There are numerous potential reasons why you might not be receiving emails in your LyteHosting free email (webmail). This article is structured into two sections and highlights some of the most common problems, including inactive or expired domains, full email storage quotas, misconfigured email client settings, and messages flagged as spam or junk.
SECTION 1: BASIC CHECKLIST
Have you recently signed up with LyteHosting? Are you a new customer planning to host your emails with us? If so, welcome aboard!
To begin using your email services, you need to first create an email account in your LyteHosting account. For detailed instructions, check out the following guide:
Once you've set up your email accounts, are you noticing that you can send emails but aren't receiving any responses or new emails? Perhaps your contacts have informed you that their emails to you aren’t being delivered and that they’re receiving bounceback messages instead?
If this sounds familiar, there are a few things you’ll need to verify. Let’s get started!
STEP 1: Verify Your Domain Status
To use LyteHosting webmail, you need a registered and active domain. Similar to websites, emails will only function if the associated domain is active. If your domain was registered with LyteHosting, you can check its status in the Domains section of your Customer Portal.
Alternatively, you can use third-party tools like ICANN Lookup to verify the status of your domain name. If your domain has expired, refer to this guide for renewal instructions:
STEP 2: Check Email Storage (Quota)
Each email account comes with a specific disk space quota, which is set when you create the account in cPanel. Depending on your needs, this quota can be set to either unlimited or a fixed size.
To determine if you've exceeded your quota:
- Send an email to the affected address from a different email provider (e.g., @gmail.com, @yahoo.com).
- Check if you receive an SMTP 550 ("fromemail" max messages per session) email bounceback. If so, you’ll need to adjust the email storage settings in your cPanel and try sending a test email again.
For more information on managing your email quota, check out this guide: How to Change the Email Quota in cPanel
STEP 3: Access Your LyteHosting Webmail
There are multiple ways to access and read your emails. To check if your email is missing, try testing by logging into your email client application (or webmail).
Next, use a generic email address (e.g., @gmail.com, @yahoo.com) to send a test email to the affected address. Then, check your Inbox.
- If you receive the email in your webmail but not in your email client application, you should verify that your email settings are configured correctly in your hosting account.
- Check Your Junk Folder: If your emails are received but categorized as spam and stored in your Junk folder, you can fix this issue by reading the instructions in this guide: Understanding Spam Emails and How to Safeguard Your Inbox
- Check Your Trash or Custom Folders: If your legitimate emails are being sent directly to the Trash folder, verify if email filters (such as SpamAssassin, BoxTrapper, or User/Account-Level Filtering) are in place and adjust them as needed, or remove them if not required.
SECTION 2: ADVANCED CHECKLIST
Are you still unable to receive emails after completing Section 1: Basic Checklist? Here are some additional tips to help you pinpoint the issue and guide you on how to resolve it.
STEP 1: Verify the MX Records
Email accounts need to be properly connected to the domain for them to work. The MX records act as the "bridge" linking the two. If your domain is confirmed to be active, check its MX records to ensure it’s correctly connected to your preferred host. You can use online tools like LeafDNS or WhatsmyDNS for this check.
If you're using LyteHosting webmail, your MX records should appear as follows:
mail.yourdomain.com
(Replace "yourdomain.com" with your actual domain name.)
If you're using a professional email service with us, such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, their MX records may appear slightly different. Be sure to confirm that they are set up correctly.
STEP 2: Check Email Routing
Email routing, or the email delivery method, is configured in your cPanel. If another provider hosts your emails, you may need to change your email routing to Remote.
If you want LyteHosting to manage your emails, set it to Local. For more details, refer to the Understanding Local, Backup, and Remote Mail Exchanger article.
STEP 3: Check for Email Bounceback
Bounceback messages can provide valuable information about why your emails aren’t working. If someone tells you they’re unable to send emails to your address, ask them for the bounceback message they received. This will help us better understand the issue and start troubleshooting. For more details, check out this helpful article:
Customers using Microsoft-related email services (such as Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, MSN.com, and Live.com) may experience issues receiving emails from LyteHosting.com addresses while still receiving messages from other sources.
