Why Is My Business Email Not Receiving Messages?

Corporate email that stops receiving is usually one of five things: an MX record pointing nowhere, a full mailbox quota, a misconfigured spam filter, a server-side block, or a client sync problem. Work through them in order — the first match is almost always the fix.

Step 1: Confirm the MX record is correct

Every incoming message is routed by the MX record in your DNS. If it is missing, wrong, or propagating, mail silently bounces at the sender's side.

Check your MX record right now:

dig MX yourdomain.com

For a Rovela-hosted domain the answer should contain 10 mx.rovela.dev. If you see nothing, an old provider's hostname, or more than one v=spf1 line alongside the wrong MX, the problem is DNS. Log into your registrar, set the MX record to 10 mx.rovela.dev, and wait up to 48 hours for propagation — though most registrars apply changes in under an hour.

If you recently switched providers and the old MX is still there, delete it. Two competing MX records split traffic unpredictably.

Step 2: Check mailbox quota

When a mailbox is full, the server returns a 452 4.2.2 temporary error to senders. They may retry a few times, but eventually the message is lost. The sender may or may not receive a bounce notice.

In the Rovela dashboard: Mailboxes → select the mailbox → Storage. If the bar is at 100%, delete large attachments or old folders, or upgrade the storage limit on that mailbox.

Step 3: Check your spam and junk folder

Messages that pass delivery but fail sender reputation checks land in spam instead of the inbox. Check the junk folder in your mail client and in the Rovela webmail interface — clients and webmail maintain separate filter state.

If you find a legitimate message in spam, mark it as "not spam" from both places. That trains the filter.

If external senders are consistently hitting your spam folder, check that their domain has valid SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. A dmarc=fail on the sender side is grounds for automatic spam placement regardless of content.

Step 4: Look for server-side blocks

Some email is rejected before it even reaches the spam folder:

• Blocked senders: check Settings → Blocked addresses in the Rovela dashboard
• Domain-level block: your organisation may have added a domain to a denylist
• SPF/DMARC strict rejection: if your DMARC policy is p=reject and a legitimate internal forwarder breaks DKIM alignment, those messages are silently dropped

To tell a block from a delivery failure, ask the sender to check their delivery log. A 550 5.7.1 response means the server actively rejected the message; a 452 means it was deferred.

Step 5: Check your mail client sync settings

If the issue only affects one device and webmail shows the messages fine, the problem is the client, not the server.

Common causes:

• IMAP credentials: Rovela uses per-device credentials (mb_…), not your login password. If the credential was revoked or you entered the login password by mistake, the client silently stops syncing without always showing an error
• Port or SSL mismatch: incoming server mx.rovela.dev, port 993, SSL/TLS enabled — no STARTTLS, no plain port 143
• Sync interval set to manual: some mobile clients default to "fetch manually" on mobile data to save battery

Log out of the account in your mail client, generate a fresh per-device credential from Settings → Connected apps, and re-add the account using the settings from the /clients page.

Step 6: Verify external senders can reach you at all

Ask a sender on a different domain (Gmail, Outlook, another corporate provider) to send you a short test message. If they receive a delivery failure notice immediately, the error code tells you exactly what is wrong:

Code	Meaning
550 5.1.1	Mailbox does not exist — check the address for typos
550 5.7.1	Policy rejection — SPF/DMARC block or explicit sender block
452 4.2.2	Quota full — free up storage
421 or 450	Temporary server issue — message will retry automatically

If the test message arrives fine, the problem is specific to a particular sender or sending service, not your mailbox in general.

Summary

Start with dig MX — a missing or wrong record explains most "all mail stopped" situations. Then check quota, spam folder, client credentials. Only escalate to sender-side investigation after confirming the server accepted the test message.