Error: Can't receive emails

Why do we need to confirm that the inbox can send and receive emails?

To make sure that the auto-warmer group will flow smoothly, we check if the inbox can send and receive emails.

If an inbox can't receive emails, it will lead to bounces in the group.

Bounces hurt inbox reputation so to prevent it, we make sure that all inboxes are working fully.

How do you confirm this?

We do this by sending emails from your inbox to the inbox that we monitor and vice versa.

Then, we check your inbox and our inbox if the auto-warmer email request is there.

If we check your inbox and we don't find the email, the inbox will be rejected from the group because we can't confirm that it can receive emails.

If that happens, you will receive an email notification from us.

Like this:

But the inbox is working, I received an email recently.

Mailflow not being able to confirm that the inbox can't receive emails does not mean that the inbox is not able to receive any emails at all.

It just means that MailFlow couldn't find the email that was sent once the inbox was checked, or that the inbox will cause bounces once joined in the auto-warmer group.

What are the reasons for the error "can't receive emails"?

There are several reasons why this could happen, such as:

• The inbox has no MX record or it's incorrectly set up
• We can't find the auto-warmer email request due to email forwarding or auto-delete filters.
• The auto-warmer email request that we sent to the inbox bounced 
• There are email admin settings or permissions that prevent us from accessing the inbox

The inbox has no MX records or they're incorrectly set up

An MX record is used to tell which mail servers accept incoming mail for your domain and where emails sent to your domain should be routed to. 

Without MX records, emails won't be delivered to your email address.

To check for the inbox's MX record, search for the domain using this tool.

Here's what it looks like if the domain doesn't have an MX record:

Solution: Set up the correct MX records

To set up MX records, please go to your domain host.

As for which MX records to use, the records are specific to your email service provider.

For example, if the domain is hosted in GoDaddy but the inbox is Google, the MX record must be added by logging into GoDaddy. However, the record to use will come from Google.

These guides might come in handy in setting up your MX records:

• MX records from  Google WorkSpace
• MX records from Outlook
• How to setup MX records in NameCheap
• How to setup MX records in GoDaddy

To identify your domain host, check out this article.

Mailflow can't find the email because of Auto-forwarding and Auto-Delete filters

We check the inbox every 10 minutes to look for the auto-warmer email request.

If the email account has a filter that auto-forwards and auto-delete emails, we won't have enough time to detect it in the inbox.

Thus, the system will assume that the inbox didn't receive it at all.

Solution : Disable auto-forwarding and auto-delete filters

How filters can be disabled varies based on your email service provider.

Here's how to check the filters in Google:

Here's how to check the filters (they call it Rules) in Outlook:

If you're unsure how to check, please contact your email service provider.

The email request that we sent to the inbox bounced

This could happen if the MX records are not properly set up.

However, other reasons that could lead to it are if the inbox is full, its ESP is having intermittent connection issues, etc.

Solution: Contact support for the bounce notification

To see the reason why we weren't able to send emails to an inbox is to look at the bounce notification.

Since we're the ones who sent the email, the bounce notification can be accessed by us.

Please contact support@mailflow.io to check for the bounce notification.

The IMAP server added in QuickMail is different from the MX record

The IMAP server added in QuickMail must be the same as the IMAP server in the MX record. 

The MX record tells which server emails will be received. That being said, we won't be able to detect emails if we're looking at the wrong server.

Solution: Update the server where the MX record is pointing to

The MX record must point to the server added in QuickMail. To do this, you would need to go through the DNS records of the domain.

Please reach out to your domain provider if further assistance is needed.

Alternatively, you can do it the other way around. It's possible to change the IMAP server (custom inbox and Gmail inboxes) in the inbox settings or delete the inbox (Outlook), and re-add with the correct server pointing to the MX record. 

MailFlow can't access the inbox to check the email.

If we can't access the inbox, it could be that there's an admin setting that's preventing third-party apps like MailFlow from accessing the inbox

Solution: Contact your IT team or email admins to have the settings changed

Since it's the email admin that handles these security settings, we won't be able to bypass these settings.

So the only way to solve that is to have the email admins allow third-party app access.