Job email-incoming-mail-not-arriving-mx-and-routing-repair · revised 11 October 2026

Find and fix why mail sent to your domain does not arrive

Correct the MX records and, where your host has one, the mail routing setting, so test messages from outside and from your own website reach the right mailboxes.

You might be seeing

People outside the company say their messages bounce, or get no reply
Mail to some addresses arrives and mail to others does not
Messages from your website form or your old webmail to your own addresses never show up
Mail arrives at the old provider's mailboxes after you moved to a new one

Enquire — £175 fixed price Check if it fits first What to send us

No passwords, keys, card details or admin invites needed to start.

What usually happened

Mail for your domain goes to wherever the domain's MX records point, and a hosting server can also decide for itself that it is the mail server for the domain. After a provider change or a DNS edit, an MX record may point at an old provider, at an address instead of a hostname, at an alias, or at two providers at once so mail splits between them. On cPanel-style hosting, a routing setting left on local can keep mail from the website's own server on that server instead of sending it to the new provider.

Who it’s for: Owner or office manager whose business email is hosted at a named provider, but some or all mail sent to the company's addresses never arrives.

Usually starts when: Senders report bounces such as "domain not found" or "no such user", or mail sent by your own website or webmail to your own addresses vanishes, usually after a change of email provider, host or DNS.

The result: Test messages from two outside providers and from your website's hosting reach each named mailbox at the intended provider, and the domain's public MX records name only that provider.

Check whether this job fits

Four questions, about two minutes. Your answers stay on this page unless you choose to email them.

What exactly goes missing?

Mail from outside never arrives Only mail from my own website or old webmail is missing It arrives, but in spam or late

What does the sender's bounce message say?

Look for a code such as 5.1.1 (address does not exist) or 5.1.2 (domain cannot receive mail), or "no MX".

The domain or its mail server cannot be found The address does not exist No bounce at all

What changed most recently?

We changed email provider We changed website host or DNS provider Nothing changed

Does mail pass through a filtering service or an on-premises server before the mailboxes?

No, straight to the provider Yes, or I am not sure

Answer the questions to see whether this job fits.

Nothing is sent anywhere until you choose to email us.

Send an enquiry about this outcome

How to read your answers: any answer below means this fixed job needs a closer look or doesn’t fit.

What exactly goes missing? Only mail from my own website or old webmail is missing: If one website form is the only thing failing, its own sending code may be the cause. Send a test from the same form to an address at an outside provider: if that arrives, routing is the likely fault and this job fits; if not, see the contact form job. Form emails not arriving
What exactly goes missing? It arrives, but in spam or late: Mail that arrives but is filed as junk is an authentication question, not a routing one. Business email out of spam
What does the sender's bounce message say? The address does not exist: The mail is reaching a provider but not a mailbox. Confirm the mailbox exists at the new provider; if it does not, create it or migrate it first.
What does the sender's bounce message say? No bounce at all: Silence often means mail is delivered somewhere unexpected, such as the old provider. That fits this job, but tell us where you checked.
What changed most recently? We changed website host or DNS provider: The mail records may have been dropped in the move. Send us the old and new provider names.
What changed most recently? Nothing changed: An unpaid or suspended mail service, or an expired domain, can look the same. Check the provider account and the domain renewal first.
Does mail pass through a filtering service or an on-premises server before the mailboxes? Yes, or I am not sure: A gateway or hybrid route has more moving parts than a fixed-price job can check safely. Ask your IT supplier which service sits in front.

Checks you can run yourself

See where outside mail is told to go
On a Mac or Linux terminal, run these read-only lookups, or use a public DNS lookup website.
```
dig +short MX yourbusiness.co.uk
```
Look for: Each line is a priority number and a mail server name; the lowest number is tried first. Names from two different providers mean mail may split. An IP address, a blank answer or a name belonging to an old provider is the usual cause.
Check each mail server name has an address
Take the server name from the MX lookup and ask for its address.
```
dig +short A mail-server-name-from-the-MX-line
```
Look for: An address means the name resolves. A blank answer, or a name that answers with another name, is a fault to report.

What you get

A before and after listing of the MX records and the host routing setting
Exact steps for whoever edits DNS and the host's settings, or the changes entered by us where you grant that access
A test table: sender, recipient, result, and the receiving servers shown in the delivered message's headers
A note of previous values so each change can be put back

Included

One domain and up to ten named addresses or mailboxes at one email provider you name
Reading the domain's MX records and, where the host shows it, the domain's mail routing setting: automatic, local, backup or remote
Correcting the MX records to the provider's documented hostnames and priorities, and removing records for the old provider after an agreed overlap
Correcting the host's mail routing setting so mail for the domain is handed to the named provider instead of kept on the web server
Test messages from two outside providers and from the website's host to every named address, with headers kept as evidence

Not included

Moving mailboxes or old messages between providers: see the mailbox migration jobs
Setting up or fixing SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which affect junk placement rather than arrival
Removing a server from a blocklist or fixing spam filtering
Mail routed through a gateway, filtering service or hybrid on-premises server
Creating mailboxes, licences or accounts at the email provider

How we know it’s done

Agreed with you before work starts. Each check produces evidence you keep.

Public MX lookups for the domain return only the named provider's documented hostnames, each of which resolves to an address and none of which is an alias.
Evidence: The lookup output and the provider's documentation page side by side
```
dig +short MX yourbusiness.co.uk
```
A test message from each of two outside providers to each named address arrives in that mailbox, in any folder, with no bounce.
Evidence: The test table and a screenshot or header excerpt of each received message
A test message sent from the website host to each named address arrives in the named provider's mailbox, and its headers show the provider's servers rather than a local mailbox on the host.
Evidence: The delivered messages' Received headers

Sign-off. You sign off after you have seen each test message in the right mailbox and the MX lookup shows only the named provider, checked again once cached answers have expired.

If it fails. If the agreed tests do not pass, you do not pay. The previous values are put back and we tell you what the provider or host has to change.

When it fits, and when we stop

It fits when

The mailboxes already exist at the named provider and you can sign in to read a test message in each
You or a named holder can edit the domain's DNS and, if the host has a routing setting, that setting
The domain's DNS is answered by one provider

We stop and tell you if

The mailboxes do not exist at the new provider yet: migrate or create them first
The domain uses a mail gateway, a filtering service or an on-premises server in the route
The provider's service for the domain is suspended, unpaid or not verified, which only the provider can fix
The cause is a full mailbox or a spam filter rather than routing

What could go wrong

Previous MX values and the previous routing setting are recorded, so your holder can put them back. Mail delivered while a change was live stays where it landed, which is why old mailboxes are left untouched until you agree to remove them.

Scroll the table sideways to read it all.

Risk	How we handle it
Removing the old provider's MX record too early loses mail that is still on its way.	Old records stay until the agreed overlap has passed and a test shows the new route works.
Mail already delivered to the old provider is missed.	We tell you which mailboxes still hold mail at the old provider; moving that mail is a separate job.
A routing change on the host affects other domains on the same account.	We change the setting for the named domain only, and record the other domains' settings before and after.

A second reviewer, separate from the work that produced the plan, compares every proposed change with the recorded old values and the provider's own documentation. No human supervisor is included unless your proposal names one. At launch much of the preparation is automated, and we say so.

How we deliver

We arrange the work and independent review, then show you the result against the agreed checks. You keep authority over your systems.

Read the public MX answers, the provider's expected values and, where visible, the host's routing setting
Send first-round test messages from two outside providers and from the website's host, and keep the bounce text and headers
Prepare the smallest change: provider-documented MX values, and the routing setting that hands mail to that provider
A second reviewer compares the plan with the old values before you are asked to apply it
You or your holder apply the change; we repeat the tests and check again after cached answers expire, then remove old-provider records only after the agreed overlap

This is a one-off job, not emergency cover or a subscription. We confirm eligibility, the total price, a start window and a delivery date before you accept. Work starts only after agreed inputs, secure access, any licences and necessary permissions are in place. Hosting, platform and supplier charges are excluded unless the written quote includes them. No charge or booking is created by an enquiry.

Need to keep it working?

If mail records keep drifting, ask about the standing responsibility that checks them each month.

Ongoing work is separately scoped and quoted: no monitoring, response-time guarantee or automatic subscription is included in this job.

Explore an ongoing engineering lane, or mention the responsibility you need in your enquiry.

What you can check

This is a new service. We have not delivered this job for a client yet.

Other ways to get this done

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace both show the DNS records they expect for a domain in their admin consoles. If the only fault is one wrong MX value, correcting it there and re-testing may be enough. learn.microsoft.com
Your web host's support can tell you whether the domain's mail routing is set to local or remote, and change it.

Questions

My mail goes to the old provider. Is that this job?

Yes, if the MX records still name it or two providers are listed. Moving the mail already sitting there is the separate mailbox migration job.

Why does mail from my website vanish but mail from Gmail works?

On some hosts the server keeps mail for your own domain when its routing is set to local, so messages from the site never leave for the new provider. This job checks for that.

Will you read my emails?

No. We send our own test messages and you confirm they arrived.

Send an enquiry

Send us

The domain and the email provider that should receive its mail
Two or three exact bounce messages with the sender's address removed, or a description of what senders report
What changed most recently: provider, host, DNS or website
The addresses that matter most, up to ten

Later, once you agree

A listing or screenshots of the DNS records and the host's routing setting
An invitation to the DNS account with permission to edit DNS only, or a person who will make the changes
The provider's own page showing the MX values it expects for your domain
A company-controlled secure handoff agreed before any access: no live passwords, keys or mailbox contents by ordinary email

The domain, the DNS account, the host and the mailboxes stay in your name. We never need to read your mailbox contents: the test messages are ours, and you confirm they arrived.

Email fallback: open your mail app

If website submission is unavailable, review and send the fallback email yourself. An email fallback is not a website receipt. Or write to hello@syntheticindustry.ai with “email-incoming-mail-not-arriving-mx-and-routing-repair” as the subject.