Start by checking where the message is missing. Mail can reach its mailbox but stay out of your current inbox view, stop syncing into Cedros, or fail to appear in one mail app. Those situations need different fixes from a message that never reaches your mail provider.
This guide covers mail coming into your mailbox. If you sent a message and someone else has not received it, use Why can I receive email but not send it? for sending and recipient-delivery checks.
Locate the missing message
- Confirm the full recipient address with the sender, including the domain and any alias. Ask for the approximate send time, subject, and any delivery-failure notice. A message still in the sender's Drafts or Outbox has not completed sending.
- Open Email → Inbox in Cedros. Clear the search and any active filters. If a mailbox picker appears, choose the intended mailbox or All visible mailboxes.
- Switch Needs attention to All mail, or use Show all mail if offered. This removes the attention filter within the inbox; it does not make every other folder part of the Inbox.
- Check Archive, then open More to check Junk, Trash, and All where those folders are offered. Search for the sender or a distinctive part of the subject. The All folder excludes Trash, so check Trash separately.
- If the address is hosted by Google Workspace, check the same account directly in Gmail. If you recently moved providers, check the old mailbox too.
- Send a short new test from an independent address you control to the exact recipient, with a unique subject and no attachment. Record the time and compare where it appears.
You only see mailboxes your account can access. If the expected mailbox is absent, ask the administrator to confirm your access; an empty view does not establish that the mailbox received nothing. A missing notification also does not establish missing delivery—open the inbox itself.
| What you find | Follow this path |
|---|---|
| The message is in Archive, Junk, Trash, or a filtered view | Review folders and rules below |
| It is in Cedros but missing in a mail app | Check the app's receiving connection |
| It is in Gmail but missing in Cedros | Check the Google Workspace sync connection |
| It reaches the old provider after a migration | Check current incoming DNS and the migration |
| One address fails while other addresses work | Check that mailbox, alias destination, and access |
| No outside sender can reach the intended mailbox | Check receiving DNS, mailbox/service state, and storage |
| Only one sender or a large message fails | Read the sender's failure notice and compare a small test |
Check folders and mail rules
Finding the message in another folder means you should investigate how it was filed before changing the receiving service.
In Email → Inbox → Settings, review Your mail rules. Look for matching sender, subject, or content conditions and actions that archive, mark read, or move messages. For Cedros-hosted mail, a sender rule labeled Send to Junk can explain why that sender's messages are absent from Inbox.
Ask an administrator to check Settings → Site → Mail → Rules for every address as well. Site rules can apply to your mail even when you cannot edit them in your personal rules. Review the specific matching rule and its intended scope before changing it; changing a site rule can affect other people.
When you find a legitimate message, use the available restore or move action and check its resulting folder. Restoring a message can return it to a previous folder, so do not assume every restore puts it in Inbox. Moving one message does not prove that every future message will bypass the rule or spam filter.
Check promptly: Junk and Trash are subject to retention and may be cleared. Avoid emptying either folder while looking for missing mail. If messages disappear after appearing, also check whether another authorized teammate, mail app, or provider-side rule moved them.
For Google-hosted mail, inspect Gmail's own Spam, Trash, filters, and forwarding settings. Google provides a missing-message checklist, including account-storage checks. Cedros and Gmail can show different views while synchronization is incomplete.
For the exact controls, use Finding and organizing messages, Creating rules to organize your mail, or Blocking or allowing a sender.
If Cedros receives mail but your mail app does not
Receiving in Cedros narrows the problem to the app's view or connection. For a Cedros-hosted mailbox:
- Check that the app is online, has finished refreshing, and is displaying the intended account and Inbox. Clear local searches and filters, and check the app's other server folders.
- In Cedros, open Email → Inbox → Settings → Your mail → Your addresses, find the mailbox, and select Connect mail app.
- Compare the app's incoming settings with Cedros: use the displayed hostname, IMAP 993 with SSL/TLS, the full mailbox address as the username, and that mailbox's app password.
- If authentication fails, check whether the app password expired or was revoked. Follow Creating, replacing, and revoking email app passwords if a replacement is needed. Changing your Cedros sign-in password is not the same as updating an app password.
- Refresh the app and check for the new external test. Resolve any connection or certificate error rather than disabling encryption. Confirm a fresh message, not just old cached mail.
For account-screen instructions, use Apple Mail on Mac, iPhone or iPad, Outlook, or another mail app.
If older messages remain readable in Cedros but have left Apple Mail or Outlook, ask whether cold storage is enabled under Settings → Site → Mail → Mail storage. Cold-stored messages remain available in Cedros but leave those apps until restored. This is different from a failure to receive new mail. Follow Read or restore a cold-stored message to bring a needed message back to your mail app.
For a Google Workspace mailbox, use the app's Google account connection and Google's account settings. Cedros app passwords do not authenticate a Google-hosted mailbox.
If Gmail receives mail but Cedros does not
On a self-managed site with Google Workspace connected, open Settings → Site → Mail → Other mail providers → Google Workspace. If the initial native-mail setup is showing, look under Use Google Workspace instead.
- Check the full connected account address, connection status, most recent Synced time, and any error. The connection belongs to the site; it is not a separate Google connection for every teammate.
- Confirm that the fresh test is present in that exact account in Gmail.
- If the connection is Connected, select Sync now once. Wait for the result, then check Cedros with the correct mailbox, folders, and filters.
- If the status or error calls for reconnection, follow Reconnecting Google Workspace when syncing stops. Reauthorize the intended account; do not disconnect a working connection simply because one message is missing.
- If manual sync works but automatic updates do not, check the Push sync status where available and follow that guide's push-renewal steps.
An old sync timestamp or a zero-message result needs context. The account may have no new mail, the message may be in a different account or folder, or synchronization may have failed. Record the actual result rather than treating every zero count as a credential problem.
If the test never arrives in Gmail, investigate Google-side delivery, account storage, routing, or filtering with the Workspace administrator. Reconnecting Cedros cannot retrieve a message Google never received. Keep Google MX records in place while Google remains the mailbox host.
If a Cedros-hosted mailbox receives nothing
Ask the mail administrator to work through these checks. On a managed site, use the available status information and contact the person responsible for the service if a control is unavailable.
Confirm the recipient and mailbox
Open Team → Mail addresses and check the exact address. The mailbox must be Active, with provisioning complete. If the sender used an alias, confirm that the alias points to the intended active mailbox. An alias does not have its own separate inbox.
A catch-all is not a repair for every failed address. A suspended named mailbox or a misconfigured alias needs its own correction. Check the recipient explicitly using Creating personal and shared email addresses.
If only one address fails, compare it with a working address on the same domain before changing domain-wide routing. Confirm access separately from delivery: the mailbox can receive mail even if your Cedros account is not allowed to read it.
Check incoming DNS and recent migrations
Open Settings → Site → Mail → Mail domain, confirm the intended domain, and select Recheck DNS. During initial setup, use Check records in the DNS step. Read the individual results and any expected-versus-found values.
Use Understanding and verifying your email DNS records to check:
- The domain's incoming MX records at its active, authoritative DNS provider.
- The MX destination hostname and its public address.
- Whether the values match the records shown in your site’s mail settings.
- Any recent nameserver, routing-service, or DNS automation change.
If Cloudflare hosts DNS, the mail server hostname must use DNS only; MX records themselves are already DNS-only. See Cloudflare's email troubleshooting guidance.
After a planned routing change, cached DNS can continue directing some senders to the previous service. Keep the old mailbox accessible during the transition and allow for the records' TTL. Do not add two unrelated providers' MX sets expecting a copy in both inboxes.
Moving MX does not import historical mail, and importing old mail does not switch delivery of new mail. See Importing existing email into Cedros when the missing messages predate the move.
Inbound DNS verified concerns receiving records. SES verified concerns the separate sending setup. A working website or verified SES identity is not proof that incoming mail routes to the correct mailbox.
Check service health and storage
In Settings → Site → Mail, read Mail service, its component states, and any error. Incoming mail is working is a readiness signal; confirm it with the external test. If the page cannot read the service state, use Try again and report a persistent error. That read failure does not mean the saved configuration was erased.
Check Mail storage for capacity warnings and the mailbox for any reported quota problem. A full allowance can prevent new mail from being accepted. Have the administrator resolve the actual capacity or storage error, preserving mail you need. Moving messages to an ordinary Archive folder is not the same as freeing storage or completing a cold-storage operation. Use Managing mailbox storage to check usage and choose an appropriate cleanup or storage action.
For setup that never completed, follow Setting up Cedros email on your domain. Avoid restarting the mail service simply to clear a warning; a restart interrupts delivery and does not fix incorrect DNS or an inactive recipient.
Use the failure notice or service diagnostics
If the sender receives a delivery-failure notice, keep the exact error and the failed recipient. An unknown-recipient error points toward the address or its receiving destination; a capacity error points toward storage; a temporary service error may mean delivery is still being retried. Let the administrator interpret the actual response rather than guessing from a generic “not delivered” label.
If one sender fails while other senders succeed, compare their exact recipient and try a small message without attachments. Check sender rules and Junk. The sender's administrator may need to investigate their sending service or authentication. Do not turn off spam protection for the entire site to admit one message.
An administrator can use Settings → Site → Mail → Mail service for additional evidence:
- Select Test delivery if an active address is available. This queues a test message to an active mailbox chosen by the service card; it may not be the address you are investigating.
- Open Recent operations and read the operation's Outcome after it finishes. Queued is not a passing result.
- Use Collect diagnostics if service health or the test needs investigation, then read its outcome and provide the relevant error to support.
The built-in delivery test checks the local receiving path. Even a successful result does not prove that an outside sender can reach your public mail server, that public DNS is correct, or that a different mailbox can receive. Finish with the external test to the affected address.
Confirm recovery and report anything still missing
Send one fresh message from an outside account to the affected address, open it in Cedros, and confirm its sender, recipient, subject, and content. If you use a mail app, check it there too. For an alias, verify the destination mailbox. Reply and confirm that the outside account receives the reply; a reply failure is a separate sending problem.
Review important messages from the interruption, including the old provider or Gmail where relevant. Once the cause is fixed, ask senders to resend messages that were definitively rejected. Restoring service does not guarantee that every previously rejected message will arrive automatically.
For help with an unresolved problem, include the affected address, hosting provider, sender, distinctive test subject, time with time zone, and exact error. Explain where the message does and does not appear, whether all senders or addresses are affected, and any recent DNS, migration, account, rule, or storage change. Include relevant sync or diagnostic outcomes without passwords, provider credentials, or unrelated private message content.