Configure Email Delivery - Update MX records

Once you have verified your domain and created users, you will be able to send emails from domain-based accounts. However, you will not be able to receive emails until you configure the MX records for your domain.

About MX Records

MX Entries are special DNS Server records that designate recipient email servers for your domain. MX Records are the resource entries in your domain’s DNS, which transmit email server information to other DNS Servers on the web, which then send emails to your domain. You can change the MX Records after creating all of the user accounts and email addresses in Zoho Mail.

Initially, it might be a good idea to set up a temporary catch-all email address to avoid missing any emails. Once you have verified the creation of every account, you can change the MX Records of your domain.

This page provides step-by-step instructions to add MX Records for certain domain providers. Select your domain provider from the list or follow the general instructions that provide the guidelines for changing the MX Records. If you are still unsure about the DNS settings, you should contact your DNS provider's support portal. Get in touch with them, furnish the MX Record details of Zoho (this page's URL) and ask them to update it for your domain on your behalf.

Configuring MX Records

One-click Verification:

In the one-click verification method, you can configure your domain's MX Records in few simple steps. In the Domain Verification step, if you have already done the One-click Verification, you can configure MX, SPF and DKIM records too by using this simple method.

Currently, one-click verification is available only for 1 & 1 and GoDaddy domain holders.

Manual Verification:

Follow these steps to change your domain's MX Records. The terminology used here is generalized and may vary according to your provider.

1. Log into the domain registrar's web portal where your domain's name server is pointed.
2. Launch the DNS Manager/ Domain Management Page/ DNS Control Panel for your account, which lists all the domains you have registered.
3. Locate the MX Records/ Email Servers/ Email Settings option (For help, consult the help pages of your provider or get support from the registrar).
4. Remove any existing entries that you might have.
5. Select the Add Record option.
6. Specify the value in Name/ Host field as either @ or leave it Blank.
7. Specify the first record's value as mx.zoho.com.
8. Set the priority to 10 or lower as supported by your registrar.
9. Follow the same steps to add another MX record for your domain.
10. To ensure correct email delivery to your domain, only the MX Records provided below should be listed.

    Host/ Domain	Address/ Mail Server/ MX Entries/ Value	Priority
    @/ Blank/ Domain name	mx.zoho.com.	10
    @/ Blank/ Domain name	mx2.zoho.com.	20
    @/ Blank/ Domain name	mx3.zoho.com.	50

    The MX values in the above table are based on the generic configuration information. For more specific configurations particular for your domain refer to the Tools & Configurations section in the Admin Console.

    Note:

    The dot(.) at the end of the MX record is optional. This depends on your DNS provider. We recommend you to go through your DNS provider's support documentation for the exact method to add the MX entries.

11. If the TTL is editable, provide the lowest possible value for the changes to take effect as soon as possible.
12. Select Save Zone File/ Save/ Add Records to save your changes.

Multiple MX Records - Why and How they work:

Multiple MX records do not deliver emails to multiple servers. Regardless of the number of records you've configured, emails are delivered to the MX record with the lowest priority as returned by your domain's DNS server. In case the lowest priority is offline or not accepting emails, only then the next server will be used.

Additional MX servers are either a redundancy for backing up MX Records, or for service administrators to make architecture and configuration changes.

Troubleshoot Email Delivery

Unable to receive emails even after changing MX Records:

You will start receiving emails only if the MX records are correctly configured. If you have added the MX records but are still unable to receive emails, check the following:

• Check your domain's MX records at Toolkit by Zoho Mail
• The MX records that should be returned should be:
  • 10 mx.zoho.com
  • 20 mx2.zoho.com
  • 50 mx3.zoho.com

Based on the data center (US/ UK/ CN), the MX record values will differ for your domain. The correct MX records specific to your domain will be available in the Tools & Configurations section in Admin Console. 

• If there are other MX entries with lower priority (ex: 0 or 5), emails will not be delivered to Zoho Mail.
• Ensure that you have deleted all other MX records related to your previous email provider.
• Ensure that you have turned off 'Local email delivery' in the web host and DNS host settings
• If your DNS provider does not allow you to specify server priorities, you need to make sure that mx.zoho.com is the record with a lower priority value, to receive emails without any errors.

Unable to receive specific emails:

If you are unable to receive specific emails, check whether the email server that sends emails, does not relay to Zoho Mail, or only to your domain account. In some cases, if you have set up local email delivery settings in your previous host, the emails sent from your previous email server will be delivered internally, and will not be delivered to your Zoho mail accounts.

When you switch from the previous email service provider, you need to update the Incoming and Outgoing Email server settings for email clients such as Outlook/ Thunderbird/ iPhone/ Android mobile devices, as per the recommended Zoho Server names and ports.

Unable to receive emails from website contact forms:

When you use 'Contact us' forms or 'Webforms' from a website, the Submit option is typically used to send emails. These emails are triggered from your Website Hosting Provider (Web Host). In most cases, the website's domain name matches the domain name in the email address they are sent from. Ex: www.yourdomain.com/contact.html page will submit the details to contact@yourdomain.com. 

In this case, the Web Host or email server which triggers an email wrongly assumes that the emails should be delivered locally because the domain name is the same. To fix this, open the WebHost settings and choose the Remote Email server option to denote that these emails should be delivered externally. You'll need to check for any Local Email Delivery configuration and switch off the WebHost's local setting. In case you need further support regarding this, contact your respective DNS provider. This will ensure that emails from webforms reach the Zoho Mail servers and are delivered to the correct email accounts.

Troubleshoot MX Record Addition

DNS Provider - Registrar conflict

When you register the domain with one provider, but point the Nameservers to another provider, then the MX Records added in your Domain Registrar is not considered valid. You might have changed the DNS Provider for hosting your website or for your previous email provider configuration or based on your choice.

The MX Records added in the provider where the Nameservers are pointed will only be effective and valid. Hence, do a 'NameServer' Lookup for your domain, to check where your domain is hosted. You may also check with your Domain Registrar or the technical contact for your domain on where the name servers are pointed to if you are not sure.

Longer TTL

TTL (Time To Live) is the time specified in your DNS for each change in your DNS to be effective. If you have a huge TTL value (24 hrs/ 48 hrs), then the MX Records might not be provided during the verification process. It might take up to 12 - 24 hours for DNS changes to take effect, based on the TTL set. Please check the TTL value and try verifying after a while.

Incorrect Values

The way the MX needs to be added often varies with different DNS Providers. Hence it is recommended to check the help pages or instruction manuals or reach out to the support team of your DNS provider, to add the respective MX Records.