I’m Not Receiving Emails

You sent a test email and nothing arrived. A client says they emailed you but you have no trace of it. These situations are frustrating — but the cause is almost always one of a small set of things, and each has a clear fix.

Work through the steps below in order. Most people find their answer in the first two.

Step 1: Check your domain DNS status

This is the most common reason email stops arriving. If your MX records are not pointing to TrekMail, incoming mail has nowhere to go.

1. Go to Domains in the TrekMail dashboard
2. Click on the domain you are testing
3. Look at the status indicators — you want MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to show green

If any are red or amber:

• Click Verify DNS to trigger an immediate recheck
• Click View Conflicts — this shows what TrekMail found versus what it expected
• Fix the DNS records at your registrar, wait 5–15 minutes, and verify again

The most common DNS mistake: Old MX records from a previous email provider (Google Workspace, cPanel, Office 365) are still present alongside the TrekMail MX record. Your registrar should have only TrekMail's MX records, nothing else. To confirm from outside TrekMail, check your domain at mxtoolbox.com.

Step 2: Check that the mailbox exists and is active

Email sent to an address that does not exist in TrekMail bounces back to the sender. If the mailbox exists but is paused, mail is also rejected.

1. Go to Mailboxes and search for the address you are testing
2. Confirm the mailbox shows as Active (not Paused or Deleted)
3. If paused, open mailbox settings and resume it
4. If deleted, re-create it — previous emails are not recoverable

Step 3: Check the Junk folder

Spam filters sometimes catch legitimate email, especially from new senders or senders without proper authentication.

1. Log in to TrekMail webmail for the affected mailbox
2. Open the Junk folder in the left sidebar
3. If you find the missing message, click Not Spam to restore it and teach the filter

Step 4: Check your storage quota

If a mailbox is completely full, incoming messages are rejected with a "mailbox full" bounce. The sender gets notified but the email never arrives.

1. Go to Mailboxes and open the affected mailbox
2. Look at the Storage indicator
3. If it is at or near 100%, delete old emails or attachments, then ask the sender to resend

Storage limits by plan: Nano = 5 GB, Starter = 15 GB, Pro = 50 GB, Agency = 200 GB (pooled).

Step 5: Check if a catch-all is needed

If you are testing with an address that does not exist as a mailbox — for example, test@yourdomain.com when you only have hello@yourdomain.com — the email bounces unless a catch-all is configured.

1. Go to Domains → your domain → Settings
2. If Catch-all is disabled and you want to receive mail at any address, enable it and pick a destination mailbox

Step 6: Check forwarding rules and filters

If emails are arriving but vanishing before you see them, a forwarding rule or mail filter may be moving or discarding them.

1. Go to Mailboxes → your mailbox → Settings → Forwarding and check for active forwarding rules
2. Check Mail Filters for any filter with a "Discard silently" or "Move to folder" action

Step 7: Ask the sender for the bounce message

If a sender reports a bounce, ask them to forward the full bounce text. It states exactly why delivery failed — "550 User not found," "552 Mailbox full," "421 Service unavailable" — and the specific error tells you the right fix.

Frequently asked questions

I just added my domain — how long until email starts arriving? MX record changes typically propagate in 5–60 minutes but can take up to 48 hours in rare cases. If it has been more than 48 hours after setting up correct MX records, contact support.

Email arrives at my old provider but not TrekMail — is there a conflict? Yes. If your domain's MX records still point to the old provider alongside TrekMail, most email will go to the higher-priority server. Remove the old MX records so only TrekMail's appear.

Is there a way to see delivery logs? The domain stats page shows aggregate bounce and delivery counts. For individual message-level records, contact TrekMail support.