Some e-mails never arrive my inbox

[user52911]

Hi there,

I added a new website to Cloudflare. For some unknown reasons only some e-mails do not arrive in my inboxes any more.

I have 2 inboxes for my domain and 2 external mail addresses for testing purposes at a public mail provider (let’s say GMail).

Now I send 2 mails from GMail account A to both inboxes (A and B) at my domain. Only one mail arrives in inbox B. The mail that was sent to inbox A disappears (although it is in the sent folder of my GMail account it never arrives in inbox A (neither in spam or somewhere else).

When I send 2 mails from GMail account B both mails arrive securely in inbox A and B.

What happens to the mail from GMail acount A that was sent to inbox A?

I switched every setting in Cloudflare on and off to check if some configuration is messing up something - but no effect.

Any ideas? I’m lost. Can’t explain the selective dropping of some mails/mail addresses. But in fact there are far less e-mails coming in to my inbox so it must concern more mails/mail addresses than only my few test mails.

[DarkDeviL]

Are you using Email Routing on Cloudflare for this?

If so, what exactly do you see under the “Activity Log” on this page?

→ https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/:zone/email/routing/overview

Each entry there should be able to be expanded, to see extended error information.

@user52911

The mail that was sent to inbox A disappears (although it is in the sent folder of my GMail account it never arrives in inbox A (neither in spam or somewhere else).

@user52911

What happens to the mail from GMail acount A that was sent to inbox A?

Did I understand these two well?

You are sending from “Gmail A”, and you expect the email is supposed to be received also on “Gmail A”, but never reach the inbox of "Gmail A"?

If so, this is the result of using Gmail, and their deduplication of messages.

If two different Gmail addresses behave different for you regarding that, that would be something you would need to take up with Google Support.

@user52911

Any ideas? I’m lost. Can’t explain the selective dropping of some mails

I’d like to also refer you to this one:

Email forwarding questions

Whether you call it Email Routing, or as with your words, “forwarding”, it would technically be referring to the exact same thing. Stuff like e.g. the massive spam, phishing and malware distribution going on out there., has provided us with the result that more and more providers have become strict in regards to what they (want) receive, but unfortunately haven’t been much clear to their users about it. Forwarding/(re)routing looks as a result, especially of that, to be a thing of the past. I…

[user52911]

Hi DardDeviL,

Thanks for your response. No, I don’t use Email Routing. I just set up normal mail DNS settings (i.e. MX entries).

And the problem is not with my Gmail account. I’m only sending FROM my Gmail account (but other accounts are also effected - and some not).

When I send an e-mail from Gmail account A to my two domain accounts only one e-mail will arrive. When I send from my second Gmail account both e-mails will arrive. But some e-mails from some other external accounts won’t arrive either. So the problem shouldn’t be with Gmail (i.e. the sending site) but with Cloudflare (i.e. the receiving site, somehow selecting/dropping some sender addresses - but why, where and how?).

[DarkDeviL]

@user52911

No, I don’t use Email Routing. I just set up normal mail DNS settings (i.e. MX entries).

In that case, I believe you’re digging in to the situation at the wrong place?

Cloudflare only has the Email Routing, and nothing else that Cloudflare does will in any way interfere with your (or anyone else’s) mail traffic.

This category would be related to stuff regarding that specific Email Routing functionality, the one from Cloudflare, and not from any other provider.

@user52911

When I send an e-mail from Gmail account A to my two domain accounts only one e-mail will arrive.

As for the domain, i.e. the one of them that doesn’t work, you’re looking to contact the final destination that is handling mail for that domain.

@user52911

So the problem shouldn’t be with Gmail (i.e. the sending site) but with Cloudflare (i.e. the receiving site, somehow selecting/dropping some sender addresses - but why, where and how?).

This one sounds a bit odd though?

You indicated that you are not using Cloudflare Email Routing?

As such, Cloudflare cannot be “the receiving site”, as you mention.

So where and how exactly does Cloudflare come in to the picture?

[user52911]

My guess is based on the fact that Cloudflare is the DNS name server. Before I switched to Cloudflare I received all mails without problems. Now with Cloudflare (in between the sender and me) some mails disappear. My conclusion was that Cloudflare gets the requests where to send the mails to and apparently answers in different ways. Some requests get the right IP so send the mail to and others don’t.
And even if this assumption is wrong, what could be the reason why some of the mails disappear ever since I moved to Cloudflare.

[DarkDeviL]

@user52911

My guess is based on the fact that Cloudflare is the DNS name server.

Cloudflare as a DNS provider alone won’t make Cloudflare become the actual problem.

Your DNS settings could however be the problem, such as for example if you have personally misconfigured the DNS (e.g. by mistake, a typo, … et cetera), but in a such case, the blame cannot be put on Cloudflare.

@user52911

Before I switched to Cloudflare I received all mails without problems. Now with Cloudflare (in between the sender and me) some mails disappear.

So you did move your DNS from somewhere else, and to Cloudflare, … like (very) recently?

@user52911

what could be the reason why some of the mails disappear ever since I moved to Cloudflare.

There are a lot of potential reasons why it wouldn’t be working.

Can you share the “problematic” domain name?

And possibly also the working domain name?

[user52911]

I double checked the settings of my inbox server. It turned out that there was a spam filter actived that was silently dropping all “spam” mails. After deactivating the filter all mails receive the inbox again (including real spam). So maybe it was only coincidence that the filter started classifying my personal mail address as spam at the same time I turned to Cloudflare. Nevertheless, now all works as expected again! Thanks for your responses!