Troubleshooting Exchange Not Receiving External Emails – Causes & Solutions!

Microsoft has been established as the foremost provider and application for initiative data sharing. MS Exchange is one of the optimal applications developed with few advanced features for best data management. However, various issues can prevent Exchange from receiving emails from external domains. Understanding the potential causes and troubleshooting methods is key to resolving email delivery problems efficiently. The following guide will help you to resolve the Exchange not receiving external emails issue instantly.

This query was asked by multiple users on forum sites. One faced these issues mainly during the installation and configuration of the Exchange server. Users will be capable of sending and receiving e-mails on their computer, but the Exchange Server will not be able to receive e-mails from external e-mail IDs. So, this blog will let you know the causes of this error and the solution to resolve Exchange Server 2016 not receiving external email.

Reasons Behind Microsoft Exchange Server Not Receiving External Email!

• Network connection issue with the external network
• Force Reboot of Exchange Server
• The Exchange Server was not appropriately closed before
• Large and redundant applications are installed on the computer
• A huge number of applications used by Exchange Server at a time
• The huge size of the Exchange Server database file
• Damage or corrupt Exchange Server
• Malware and virus attacks on files
• An issue with the system hardware

Must Read – Repair Corrupt Exchange Database

Exchange Not Receiving External Emails – Resolved Manually!

For example, a user uses MS Exchange Server 2019, 2016, and 2013, and gets the same error every time they receive a new email. What happens in this circumstance is that when a user sends a test email, the MS Remote Connectivity Tool displays a few errors in the incoming SMTP email.

Now, to examine the problem, users should use MS Remote Connectivity Analyzer to check the status of incoming mail on the server, it will show the error again. Now to resolve the issue, to do this, follow these steps:

1. To start the procedure, users are required to set the local DNS server in the external DNS lookups
2. After that, users can simply find these settings in the Servers Settings. Here, users can type the DNS server IP locally for the external DNS lookups
3. Next, users have to restart both the services i.e. MS Exchange transport and Front-end transport service.

PowerShell Commands to Troubleshoot Exchange Not Receiving External Emails Issue!

You can use PowerShell to troubleshoot and resolve email delivery issues:

Check Mail Flow in Exchange:

Test-MailFlow

To check for message delivery issues:

Get-Queue

Now, test mail flow with Telnet –

telnet <mailserver> 25

Type EHLO to start the communication and follow it up with MAIL FROM: and RCPT TO: to simulate the email flow.

Fix Any Exchange Error Using Cutting-Edge Solution! 

The solutions mentioned earlier are not enough to fix Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007 not receiving external emails. Therefore, we suggest trying Exchange EDB Recovery Software to resolve any issue associated with Exchange Server with 100% safety and security.

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This is a robust solution to repair the entire corrupt Exchange database simultaneously. Before any commitment use a free demo version of this to check the software’s working efficiency. One who has minimum technical knowledge can also operate this efficiently to fix Microsoft Exchange Server not receiving external email, thanks to its self-explanatory GUI. This utility is compatible with all the versions of Windows OS & Exchange Server.

Checklist to Bypass “Exchange Not Receiving External Emails” Error!

Avoiding Exchange not receiving emails type of error will be possible by managing the Exchange well. For the same, follow the given checklist –

1. Ensure MX records point to the correct public IP of your Exchange server.
2. Check that MX records in your domain registrar point to your server’s public IP and remove any duplicates or incorrect entries.
3. Ensure port 25 (SMTP) is open for inbound and outbound mail.
4. For encryption, ensure ports 465 or 587 are open. Verify no firewall is blocking emails.
5. In the Exchange Admin Center, verify the Receive Connectors settings.
6. Ensure mailboxes have not exceeded size limits. Reduce Exchange mailbox size or delete unnecessary items if needed.
7. Review mail flow > rules in Exchange Admin Center. Disable problematic rules temporarily to test if they are blocking emails to resolve Exchange not receiving external emails hassle.
8. Review anti-spam and anti-virus settings.
9. Ensure legitimate emails are not being classified as spam.
10. Check send connectors in the Exchange Admin Center.
11. Use Event Viewer to check logs for errors related to email delivery. Focus on Transport and SMTP logs for relevant warnings.
12. Use Telnet or PowerShell to test connectivity to the SMTP server on port 25.
13. In the Exchange Admin Center, go to Mail Flow > Message Trace. Enter the email details and run a trace to address any issue with the delivery path.

Final Verdict!

The increasing popularity of the MS Exchange Server cannot be underrated. With its increasing number of users, the queries related to a few associated errors are also cumulative. In this blog, we have described all the main causes behind the Exchange not receiving external emails. Additionally, we also provide all possible solutions to fix Exchange servers in 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007, not receiving external emails. Now it depends on the users’ needs to choose any of the mentioned solutions to fix Microsoft Exchange Server not receiving external email. Take decisions wisely!