Issues Receiving Email
If you’re having problems receiving email, but you can send email, here are some possible common causes that will be explained in more depth below:
- Over email quota
- DNS problems
- Mail client problems
Over Email Quota
Each email account is assigned a quota when created. You can check these settings in cPanel and increase them if necessary:
Step 1: Go to cPanel (For knowledge on how to access your cPanel should you have a package that includes it, please review: How To Access cPanel)
Step 2: Go to Email Accounts
Step 3: Ensure Email Accounts is selected from the available tabs. From here you can immediately review current emails and their current Usage or Quota.
Step 4: If the current storage is full, you can try either deleting emails or expanding the Disk and Quota by selecting it. You can expand the current limit or set to unlimited. Select Save when done.
It’s worth noting, unlimited is not advised unless you review and manage your emails daily, as this will greatly effect your inode limitation or storage capacity. For more information, please review What Is An Inode
DNS Problems
It could be a problem with your DNS settings:
- Are your DNS zones setup correctly?
- Have you recently changed MX records? It normally takes about an hour for them to update and they may not have fully changed over yet
- Are your MX records and Email Routing correct?
You can use tools like Whats My DNS? to check records and ensure they are propagating and/or propagation correctly.
For more information on how to edit DNS in cPanel, please review cPanel Zone Editor
Mail Client Problems
Make sure your mail client is setup correctly. These settings will vary, depending on your client. You can find the instructions for many email clients in cPanel.
Step 1: Go to cPanel (For knowledge on how to access your cPanel should you have a package that includes it, please review: How To Access cPanel)
Step 2: In the Email section, select Email Accounts
Step 3: Ensure Email Accounts tab is selected and choose Connected Devices from the available list under Actions. Choose Set Up Mail Client from the available drop-down.
Step 4: A new browser window will appear, providing your Mail Client Settings. You will want to ensure these are what is configured for any third party mail clients.
You will want to ensure the proper username, password, the incoming and outgoing server information is 100% correct. If there are any mistakes, like email password, your mail client will not work appropriately.
Alternative Reasons
Spam Assassin – If you have this enabled, check the SPAM folder to make sure they aren’t getting caught by the assassin. This can be found under your cPanel Email section, Spam Filters
Over disk quota – Your cPanel account may have run out of disc space. If you’re a Hostwinds shared or business shared customer this shouldn’t be the case, as all our plans include unlimited disk space.
Authentication – You have DKIM and/or SPF enabled and/or not configured properly. You can check this in cPanel’s Authentication under the Email section.
Related Articles
- Sending Email Headers To Support
- cPanel: Adding Email To iPhone
- Definition of Email Icons in Cpanel
- How to Setup Email Client Access In cPanel
Please be encouraged to open a ticket with technical support for an investigation into any of email issues for further assistance in troubleshooting inbound emails.