Email delivery and forwarding troubleshooting

“My email did not arrive” can describe two different systems. Before changing DNS or sending again, determine whether the problem affects incoming forwarding or outbound delivery.

Start with the final inbox. Search for the sender, subject, or a unique phrase. Check Spam, All Mail, Trash, category tabs, filters, and blocked addresses. Sometimes the message arrived but was not shown in the primary inbox.

Next, ask whether the sender received a bounce. The SMTP response in a bounce can show whether delivery failed, was rejected, or was delayed.

Then check the custom-domain path:

1. Confirm that the sender used the correct custom-domain address.
2. Confirm that the domain's MX records point to MailLogic.
3. Confirm that the address exists in MailLogic and forwards to the intended destination.
4. On a paid plan, check MailLogic Log for the message and its forwarding result.

If MailLogic never received the message, the likely problem is earlier in the path: the sender, address, or MX records. If MailLogic forwarded it, focus on the destination provider and final placement.

MailLogic includes a forwarding test in the dashboard. Open Accounts, find the address, open its three-dot Action menu, and select Test forwarding.

If you send a manual test, use an account other than the inbox that will receive the forwarded copy. Gmail can hide a self-addressed forwarded message as a duplicate, which makes that test inconclusive.

For MX and SRS details, see the custom-domain email forwarding guide.

Outbound sending has more than one stage. MailLogic first accepts and submits the message. The destination mail server then reports whether it accepted the recipient, temporarily deferred the attempt, or permanently rejected it.

• Submitted: MailLogic accepted the message for outbound processing.
• Accepted by destination or Sent: the destination mail server accepted the message.
• Deferred: the destination temporarily refused the attempt and the mail server is retrying.
• Pending: no conclusive destination result is available yet.
• Bounced: the destination returned a permanent rejection.
• Failed: submission or delivery failed, or the retry period expired.
• Unknown: MailLogic could not confirm whether submission succeeded.
• Suppressed: MailLogic skipped the recipient because of qualifying earlier failures.

On paid plans, Log shows forwarding and SMTP activity with searchable filters, detailed responses, dates, and CSV download. Batch Send also summarizes recipient-level outcomes with the batch.

“Accepted by destination” is the strongest result an SMTP sender normally receives, but it is not proof that the message appeared in the inbox. The receiving provider can still place it in Spam, apply a filter, or classify it after acceptance.

A new domain usually has little or no sending history. Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and other providers may treat it cautiously even when SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pass.

The same can happen when a domain's sending behavior changes suddenly. Correct authentication is the baseline; reputation develops from sending history, recipient response, and consistent practices over time.

Repeatedly sending to an address that cannot receive mail wastes capacity and can damage delivery reputation. MailLogic keeps a workspace-wide suppression list for qualifying delivery failures from MailLogic-managed sends.

A clear permanent recipient failure, such as an address that does not exist, can suppress the recipient immediately. Other ambiguous or soft final failures require failures from two separate messages. A temporary deferral does not count as a suppression failure.

MailLogic does not suppress an address merely because of a policy rejection, content rejection, authentication problem, connection problem, or local submission error. A later successful delivery clears non-permanent failure history; a clear hard-bounce suppression remains until someone deliberately restores the address.

When an address is suppressed:

• Batch Send skips it without using a credit.
• Send API removes it from the sendable recipient set; a mixed request can continue for other recipients.
• Dashboard Send Email warns you and requires explicit confirmation to override the protection.
• MailLogic Replies blocks a response to the suppressed recipient.

The Suppressed recipients table in Log shows the address, reason, and last failure. Restore an address only after confirming that it is valid and ready to accept mail again.

Automatic suppression currently covers dashboard Send Email, Send API, Batch Send, and MailLogic Replies. Messages submitted directly by an external client through authenticated SMTP can appear in the Log view, but those direct SMTP submissions do not currently create automatic recipient-suppression state.

A few precise details make a delivery investigation much faster:

• The sending and receiving addresses.
• The approximate date and time, including the time zone.
• Whether the message was incoming or sent through MailLogic.
• The MailLogic status and any visible SMTP or bounce response.
• Whether the destination inbox was searched, including Spam and filtered folders.

Avoid resending many copies while investigating. Repeated attempts can add noise without identifying which stage failed.