If you can send email but cannot receive email, the problem could be caused by a number of things, including email quota, DNS or your email client settings. If your cPanel has exceeded its disk quota, this can also prevent you from receiving email.
Email Account Over Quota
The most common cause of incoming emails not being received is when an email account exceeds quota, which is the amount of disk space allotted to a particular email address for email storage. The quota was set when you created or modified the email account in cPanel and can be set to unlimited or a fixed number of MB. If you have exceeded the current quota, you will need to increase the amount of disk space for that email account to receive mail again. Alternately, you can delete email in your email account until you are below the email quota.
Check Quota
You can test out if your email account mailbox is full by:
- Sending an email to the email account in question. If the mailbox is full, you will receive a bounceback message stating that the disk space has been exceeded.
OR - Checking the email quota by clicking on the Email Accounts icon in cPanel. Check to make sure the Usage is not higher than the Quota for the account in question.
Change your Quota
To change your email quota:
- Log into cPanel.
- Go to the Mail section and click on the Email Accounts icon.
- Next to the email address in question, click Change Quota. From here you will be able to change the Email Account's Quota to whatever you wish.
- Click Change Quota to confirm your change.
cPanel Account Over Quota
Another possible cause of not receiving emails is that the entire cPanel is over its allotted disk quota. If this is the case, you will need to increase your disk quota to receive mail again.
Check Disk Space
You can check your available disk space in cPanel. In the left-side Stats panel, look forDisk Space Usage. If the cPanel disk space is maxed out or exceeded, you will need to raise the disk space quota on the cPanel's package by changing the package n WHM or by creating a new package and assigning it to the cPanel.
Edit the Disk Space Quota on a Package
- Log into WHM.
- In the left-side panel, go to the Packages section.
- Click Edit a Package.
- Select the package by name.
- Click Modify.
- Make the proper changes to the Resource Quota (such as Disk Space).
- Click Save Changes.
DNS Causes
There are some common issues involving DNS that could be the reason why you're not receiving incoming emails.
Propagation
Have you recently updated nameservers, MX or A records? If so, you may be experiencing the effect of propagation. Keep in mind that changing these records is the digital equivalent of changing split rails on a railroad; during the propagation period, all emails are not always going down the correct "rail" to the new DNS records since the server has not updated properly to show the new records. Once the propagation period has elapsed, everything should work properly.
Incorrect DNS
If your DNS records are incorrect, then your mail will not function properly. Having your MX or A record for your mail.example record will drastically affect how your mail functions. Also, if you have recently removed CNAMES, ensure that they have proper replacements and that the destination is setup properly.
Mail Server Setting
Please ensure that your mail settings are correctly set to either local or remote. If you are using the local server based DNS, then you will need to have your mail server set aslocal. If you are outsourcing your mail through remote MX records or have mail directed to another server through A records, then you will need to make sure that you have the server setting to remote.
Client Settings
If you are using a third party mail client, make sure that the incoming mail server settings and ports are correct. If these settings are incorrect, you will still be able to receive your mail via webmail, however you will need to correct the account settings in your mail client so that you may begin to receive your mail again.
If using a third party mail client, try closing out the program and reopening it as it is possible that the mail client might be malfunctioning or has not saved your settings.
