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How do I enable or disable local mail for my domain?

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Legacy DV and VPS Hosting

Grid Hosting

  • Applies to: Grid
    • Difficulty: Easy
    • Time Needed: 10
    • Tools Required: Account Center access
  • Applies to: DV
    • Difficulty: Easy
    • Time Needed: 10
    • Tools Required: Plesk administrator access

Overview

When a domain is added to the Grid, the mail service is automatically created. Any messages sent between (mt) Media Temple hosted services will attempt to deliver locally if a mail service is active for the receiving domain. If the domain is not actually using the (mt) Media Temple mail service, this can cause delivery errors. For that reason, we have given our customers the ability to disable mail at the domain level as shown below.

The following symptoms occur when local mail delivery is disabled:

  • If you are unable to create an email alias because your domain is not available in the drop-down list of your domains.
  • If you have recently added a domain to your service that did not have MX records resolving to (mt) Media Temple, your email for that domain is disabled by default.
  • If you have an email address @(all domains), but are not receiving email on one particular alternate domain.
  • If you are using an external mail server, emails sent from (mt) hosted domains are getting bounce-backs saying the email user does not exist.

Instructions

You will be unable to enable mail for a domain until the MX records are pointed to your (mt) Media Temple service. You can check this using a free service such as mxtoolbox.com.

  1. Log into your Account Center and click on your primary domain.

    519_nova_overview_primarydomain

  2. Click on the Enable/Disable Mail icon in the EMAIL section.

    519_nova_enabledisable_email

  3. Select the Enable radio button to enable mail or the Disable radio button to disable mail for each domain and click Save.

    519_nova_enabledisable_radiobuttons

Notes

  • Choose Enable if the MX record for the domain is pointed at the Grid. Choose Disable if you are hosting email somewhere else besides your Grid hosting service. Also, keep in mind that you can only select Enable if your MX record is already resolving to the Grid. Once you click Save, any changes you made will be effective immediately.

Overview

When a domain is added within Plesk or CPanel, a mail service is automatically created. If a mail service is active for the receiving domain, any messages sent between (mt) Media Temple hosted services will attempt to deliver locally on your DV. If you plan on having the email hosted through a separate service elsewhere (i.e. Google Apps for Work), this can cause delivery errors. For that reason, you have the ability to disable mail at the domain level as shown below.

Instructions for Plesk

NOTE:

You may only disable/enable mail for the entire subscription. If you want to reserve this option on a per domain basis, we suggest you add your domain as a separate subscription. For detailed instructions, please see: Add new domain.

  1. Log into the Plesk Control Panel for your domain.

     plesk1.png

  2. Click on the Mail icon.

    plesk2.png

  3. Click on Mail Settings.

  4. Under Mail settings, check or un-check the box to activate or de-activate mail services for your domain.  Then click OK at the bottom to save.
    plesk7.png

Instructions for CPanel

  1. Log into the WHM.
  2. Click on DNS Functions from the menu on the left.
  3. Click on the Edit MX Entry in the DNS Functions section.
    cpanel_edit_mx
  4. Choose the domain you wish to disable local mail for and click Edit.
    cpanel_choose_domain
  5. In this section, select Remote Mail Exchanger in the Email Routing section and click Save.
    cpanel_remote_mail
  6. Local mail will now be disabled for this domain.
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