{"id":1660,"date":"2020-06-07T22:47:23","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T14:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wesbytes.com\/guide\/?post_type=kb&#038;p=1660"},"modified":"2026-03-26T12:50:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T04:50:06","slug":"email-undeliverable-using-cloudflare","status":"publish","type":"kb","link":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/kb\/email-undeliverable-using-cloudflare","title":{"rendered":"Email Undeliverable When Using Cloudflare? The Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mkb-anchor mkb-clearfix mkb-back-to-top-inline\">\n<h2><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/4b\/Cloudflare_Logo.svg\/1200px-Cloudflare_Logo.svg.png\" alt=\"Email undeliverable when using Cloudflare\" width=\"1200\" height=\"397\" \/><\/h2>\n<h2>Why my email undeliverable when using Cloudflare?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/_eNO6rXC_G4\/maxresdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Email undeliverable when using Cloudflare\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"mkb-anchor__title\">Troubleshooting tips<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p>Consult with your mail administrator or mail provider to ensure you have valid DNS record content.<\/p>\n<p>If you are following the best practices for Cloudflare MX records and still have issues sending or receiving mail, follow these troubleshooting steps:<\/p>\n<div class=\"mkb-anchor mkb-clearfix mkb-back-to-top-inline\">\n<h3 class=\"mkb-anchor__title\">Are DNS records missing?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>Contact your mail administrator to confirm the DNS records for your domain are correct. Refer to our guide on managing DNS records in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudflare.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Cloudflare<\/a> if you need assistance to add or edit DNS records.<\/p>\n<p>Cloudflare support is unable to modify DNS records within your account.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mkb-anchor mkb-clearfix mkb-back-to-top-inline\">\n<h3 class=\"mkb-anchor__title\">Do not proxy mail-related DNS records to Cloudflare.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>If you have an\u00a0<em>MX record<\/em>\u00a0of \u201cmail.domain.com\u201d, then the\u00a0<em>A record<\/em>\u00a0for \u201cmail.domain.com\u201d must have a \u201cgrey-cloud\u201d icon next to the DNS\u00a0<em>A record<\/em>\u00a0as demonstrated in our support guide for managing DNS records in Cloudflare.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mkb-anchor mkb-clearfix mkb-back-to-top-inline\">\n<h3 class=\"mkb-anchor__title\">Contact your mail provider for assistance.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p>If your email does not work shortly after editing DNS records, contact your mail administrator or mail provider for further assistance in troubleshooting so that data about the issue can be provided to Cloudflare support.<\/p>\n<p>Best practices for MX records on Cloudflare<\/p>\n<p>Follow these guidelines to ensure successful delivery of your mail traffic:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cGrey-cloud\u201d your mail-related DNS records so mail traffic isn\u2019t proxied through\u00a0Cloudflare.<\/li>\n<li>Use separate IP addresses for mail traffic and HTTP\/HTTPS traffic. Cloudflare recommends using non-contiguous IPs from different IP ranges.<\/li>\n<li>Since mail traffic cannot be proxied through\u00a0Cloudflare by default, you will expose your origin web server\u2019s IP address. Information on your origin IP address would allow attackers to bypass Cloudflare security features and attack your web server directly.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t configure\u00a0<em>MX records<\/em>\u00a0for a root domain that is proxied through Cloudflare.<\/li>\n<li>Many hosting companies specify the root domain name in the content of the\u00a0<em>MX record<\/em>. When using Cloudflare\u2019s DNS, specify a subdomain such as \u201cmail.example.com\u201d in the content of the\u00a0<em>MX record<\/em>\u00a0and create a separate\u00a0<em>A record<\/em>\u00a0in Cloudflare for \u201cmail.example.com\u201d to point to the IP address of your mail server.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Having an\u00a0<em>MX record<\/em>\u00a0for a root domain proxied through Cloudflare will reveal your origin web server\u2019s IP address to potential attackers.<\/p>\n<p>Stay informed with more expert tips and resources by visiting our blog at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/\">https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why my email undeliverable when using Cloudflare? Troubleshooting tips Consult with your mail administrator or mail provider to ensure you have valid DNS record content. If you are following the best practices for Cloudflare MX records and still have issues sending or receiving mail, follow these troubleshooting steps: Are DNS records missing? Contact your mail administrator to confirm the DNS&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"kbtopic":[43],"kbtag":[1124,1394],"class_list":["post-1660","kb","type-kb","status-publish","hentry","kbtopic-cloudflare","kbtag-cloudflare","kbtag-email-undeliverable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/1660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1660"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/1660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4746,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/1660\/revisions\/4746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kbtopic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kbtopic?post=1660"},{"taxonomy":"kbtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kbtag?post=1660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}