Emails not arriving - all ideas appreciated

[myotis]

From the end of 2024/beginning of 2025, I have had a problem with emails not arriving.

The ones I am aware of are newsletters, and email verification emails, when signing up to newsletters and when trying to change passwords. I am now locked out of some sites (e.g.my Substack account) and I have missed out on discounts (and free updates) on things I would have bought, had the appropriate newsletters arrived.

The vast majority of these emails are getting through, but equally there is also a longish list of those that aren't.

Where possible I have checked with the sender, who confirms they are being sent, but my ISP says they aren't appearing anywhere in their system,and they are sending me back to the sender, who thn send me back to my ISP.

The most recent advice is to get "the full send log, including the acceptance report from their mail exchange"

Although, I haven't asked for this specific information from the sender yet, at least one has used wording in their replies to suggest they might have checked this ie we have checked it's leaving our mail server.

I only fully realised this was happening last November, when I also first contacted my ISP support, and I'm getting a bit wearied with it now, especially as support goes dead for weeks before getting back to me.

Does anyone have the expertise to offer some words of wisdom or comfort, or do I just start contacting all the senders again and ask for the send log. Maybe I will only need a log from one sender, if that identifies an obvious issue.

Thanks.

 

[stickytape]

I have had something similar, with my work email. Where I've been sending the clients and they have not been getting the email - in junk, spam, trash or anything.. but if I send on my personal iCloud email they get them!

I raised it with our IT team but they were more than useless so gave up...


The company uses Google suite, - for me, I've always just used the iCloud email and never missed anything. Not sure that's much use to you, but you're not in the only boat, I assure you!

 

[myotis]

I have had something similar, with my work email. Where I've been sending the clients and they have not been getting the email - in junk, spam, trash or anything.. but if I send on my personal iCloud email they get them!

I raised it with our IT team but they were more than useless so gave up...


The company uses Google suite, - for me, I've always just used the iCloud email and never missed anything. Not sure that's much use to you, but you're not in the only boat, I assure you!

Thanks, it's very frustrating, especially as I can correspond (email) with the senders without any problem, it's only the automated mailing list/password verification aspects that are broken.

 

[onomatopoeia]

If the sender gets a bounce message when they email you, ask them to send it to you by a means you can receive (e.g. second address, set one up with a free provider like gmail if you haven't already).

The headline failure reason might tell you what's wrong (though you probably won't be able to fix it yourself), but even if you don't understand what it's saying (and failure messages can be difficult to parse so that wouldn't be a surprise), your ISP should understand it.

If the sender isn't getting a bounce / non-delivery report, then you could try setting up a free address and emailing your main address from it to see if that gets delivered or you get a bounce, or it disappears never to be seen again.

There are a huge number of possible reasons why email might not be delivered, either intermittently or constantly, and those could lie with your ISP or the sender(s). (Among the hats I wear at work is mail server admin)

 

[myotis]

If the sender gets a bounce message when they email you, ask them to send it to you by a means you can receive (e.g. second address, set one up with a free provider like gmail if you haven't already).

The headline failure reason might tell you what's wrong (though you probably won't be able to fix it yourself), but even if you don't understand what it's saying (and failure messages can be difficult to parse so that wouldn't be a surprise), your ISP should understand it.

If the sender isn't getting a bounce / non-delivery report, then you could try setting up a free address and emailing your main address from it to see if that gets delivered or you get a bounce, or it disappears never to be seen again.

There are a huge number of possible reasons why email might not be delivered, either intermittently or constantly, and those could lie with your ISP or the sender(s). (Among the hats I wear at work is mail server admin)

Thanks, but I'm not sure you have grasped the problem.

It's only some specific types of automated emails that aren't arriving, and neither the senders nor my ISP can explain why. With the senders saying they are definitely leaving their system and my ISP saying they are definitely never entering their system.

So no one s getting any bounced emails, and sending myself an email would work perfectly.

 

[Craikeybaby]

I expect that the ones that are failing are coming from one of the big email providers e.g. Mailchip/Sendgrid etc. When you email the companies separately those direct responses will be going from a separate source, so will not be affected.

 

[GreenNinja67]

I know Microsoft have an issue at the moment where certain emails do not send, or if they do the sender gets a bounceback with "Winmail.dat" in the error.

Microsoft have been trying to fix this since last week.

 

[myotis]

I expect that the ones that are failing are coming from one of the big email providers e.g. Mailchip/Sendgrid etc. When you email the companies separately those direct responses will be going from a separate source, so will not be affected.

Yes, I suspect that as well, certainly some of the mailing lists, when I've tried to sign up again are using MailChimp.

But this in some ways has added to the frustration, especially with Substack, who only have an AI driven support system, when sending me an email is considered proof of there being nothing wrong at their end, and refusing to investigate it further, even when I'm not getting a password verification email or notification of new posts in the stacks I am signed up to.

 

[myotis]

I know Microsoft have an issue at the moment where certain emails do not send, or if they do the sender gets a bounceback with "Winmail.dat" in the error.

Microsoft have been trying to fix this since last week.

Thanks, but this has been happening for over a year now, and bounced emails aren't an issue

 

[Faldrax]

Has your email somehow ended up on a blacklist used by the Mailing Company?
Google 'Has my email been blacklisted' for links to free on-line blacklist checkers (it's less likely since it's working most of the time, but worth checking to eliminate as an option)

 

[myotis]

Has your email somehow ended up on a blacklist used by the Mailing Company?
Google 'Has my email been blacklisted' for links to free on-line blacklist checkers (it's less likely since it's working most of the time, but worth checking to eliminate as an option)

Thanks, I've just checked on a couple of black list checkers and it's OK

 

[Brentor]

Have you tried signing up for these automatic emails again, using a different email address?

Do you have any auto delete spam settings that means they do not appear in your spam folder?

 

[myotis]

Have you tried signing up for these automatic emails again, using a different email address?

Thanks I did this in the past, and it worked fine, but with some things I need to get into the account I'm already signed up to

Do you have any auto delete spam settings that means they do not appear in your spam folder?

The missing emails aren't arriving at my ISP (according to them), so it's not going to make any difference how I have my spam settings

 

[Brentor]

Thanks I did this in the past, and it worked fine, but with some things I need to get into the account I'm already signed up to

The missing emails aren't arriving at my ISP (according to them), so it's not going to make any difference how I have my spam settings

All seems very odd. Good luck in finding a solution as your ISP and the senders do not appear to be helpful.

 

[myotis]

All seems very odd. Good luck in finding a solution as your ISP and the senders do not appear to be helpful.

I think it's very odd as well, but given it's from multiple senders and the problem started at the end of 2023/beginning of 2024, I still think its something my ISP has done, or their provider has done. I've now provided them with over a dozen senders email addresses that aren't being delivered, and some dates when newsletters were sent out, but this hasn't helped them solve the problem.

 

[billy nomates]

A few ideas to consider.
I'm with ionos and their email spam filter can be rather overzealous with certain senders, incoming mail is held up at the server and so doesn't make it onto my desktop app spam folder, I routinely now log into their webmail function and check that spam folder and have to authorise blacklisted senders as not spam, those senders can be relisted to the blacklist from time to time so I keep a regular eye on it.

I have had it the other way with recipients accounts refusing mail due to it being sourced originally from ionos or 1&1 as it used to be. It would seem that as the server was the source for many different accounts spammers would get access to an account, from time to time, and mass send junk mail leading to other receiving servers carrying a ban on all 1&1 sourced email address.
The most recent cause I had for mail disappearing without coming back to me was that there was "no SPF record on your email system" from memory that was a fairly simple fix

 

[myotis]

A few ideas to consider.
I'm with ionos and their email spam filter can be rather overzealous with certain senders, incoming mail is held up at the server and so doesn't make it onto my desktop app spam folder, I routinely now log into their webmail function and check that spam folder and have to authorise blacklisted senders as not spam, those senders can be relisted to the blacklist from time to time so I keep a regular eye on it.

Thanks. My ISP doesn't use a white list/black list system. they use a "workflow management tool", whatever that is, which means my webmail spam folder is always empty.

I have had it the other way with recipients accounts refusing mail due to it being sourced originally from ionos or 1&1 as it used to be. It would seem that as the server was the source for many different accounts spammers would get access to an account, from time to time, and mass send junk mail leading to other receiving servers carrying a ban on all 1&1 sourced email address.
The most recent cause I had for mail disappearing without coming back to me was that there was "no SPF record on your email system" from memory that was a fairly simple fix

 

[Mozthecat]

Sounds to me like the dns records are partially corrupted.

 

[myotis]

Sounds to me like the dns records are partially corrupted.

While I know what DNS is, I'm not sure of the relationship to my problem.

 

[Mozthecat]

While I know what DNS is, I'm not sure of the relationship to my problem.

Within a dns record there may be multiple mx records telling the world how to route emails to you. There are multiple routes in case of server failure. The routes are normally prioritised with 10 being first route, 20 being second etc etc.

If one of the mx records is currupt (either plain wrong and pointing to wrong/obsolete/none existent server or random junk letters within it) then some emails may not arrive.

It would be worth asking your isp to confirm the mx records within the dns records are all correct.

 

[andrewc]

Try using some of the tools at https://mxtoolbox.com/

 

[myotis]

Within a dns record there may be multiple mx records telling the world how to route emails to you. There are multiple routes in case of server failure. The routes are normally prioritised with 10 being first route, 20 being second etc etc.

If one of the mx records is currupt (either plain wrong and pointing to wrong/obsolete/none existent server or random junk letters within it) then some emails may not arrive.

It would be worth asking your isp to confirm the mx records within the dns records are all correct.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of it as multiple mx records. Would this consistently affect the same multiple sender/recipient combinations over a 15 month period?

Could this be why my ISP is asking me to get the send log and acceptance report from their mail exchange. Would that help track his down.

I haven't asked for this log yet from anyone, as I am working out who has been the most friendly of the senders I have raised it with.

 

[myotis]

Try using some of the tools at https://mxtoolbox.com/

Thanks, I will give this a look.

 

[Pound Coin]

I’ve noticed similar behaviour, with users reporting email not arriving to one domain, but arriving if sent to a different one, e.g. gmail or an Apple one.

It all seemed to start when Google and BTInternet, particularly, started requiring more “security” on emails, like DMARC and other things. This was ostensibly to stop spam. However, since most of my spam comes from gmail accounts my conspiracy view is that by making email form other domains unreliable google hopes to get more gmail users.

As of yet, even having no red flags from testing sites like MXToolbox, haven't found a permanent solution.

 

[Mozthecat]

Thanks, I hadn't thought of it as multiple mx records. Would this consistently affect the same multiple sender/recipient combinations over a 15 month period?

Could this be why my ISP is asking me to get the send log and acceptance report from their mail exchange. Would that help track his down.

I haven't asked for this log yet from anyone, as I am working out who has been the most friendly of the senders I have raised it with.

It can have a random impact. Part of the dns record is a TIL or time to live, and this tells the servers how often to refresh their data in case of updates ( if you are moving servers or providers you might change it to 3060 seconds/an hour otherwise it might be a week or more).

Your isp should be able to check it is correct without looking at logs as it can be checked on places like mxtoolbox .


In terms of asking for it, good luck but probably look towards smaller companies, at my employer two of us know how how to get them and interpret them, one more knows they exist, and the other 17 staff members would not have a clue…and would hopefully pass it over to us two in the know.

 

[Pound Coin]

^ useful to know, thanks.

 

[realspeed]

at least it is quicker than snail mail

 

[ecoleman]

It could be the way the sender has their email setup if using a third party to send emails on their behalf.

Most will have a DMARC policy which says that if SPF and DKIM are not aligned then the receiver should reject the email. This can be quite complex and certainly took a lot of reading for me to get my head around it but here is the gist of it.

SPF is an email authentication standard that helps protect senders and recipients from spam, spoofing and phishing.

DKIM is a protocol that allows an organisation to take responsibility for transmitting a message by signing it in a way that the mailbox providers can verify.

DMARC is an email authentication protocol that helps protect against email spoofing and phishing by verifying the authenticity of emails, building on existing standards like SPF and DKIM, and allowing domain owners to define how unauthenticated emails should be handled.


As a business I send emails from my own server for things like order confirmations, dispatch notifications etc. I also use a third party service (Freshdesk) to handle my customer service emails (a support ticket system). I have to setup a number of DNS entries that lets receiving servers know that I authorise my emails to be sent from certain servers only. These are SPF records. I also have DKIM setup which signs the email which is a bit like SSL for email.

I also have a DMARC record in my DNS which says that If any email from my email address is received from a non authorised server or is not signed, then it needs to be rejected. You can also tell it to accept the email but mark it as spam if you like.

If the company has a REJECT setting but they have not added Mailchimp (for example) servers as an authorised sender of their emails then any receiving system is simply rejecting the emails.

 

[myotis]

It can have a random impact. Part of the dns record is a TIL or time to live, and this tells the servers how often to refresh their data in case of updates ( if you are moving servers or providers you might change it to 3060 seconds/an hour otherwise it might be a week or more).

Your isp should be able to check it is correct without looking at logs as it can be checked on places like mxtoolbox .


In terms of asking for it, good luck but probably look towards smaller companies, at my employer two of us know how how to get them and interpret them, one more knows they exist, and the other 17 staff members would not have a clue…and would hopefully pass it over to us two in the know.

@andrewc @Pound Coin @Mozthecat @ecoleman

Thanks all, I have checked with mxtoolbox and there is no Dmarc record found and Dmarc Quarantine/Reject policy [is] not enabled, but DNS record [was] found.

Blacklist check on one server timed out on Kisa and No solicitado, but was OK on those that didn't time out.

 

[myotis]

It could be the way the sender has their email setup if using a third party to send emails on their behalf.

Most will have a DMARC policy which says that if SPF and DKIM are not aligned then the receiver should reject the email. This can be quite complex and certainly took a lot of reading for me to get my head around it but here is the gist of it.

SPF is an email authentication standard that helps protect senders and recipients from spam, spoofing and phishing.

DKIM is a protocol that allows an organisation to take responsibility for transmitting a message by signing it in a way that the mailbox providers can verify.

DMARC is an email authentication protocol that helps protect against email spoofing and phishing by verifying the authenticity of emails, building on existing standards like SPF and DKIM, and allowing domain owners to define how unauthenticated emails should be handled.


As a business I send emails from my own server for things like order confirmations, dispatch notifications etc. I also use a third party service (Freshdesk) to handle my customer service emails (a support ticket system). I have to setup a number of DNS entries that lets receiving servers know that I authorise my emails to be sent from certain servers only. These are SPF records. I also have DKIM setup which signs the email which is a bit like SSL for email.

I also have a DMARC record in my DNS which says that If any email from my email address is received from a non authorised server or is not signed, then it needs to be rejected. You can also tell it to accept the email but mark it as spam if you like.

If the company has a REJECT setting but they have not added Mailchimp (for example) servers as an authorised sender of their emails then any receiving system is simply rejecting the emails.

Thanks, as you say it takes a bit of getting your head around, As my ISP is saying the missing emails aren't entering their system at all, and the senders are saying they are leaving their system, then could it be these settings at some interim server that is simply blocking the email, but not sending a notification, back to the sender.

The senders are telling me that they aren't receiving any bounce messages, but they aren't the direct senders, The missing mails are automated mailing lists or password verification programs. I would have still have thought the software would have passed on any errors to the company using them.