Email not sending or receiving?
Step-by-step help for the most common email problems, when email won't send, won't arrive, or bounces back.
This guide is for when email stops working suddenly. You can't send, can't receive, or are getting bounce messages. Work through the steps below to identify and fix the problem.
First: confirm what's actually happening
The problem is different depending on the symptom. Answer a question or two to find the section that matches your situation.
Troubleshooter
Which problem do you have?
Emails bouncing back
A bounce message is an automated reply telling you the email couldn't be delivered. The message usually includes a reason code.
The first digit is the part worth knowing. A code that starts with 4 is temporary: the same message may well go through later. A code that starts with 5 is permanent: something has to change before it will be accepted.
Common bounce reasons:
| Reason code | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| 550 / 5.1.1 | The recipient's address doesn't exist | Check you've typed the address correctly, including stray spaces |
| 552 / 5.2.2 | The recipient's mailbox is out of storage space | Ask them to clear space; try another way to reach them |
| 421 / 4.4.5 | The receiving server is busy and asked you to try later | Wait and send again later |
| 550 / 5.7.1 | Your message was refused: treated as spam, or blocked by a policy at one end | Check SPF/DKIM records; see SPF, DKIM & DMARC |
If you receive a bounce with an unfamiliar code, copy the error text and contact Chykalophia. We can decode it.
Recipient not receiving your email
You sent the email and it didn't bounce, but the recipient says it hasn't arrived.
Ask the recipient to check their spam/junk folder. This is the most common explanation we see. If it's there, ask them to mark it as "Not spam."
Confirm the email address is correct. A typo delivers the email to a different person (or nobody) silently.
Check your Sent folder. If the email is there, it left your account. The problem is in delivery.
Try again with a plain, accurate subject line. Google asks senders not to use misleading subjects, for example, don't start a subject with "Re:" or "Fwd:" unless the message really is a reply or a forward.
Send a test from a different account (e.g., a personal Gmail) to see if the problem is specific to your domain.
If the problem persists, contact Chykalophia to check your deliverability and DNS records.
Not receiving emails
You're expecting emails that aren't arriving.
Check your spam/junk folder. The email may be there.
Check email filters and rules. An existing filter might be moving emails to a folder you're not watching.
Check your storage. Once a Google account hits its storage limit, Gmail stops: you can't send or receive, and messages sent to you go back to the sender. Google storage is shared across Gmail, Drive and Photos, so emptying Drive and the Trash frees up inbox space too. See Email storage & archiving.
Try logging in to webmail (mail.google.com or outlook.office365.com) to check if it's a device/app problem or an account problem.
Ask the sender if they got a bounce notification. If they did, see the bounce section above.
Check your MX records with MXToolbox, if they're missing or pointing at the wrong mail host, email won't reach you. Contact Chykalophia to fix this.
Complete email failure
Both sending and receiving have stopped, or you can't log in to your account.
Possible causes:
Account-level issues:
- Wrong password (try resetting)
- Account suspended by your email provider
- Two-factor authentication preventing login
- Account storage completely full
Service-level issues:
- Your email provider is having an outage
- DNS records were deleted or changed incorrectly
- Your domain has expired
- Your email platform subscription lapsed
Check your email provider's status page: Google publishes the Google Workspace Status Dashboard, and Microsoft publishes Microsoft service health status. If there's a known outage, wait for it to resolve.
Try logging in to webmail. If you can log in but email isn't working, the problem may be with DNS or configuration.
Check that your domain hasn't expired. A lapsed domain can break both your website and email. See What happens when a domain expires.
Contact Chykalophia. A complete email failure is business-critical. We'll investigate and restore service as quickly as possible.
Domain expiry can take down everything
If your domain has expired, your website AND your email may both stop working, because both depend on DNS records tied to your domain. Always keep domain auto-renew enabled. See Turning on auto-renew.
Common questions
I can receive emails but not send them. What's happening?
Try sending from webmail instead of your email app. If webmail sends fine, the problem is in the app. Check its outgoing mail (SMTP) settings and that it is still signed in. If webmail can't send either, the account itself is the problem; send us the exact error message.
My email was working fine and then stopped after I changed my password. How do I fix it?
Changing your password signs you out almost everywhere, and each app has to be reconnected. Web apps just ask you to sign in again. Third-party mail apps such as Apple Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird stop syncing until you sign in again with the new password. On an iPhone or iPad, a Google account is removed from the account list altogether, so you have to add it back. Any app passwords you had created are revoked and have to be generated again.
I got an email from my platform saying my account was suspended. What do I do?
Contact your email platform's support directly (Google Workspace support or Microsoft 365 support) or reach out to Chykalophia for help navigating this.
How can I check if the problem is at my end or the recipient's end?
Send a test email to another address you control (e.g., a personal Gmail). If that works, the problem is specific to the recipient: likely their spam filter or a wrong address. If that doesn't work either, the problem is on your end.
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