Once you’ve verified your domain and created users, you’ll be able to send email from domain-based accounts. however, you will not be able to receive emails until you set up mx records for your domain. this help guide will help you understand the role mx records play in your email operations and walk you through the setup process.
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 information from the email server to other DNS servers on the web, which then send emails to your domain. you can change mx records after creating all user accounts and email addresses in zoho mail.
Initially, it might be a good idea to set up a temporary email address to avoid missing any emails. once you have verified the creation of each account, you can change the mx records for your domain.
This page provides step-by-step instructions for adding mx records for certain domain providers. Select your domain provider from the list or follow the general instructions provided by the guidelines for changing MX records. If you are still unsure about your DNS settings, you should contact your DNS provider’s support portal. contact them, provide the zoho mx record details (the url of this page) and ask them to update it for your domain on your behalf.
configure mx records
one-click verification:
In the one-click verification method, you can set up your domain’s mx records in a few simple steps. In the domain verification step, if you already did the one-click verification, you can also set the mx, spf, and dkim records using this simple method.
Currently, one-click verification is only available for 1 & 1 and godaddy domain holders.
manual verification:
Follow these steps to change the mx records for your domain. the terminology used here is generalized and may vary depending on your provider.
- Log in to the domain registrar web portal pointed to by your domain’s nameserver.
- Start the dns manager/ domain management page / dns control panel of your account, which lists all the domains you have registered.
- locate the mx records/ email servers/ option email settings (for help, see your provider’s help pages or get support from your registrar).
- remove any existing entries you may have.
- select the add record option.
- specify the value in the name field / host as @ or leave blank.
- specify the value of the first record as mx.zoho.com.
- set the priority and n 10 or less as supported by your registrar.
- follow the same steps to add another mx record for your domain.
- for ensu to fix 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
multiple mx records: why and how they work:
multiple mx records does not deliver emails to multiple servers. Regardless of the number of records you have configured, emails are sent to the MX record with the lowest priority as returned by your domain’s DNS server. in case the lowest priority is disconnected or not accepting emails, only then the next server will be used.
Additional mx servers are redundant for backing up mx records or for service administrators to make architecture and configuration changes.
troubleshoot email delivery
cannot receive emails even after changing mx records:
will start receiving emails only if the mx records are set up correctly. If you added the mx records but still can’t receive emails, please check the following:
- verify the mx records for your domain in zoho mail toolkit
- the mx records to be returned should be:
- 10 mx.zoho.com
- 20 mx2.zoho.com
- 50 mx3.zoho.com
Depending on the data center (US/UK/CN), the mx record values will be different for your domain. the correct mx records specific to your domain will be available in this section in the control panel.
- if there are other mx entries with lower priority (eg 0 or 5), emails will not be sent to zoho mail.
- make sure you have deleted all other related mx records with your old email provider.
- make sure you have disabled ‘local email delivery’ in your web server and dns server settings
- if your dns provider doesn’t allows you to specify server priorities, you need to make sure that mx.zoho.com is the record with the lowest priority value to receive emails without errors.
cannot receive specific emails:
If you are unable to receive specific emails, please check if the email server sending the emails is not relayed to zoho mail or only to your domain account. In some cases, if you configured local email delivery settings on your old host, emails sent from your old email server will be delivered internally and not delivered to your email accounts. zoho.
When you switch from your 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, depending on the server names and ports of zoho recommended.
cannot receive emails from website contact forms:
When you use “contact” forms or “web forms” from a website, the send option is typically used to send emails. these emails are triggered from your website’s hosting provider (web host). in most cases, the domain name of the website matches the domain name in the email address they are sent from. eg: the page www.yourdomain.com/contact.html will send the details to contact@yourdomain.com.
In this case, the web host or email server triggering an email mistakenly assumes that the emails must be delivered locally because the domain name is the same. To fix this, open the web server settings and choose the remote email server option to indicate that these emails should be sent externally. you’ll need to check any local email delivery settings and disable local web server settings. In case you need further help regarding this, please contact your respective DNS provider. this will ensure that emails from web forms reach zoho’s mail servers and are sent to the correct email accounts.
troubleshoot adding mx records
dns provider: registrar conflict
When you register the domain with one provider, but point the nameservers to another provider, the mx records added at your domain registrar are not considered valid. You may have changed the dns provider to host your website or to your email provider’s previous settings or to your choice.
mx records added at the provider where nameservers point to will only be effective and valid. so do a ‘name server’ search for your domain, to check where your domain is hosted. You can also check with your domain registrar or your domain’s technical contact where the nameservers point to if you’re 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 (24h/48h), mx records may not be provided during the verification process. DNS changes can take 12-24 hours to take effect, depending on the ttl set. check the ttl value and try to check after some time.
incorrect values
how the mx should be added often varies with different dns providers. therefore, it is recommended to consult the help pages or instruction manuals or contact the support team of your dns provider to add the respective mx records.