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Troubleshooting

I am not receiving any emails – check this

People say they have written to you, but the email never arrives? Go through spam, account status, storage, forwarding and MX record in the right order.

4 min readUpdated

On this page
  1. The quick checks first
  2. Check the MX record
  3. If nothing helps
  4. Frequently asked questions
  5. Only some senders get through. What does that mean?
  6. Can I catch emails sent to addresses that do not exist?
  7. The email was sent to a misspelt address. Can you find it?

An email has to pass through several stages before it lands in your inbox: the sender's mail server looks up your domain's MX record, sends the email to Sitewig Mail, the spam filter checks it, and finally it is placed in your mailbox, where your email program fetches it. The fault can be in any of these stages.

The email's route: sender, DNS lookup of MX, Sitewig Mail with spam filter, the mailbox and your email program – with typical faults under each stage
Five stages – five places where it can go wrong

The quick checks first

Checklist with five items: spam and filters, account status, storage, forwarding and email target
Go through the five items before you write to support
  1. Step 1: Look in spam and filters

    Open Webmail (opens in a new window) and look in the junk folder. Also check whether your email program has rules that move or delete emails automatically. If good emails land in spam, you can adjust the level under Spam filter for the account.

  2. Step 2: Check the account status

    Go to Email → Mailboxes. In the Your email accounts table, the Status column should show Active. If it says Disabled, Awaiting activation or Error, the account is not receiving email. If the mailbox is paused, you need to turn the pause off again under Account status.

    The Your email accounts card with the Status column highlighted
    The account should show Active
  3. Step 3: Check the storage

    The Storage column shows how much the mailbox is using. If it is full, the server rejects new emails. Delete old emails with large attachments, or give the account more space under Storage in the account's menu.

  4. Step 4: Check forwarding

    Under Forwarding for the account, emails may be set to be forwarded to another address. If you also want a copy in the mailbox, that must be turned on there.

  5. Step 5: Check the domain's email target

    Go to Domains → My domains and click the domain. In the The domain points to card, it should say Sitewig Mail under Email. If it says Own mail server (MX) or No email, email is sent somewhere else. Tap Change target, choose Sitewig Mail under Where should email be delivered? and tap Save.

Check the MX record

When the domain's email points to Sitewig Mail, we create the necessary records ourselves: MX to mail.sitewig.com with priority 10, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and records that help email programs find the settings.

  1. Step 1: Find MX in the DNS table

    Scroll down to the DNS section on the domain page and choose the type MX in the filter.

    The DNS table filtered on MX, where @ points to mail.sitewig.com
    There should be one MX record pointing to mail.sitewig.com
  2. Step 2: Compare with the correct values

    MX record for Sitewig Mail

    Name
    @
    Mail server
    mail.sitewig.com
    Priority
    10
  3. Step 3: Does the domain use another DNS provider?

    If the domain shows Awaiting name servers, or you have chosen to keep DNS with another provider, that is where the MX record must be fixed. Create MX, SPF and DMARC with the values above at the provider, and delete old MX records that point to your previous email provider.

If nothing helps

Sitewig's control panel does not yet have a delivery log where you can follow a single email yourself. So send a test email from another provider (e.g. a private Gmail account), and note the time and the sender address. Create a support case with those details – then we can find the email in the server's log.

Frequently asked questions

Only some senders get through. What does that mean?

Usually that you have just changed email provider, and some mail servers still remember the old MX record. It sorts itself out within 24 hours. See I have changed DNS, but nothing has happened.

Can I catch emails sent to addresses that do not exist?

Yes, with a catch-all address under Email → Catch-all. It collects emails to all unknown addresses on the domain in one mailbox. Use it with care – it also catches a lot of spam.

The email was sent to a misspelt address. Can you find it?

If you have no catch-all address, the email is rejected and returned to the sender. Ask the sender to check their inbox for an error message.

Didn't find the answer?

Personal support at support@sitewig.com – chat and email, reply within 24 hours.