Fix mail that isn’t arriving or sending
Most delivery problems come down to a few causes. Start with the section that matches what you see.
On this page
Mail isn’t arriving
- Has your MX record switched? Your domain’s page in the admin console shows the MX record we see. Until it matches the one your panel lists, mail goes to your old provider. See Go live.
- Just switched? Some servers keep using the old MX record for a while, usually a few hours and occasionally up to two days. That mail lands at your old provider.
- Check Junk Mail in webmail.
- Is storage full? When your account’s storage is full, or a mailbox reaches its own limit, new mail is held and retried, then returned to the sender after 3 days. Free up space or move to a bigger plan.
- Does the address exist? Mail to addresses that don’t exist is refused unless you’ve set a catch-all. Check your aliases and groups.
- Colleagues still on the old service? It may deliver mail between your own addresses internally. Once everyone has moved, close the old account or remove your domain from it.
- Mail from your website or tools refused, or in Junk Mail? Mail that a website form, CRM or other tool sends as your domain to your own mailboxes is refused or lands in Junk Mail, to stop forgeries. Tell us which services send as your domain and we’ll allow them, and add them to your SPF record.
- Website on cPanel? After the switch, set Email Routing to Remote Mail Exchanger.
Mail can’t be sent
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing sends from a new account | New accounts can receive but not send until we’ve reviewed them. | Wait for the approval email. |
| “Add the email policy (DMARC) record below to turn on sending” | Your domain is verified, but sending also needs the email policy record. | Add the DMARC record your panel lists. See DNS records. |
| “Sending paused: many bounces at once” next to a person | Someone else probably has the password. | Set a new password or send a reset link. |
| A “Daily sending limit reached” email | Your account sent its daily total; each recipient counts as one email. | Sending resumes as the 24-hour window moves on. A bigger plan has a higher total. |
| A “Sending paused” email for your account | Bounces or spam reports climbed too high. | Reply and tell us what happened. We resume sending once it’s fixed. |
An error starting 550 5.7.1 | The From address isn’t one of your account’s addresses. | Send from your own address. |
An error starting 452 | You reached a sending limit (recipients an hour or a day). | Try again later, and check the limits. |
| The app can’t send at all | Wrong outgoing settings. | Use port 465 with SSL/TLS (or 587 with STARTTLS), with sign-in. See the settings. |
| A billing email about paused sending | A payment is overdue. | Pay in Billing; everything is restored automatically once the payment goes through. |
Mail lands in spam at the other end
- Your domain must be verified (signing key confirmed) and its email policy (DMARC) record in place; SPF is recommended. Keep these records in place; we email you if one breaks.
- Keep only one SPF record.
- Write like a person. Bulk and marketing mail hurt your domain and aren’t allowed.
- Remove addresses that bounce, and stop writing to people who ask you to.
The delivery page
Open Delivery in your admin console.
- Hard bounce: the address doesn’t exist. Remove it.
- Soft bounce: a temporary problem, such as a full mailbox at the other end.
- Spam report: the recipient marked your message as spam. Stop writing to them.
- Counts can lag a few minutes, and some providers don’t report spam complaints.
Send us the details
Send the bounce message or the full headers to hello@trypatra.com. Mail administrators at other companies can write to postmaster@trypatra.com.
Related: DNS records · Storage and limits · Users