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.
Quick summary
Most sudden email problems are caused by a full mailbox, a wrong password, an expired DNS record, or a configuration change. Start with the simplest checks — can you log in to webmail? Is your mailbox full? — before escalating.
First: confirm what's actually happening
The problem is different depending on the symptom. Read the section that matches your situation.
- Sending an email and getting a bounce or error message → Emails bouncing back
- You sent an email and the recipient hasn't received it → Recipient not receiving your email
- You're not receiving emails that others have sent you → Not receiving emails
- Both sending and receiving stopped working at once → Complete email failure
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.
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 |
| 552 / 5.2.2 | Recipient's mailbox is full | Ask them to clear space; try another contact method |
| 421 / 4.7.0 | Temporary delivery failure (server too busy) | Wait a few hours and try again |
| 550 / 5.7.1 | Your email was rejected as spam or unauthorized | 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. 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 sending again with a slightly different subject line. Specific subject line patterns can trigger spam filters.
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 mailbox storage. A full mailbox rejects new emails. See Email storage & archiving.
Try logging in to webmail (mail.google.com or outlook.office.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 wrong or expired, email won't be delivered. 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 Workspace status is at workspace.google.com/status, Microsoft 365 status at status.office365.com. 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
Related guides
- Troubleshooting email problems
- Why your emails land in spam
- Email storage & archiving
- SPF, DKIM & DMARC for email senders
- What happens when a domain expires
- I can't receive email
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