git a/apps/settings/lib/Settings/Admin/Mail.php b/apps/settings/lib/Settings/Admin/Mail.php
index 1cdb7315713c6..906fdf931eb62 100644
--- a/apps/settings/lib/Settings/Admin/Mail.php
+++ b/apps/settings/lib/Settings/Admin/Mail.php
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 namespace OCA\Settings\Settings\Admin;
 
 use OCP\AppFramework\Http\TemplateResponse;
+use OCP\IBinaryFinder;
 use OCP\IConfig;
 use OCP\IL10N;
 use OCP\Settings\IDelegatedSettings;
diff --git a/apps/settings/tests/Settings/Admin/MailTest.php b/apps/settings/tests/Settings/Admin/MailTest.php
index c3b08a9d50906..8fe5bda4d4f92 100644
--- a/apps/settings/tests/Settings/Admin/MailTest.php
+++ b/apps/settings/tests/Settings/Admin/MailTest.php
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 
 use OCA\Settings\Settings\Admin\Mail;
 use OCP\AppFramework\Http\TemplateResponse;
+use OCP\IBinaryFinder;
 use OCP\IConfig;
 use OCP\IL10N;
 use Test\TestCase;
diff --git a/lib/private/Mail/Mailer.php b/lib/private/Mail/Mailer.php
index 2839c1c504e97..4cd523ba414b4 100644
--- a/lib/private/Mail/Mailer.php
+++ b/lib/private/Mail/Mailer.php
@@ -361,8 +361,10 @@ protected function getSendMailInstance(): SendmailTransport {
 				break;
 			default:
 				$sendmail = \OCP\Server::get(IBinaryFinder::class)->findBinaryPath('sendmail');
-				if ($sendmail === null) {
+				if ($sendmail === false) {
+					// fallback (though not sure what good it'll do)
 					$sendmail = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
+					$this->logger->debug('sendmail binary search failed, using fallback ' . $sendmail, ['app' => 'core']);
 				}
 				$binaryPath = $sendmail;
 				break;
@@ -373,6 +375,7 @@ protected function getSendMailInstance(): SendmailTransport {
 			default => ' -bs',
 		};
 
+		$this->logger->debug('Using sendmail binary: ' . $binaryPath, ['app' => 'core']);
 		return new SendmailTransport($binaryPath . $binaryParam, null, $this->logger);
 	}
 }
diff --git a/tests/lib/Mail/MailerTest.php b/tests/lib/Mail/MailerTest.php
index e3995fd17be12..5e8993f10ea90 100644
--- a/tests/lib/Mail/MailerTest.php
+++ b/tests/lib/Mail/MailerTest.php
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 use OC\Mail\Message;
 use OCP\Defaults;
 use OCP\EventDispatcher\IEventDispatcher;
+use OCP\IBinaryFinder;
 use OCP\IConfig;
 use OCP\IL10N;
 use OCP\IURLGenerator;
@@ -90,7 +91,7 @@ public function testGetSendmailInstanceSendMail($sendmailMode, $binaryParam) {
 				['mail_sendmailmode', 'smtp', $sendmailMode],
 			]);
 
-		$path = \OC_Helper::findBinaryPath('sendmail');
+		$path = \OCP\Server::get(IBinaryFinder::class)->findBinaryPath('sendmail');
 		if ($path === false) {
 			$path = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
 		}