Cannot send emails to hotmail accounts

[andyjacks]

We have a dedicated server and we cannot send emails to hotmail.com users



Lets say our domain name is example.com



PROBLEM EXPLANATION
- If a Hotmail user sends email to [email protected], the email is received without any problems
- If [email protected] replies to any email received from any Hotmail account, the email is received without any problems
- If [email protected] creates a new email to send to any Hotmail account, the email never gets delivered (we have checked the “Other” and “Junk” folders etc), UNLESS the recipient has [email protected] in their outlook contacts.
- [email protected] never receives a Mail Delivery Error.
- And even worse, from Web Host Manager (Mail Delivery Reports) the result shows as Accepted and the event as success so we don’t know that our email never reached the destination



WHAT WE HAVE TRIED SO FAR

- We have a valid, correct dkim and spf record. Checked with multiple tools

- We have checked outlook settings from where we send emails from [email protected] to any hotmail account and these are correct, using SSL and authenticating before sending email

- We have tried sending to the same Hotmail accounts from different domain names not on our dedicated server, and they go through ok
- We have tried sending from different domains to different Hotmail accounts and the problem is still there
- We have registered our IP with Microsoft’s JMRP and SNDS. Our IP is not listed as blocked

- We have a sender score of 99
- Our sending volume from our dedicated server is very low
- Our IP is not blocked in any major blacklist
- There is no spam on the server, and the mailserver works fine- We have opened tickets with microsoft and their reply "We have re-investigated i do not see anything offhand with the IP's (......) and we do not find any Outlook.com deliverability issue with it. As per our research, this IP is currently not under any active block lists from our end."

- Removed -

 

[Eminds]

Have a look at /var/log/exim_mainlog while sending a new email to hotmail and it should give you an idea of whats happening .

 

[andyjacks]

no apparent problems here

- Removed -

Please remove all personally identifiable details. Emails, IPs usernames etc.
Guide To Opening An Effective Forums Thread

 

[linux4me2]

You have probably already checked this, but I don't see it specifically mentioned. A few years back, I read something about Yahoo and Hotmail silently rejecting email that wasn't DMARC-compliant. You might verify that your sent emails are DMARC-compliant by insuring that the "from" email address that your problem email clients are set to use is an email address or forwarder on the same domain as the sender. The "from" may even need to be the same as the sender, but I'm not sure. If you want replies to go to a different email address, you can use the "reply-to" header, I think.

 

[cPWilliamL]

Hi @andyjacks,

From reading your initial reply, it sounds 100% on outlook's side. If you do have valid SPF/DKIM and the message is shown as delivered in the logs, yet not found in the recipient inbox, it would seem outlook is filtering; especially considering the details outlined in your 'problem explanation'. I'm surprised that even with your enrolling in JMRP and SNDS you are still facing this issue. I would continue to push the issue with Microsoft support and provide logs showing that outlook servers accepted the message.

@lottware, I'd recommend following anyjacks and enrolling in Microsoft's JMRP/SNDS, as in my experience, this typically eased delivery where Microsoft was previously filtering.

 

[ncpowerbrute]

Even if you have a passing SPF, DMARC ,DKIM, a clean IP with the correct rdns set it is likely your email will go to the spam folder when sending to gmail, outlook.com or hotmail.com. I have fought this problem for almost two years now with tweaking settings in the DNS and Email server configs and it hasn't improved. Often you will think your sever has passed all of the tests only to find the Cpanel DKIM key can't confirm the senders identity by receiving email servers despite the fact the receiving servers sees that you have DKIM configured. I too enrolled in Microsoft's and Google's spam programs and it hasn't really done anything other than send my postmaster account additional emails. In all of the forum posts I haven't seen a clean answer to resolve this problem.

 

[amstel]

I am in the same position like OP and ncpowerbrute.
Does cPanel team can offer any solution to the problem ?

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello,

Microsoft documents the following on their email troubleshooting page:

If your email complies with our policies and guidelines and you are still experiencing email delivery problems that are not addressed in the FAQ below, click here to contact support

I recommend reaching out to their support team directly to see if they can provide more information about why the emails are blocked.

Thank you.

 

[amstel]

I recommend reaching out to their support team directly to see if they can provide more information about why the emails are blocked.Thank you.

Hi Michael,

I contacted the Microsoft Deliverability Support Team and they admitted that they filter my emails to the folder Junk but did not tell me why SmartScreen Filter does not like them:
I joined their SNDS and JMRP programme but it seems useless, no data or emails so far.

My name is xxx and I work with the Outlook.com Deliverability Support Team.

We have reviewed your IP(s)

(xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy)

and determined that messages are being filtered (i.e. sent to the Junk folder) based on the recommendations of the SmartScreen® Filter.

Email filtering is based on many factors, but primarily it's due to mail content and recipient interaction with that mail. Because of the proprietary nature of SmartScreen® and because SmartScreen® Filter technology is always adapting and learning more about what is and isn't unwanted mail, it is not possible for us to offer specific advice about improving your mail content. However, in general SmartScreen® Filter evaluates specific words or characteristics from each e-mail message and weights them, based on their likelihood to indicate that a message is unwanted or legitimate mail.

Unfortunately, after reviewing the information you provided and in compliance with our mail policies, we are unable to offer immediate mitigation for your deliverability issue. However, we have some specific recommendations for you to consider that can help you to improve deliverability over time.

Here are some specific recommendations for you to consider:

Brand your mail
Ensure mails are cleanly formatted and clearly identifiable as originating from your service.

Follow content and formatting best practices
There are numerous Internet resources which offer advice and best practices, we recommend you refer to these resources for assistance creating well formatted and more deliverable email.


Highlight Opt In
Clearly mark your emails so that Windows Live Outlook.com customers are able to identify that they requested or subscribed to emails from your service.

Ensure your email lists are up to date
Remove those who do not want to receive the emails and consider making the unsubscribe process more visible to ensure you are only delivering mail to interested recipients.


Join the Junk Mail Reporting Program (JMRP)
We believe that your recipients are the best indicator that the email you are sending is wanted. The JMRP program allows you to see which of your emails Outlook.com users have marked as junk or unwanted mail. Reviewing the results in JMRP will provide to the most direct information on what characteristics of your email, customers, and ultimately SmartScreen®, consider to be unwanted. This helpful feedback mechanism allows you to ensure that mails being sent from your IP are not resulting in negative feedback that could impact your sending reputation. Being vigilant about users who mark your e-mail as unwanted or the types of messages that are being marked as unwanted can help you keep mailing lists updated with only interested users and modify future campaigns. In addition, monitoring user complaints can help you identify unintended mail traffic or detect a potentially compromised account sending unwanted mail to your customers. Enroll at Sign in to your Microsoft account.


Join the Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS)
The SNDS program provides data about traffic seen originating from your registered IP, such as mail volume and complaint rates. The data is built from the log files of the inbound mail machines and other servers at Outlook.com and Microsoft and represents factual information about the traffic from your mail servers to Outlook.com users. For more information about this free program refer to SNDS - FAQ. To register, please go to Smart Network Data Services. (Tip: As part of the enrollment process, you are asked to sign the JMRP program agreement and then send a response to Support indicating that it has been signed. It's not uncommon for that step in the enrollment process to be missed.)

We encourage you to take an active role in managing your email practices and infrastructure. The SmartScreen® filter is not static and it is possible to improve deliverability over time. Implementing and maintaining email best practices such as those described above can help.

We also encourage you to download and apply the industry best practices found in our Outlook.com Enhanced Deliverability white paper.

 

[cPanelMichael]

I joined their SNDS and JMRP programme but it seems useless, no data or emails so far.

You may want to give it some more time to see you start seeing notices from their JMRP program about which specific emails are marked as SPAM or Junk.

Outside of that, one solution you may want to consider is to obtain an additional IP address from your provider and configure it as the new default IP address used for sending email:

How to Configure the Exim Outgoing IP Address - cPanel Knowledge Base - cPanel Documentation

Thank you.

 

[thenocgroup]

We have a dedicated server and we cannot send emails to hotmail.com users



Lets say our domain name is example.com



PROBLEM EXPLANATION
- If a Hotmail user sends email to [email protected], the email is received without any problems
- If [email protected] replies to any email received from any Hotmail account, the email is received without any problems
- If [email protected] creates a new email to send to any Hotmail account, the email never gets delivered (we have checked the “Other” and “Junk” folders etc), UNLESS the recipient has [email protected] in their outlook contacts.
- [email protected] never receives a Mail Delivery Error.
- And even worse, from Web Host Manager (Mail Delivery Reports) the result shows as Accepted and the event as success so we don’t know that our email never reached the destination



WHAT WE HAVE TRIED SO FAR

- We have a valid, correct dkim and spf record. Checked with multiple tools

- We have checked outlook settings from where we send emails from [email protected] to any hotmail account and these are correct, using SSL and authenticating before sending email

- We have tried sending to the same Hotmail accounts from different domain names not on our dedicated server, and they go through ok
- We have tried sending from different domains to different Hotmail accounts and the problem is still there
- We have registered our IP with Microsoft’s JMRP and SNDS. Our IP is not listed as blocked

- We have a sender score of 99
- Our sending volume from our dedicated server is very low
- Our IP is not blocked in any major blacklist
- There is no spam on the server, and the mailserver works fine- We have opened tickets with microsoft and their reply "We have re-investigated i do not see anything offhand with the IP's (......) and we do not find any Outlook.com deliverability issue with it. As per our research, this IP is currently not under any active block lists from our end."

- Removed -

I have the same problem with my VPS from from the beginning a couple of years ago, and I cant solve it yet!!
did you solve it? please tell me how!
thank you so much!

 

[ZenHostingTravis]

I have the same problem with my VPS from from the beginning a couple of years ago, and I cant solve it yet!!
did you solve it? please tell me how!

If you're not having any luck getting the IP address delisted, you could use another IP address to relay email from.

You would have to create an rDNS record for the additional IP address.