Email Problems: Sending, Receiving & Spam

Email issues fall into three buckets: mail that won't send, mail you never receive, and mail that lands in the spam folder. Find your symptom below and work through the checks. Most problems come down to a wrong server setting, a full mailbox, or missing authentication records.

Correct Mail Server Settings

Before troubleshooting, confirm your email client uses the right settings. Your mail server is mail.yourdomain.com (replace with your own domain):

IMAP — port 993, SSL/TLS
POP3 — port 995, SSL/TLS
SMTP (outgoing) — port 465 with SSL, or port 587 with STARTTLS

Can't Send Email

If outgoing mail bounces, sits in your outbox, or times out, work through these:

Turn on SMTP authentication. Your outgoing server requires a login. In your email client, enable "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication" and use the same username and password as your incoming mail.
Use the correct outgoing port. Set SMTP to port 465 (SSL) or 587 (STARTTLS). Some networks block the older port 25.
Confirm the outgoing server name is mail.yourdomain.com, not your ISP's server.
Check your mailbox isn't over quota. A full mailbox can stop sending as well as receiving — see the receiving section below.

Tip If webmail can send but your desktop or phone client can't, the problem is in that client's settings — not the server. Re-check the SMTP port and authentication first.

Not Receiving Email

If messages sent to you never arrive, check these in order:

Verify your MX records. Your domain's MX records must point to your hosting mail server. If you recently changed DNS or nameservers, mail may still be routing to an old host — check with whatsmydns.net using the MX record type.
Check the mailbox isn't full. In cPanel > Email Accounts, review the usage bar for the mailbox. A full mailbox rejects new mail. See Email Quotas to raise the limit or clear space.
Look in Spam / Junk. Legitimate mail sometimes gets filtered. Check the Spam folder in webmail.
Review your email filters. A filter rule may be silently moving or deleting messages. Check Email Filters in cPanel for rules that catch the missing mail.

Email Landing in Spam

If your outgoing mail reaches recipients but lands in their spam folder, the issue is deliverability — how much other mail servers trust your domain.

Set up SPF and DKIM. These DNS records prove your mail is genuinely from your domain and are the single biggest deliverability win. See DKIM & SPF Records to enable both.
Avoid spammy content. All-caps subject lines, lots of links, large attachments, and "spam trigger" words hurt your score.
Check blacklists. If your domain or IP is on a blacklist, mail gets filtered. Look up your domain on a blacklist checker and request delisting if needed.
Warm up new domains. A brand-new domain has no sending reputation. Start with modest volumes and build up gradually so providers learn to trust it.

Note SPF and DKIM are DNS records, so changes to them are subject to propagation. Allow time for updates to take effect — see DNS Propagation.

Still Having Trouble?

If you have worked through the relevant section and email still isn't behaving, open a support ticket. Tell us the affected email address, whether it is a sending, receiving, or spam issue, and the exact error message or bounce text so we can investigate.