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Q&A How do I stop Gmail from silently dropping legitimate email?

I have a domain and now use it for my primary email address. In addition to depositing mail in that mailbox, this address also currently forwards to my Gmail account. (Yes I know, and I want to r...

2 answers  ·  posted 28d ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 26d ago by mcast‭

Question email gmail
#3: Post edited by user avatar Monica Cellio‭ · 2025-04-09T17:21:11Z (26 days ago)
added headers from a message that did not get forwarded
  • I have a domain and now use it for my primary email address. In addition to depositing mail in that mailbox, this address also currently forwards to my Gmail account. (Yes I know, and I want to relocate 20+ years of saved email, but not today.) I set up the forwarding using the CPanel "Forwarders" page.
  • I've known for a while that Gmail sometimes silently drops incoming email -- it doesn't bounce or go to the spam folder; it just disappears. The rules by which Gmail decides to do that are opaque. I get a lot of actual spam and malware delivered to my spam folder, too, so it doesn't seem to be that Gmail is hyper-aggressive.
  • In recent weeks I have noticed an increase in legitimate email not arriving at Gmail. This includes messages sent directly to me (not mailing lists), sometimes in response to messages I sent, and includes senders I have explicitly whitelisted with Gmail. *Most* mail gets through; *some* gets silently dropped, and I can't characterize it yet -- I haven't seen any *unique* traits in the affected messages.
  • I used https://www.mail-tester.com to check that DMARC, DKIM, SPF, etc from my domain are fine; it reports 10/10 (authenticated, not blocklisted, passes SpamAssassin). I checked the "email deliverability" report on CPanel and it looks fine. CPanel's "track delivery" shows no failures. (I know that the missing Gmail messages wouldn't show up here, as Gmail is silently swallowing them, but I checked to see if anything *else* is showing up there.)
  • Long-term I want to stop using Gmail, but: (1) I'm not there yet and (2) I don't know if Gmail is dropping my messages to *other Gmail users*. So I'd like to figure out what's going wrong here. How can I debug (and ideally fix) this problem?
  • Here are the headers from a message that arrived -- *from* a Gmail address, for extra irony -- at my domain, but did not subsequently arrive at my Gmail address after forwarding. It *did* arrive at the recipient's Gmail address, interestingly. ("Redacted", "mydomain", and "my-hosting-provider" are my redactions.)
  • <details>
  • <pre>
  • Return-Path: <[email protected]>
  • Delivered-To: [email protected]
  • Received: from redacted.my-hosting-provider.com
  • by redacted.my-hosting-provider.com with LMTP
  • id YAYMLtaa82cvqQAAflZDjA
  • (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
  • for <[email protected]>; Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Return-path: <[email protected]>
  • Envelope-to: [email protected]
  • Delivery-date: Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Received: from mail-qt1-f175.google.com ([209.85.160.175]:52619)
  • by redacted.my-hosting-provider.com with esmtps (TLS1.2) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  • (Exim 4.98.1)
  • (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
  • id 1u1imd-00000000Tfi-3sXU
  • for [email protected];
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Received: by mail-qt1-f175.google.com with SMTP id d75a77b69052e-4774ce422easo42549131cf.1
  • for <[email protected]>; Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:47 -0700 (PDT)
  • DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
  • d=gmail.com; s=20230601; t=1744018125; x=1744622925; darn=MYDOMAIN.org;
  • h=to:in-reply-to:references:message-id:date:subject:mime-version
  • :content-transfer-encoding:from:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id
  • :reply-to;
  • bh=IHdxC90FwlDs+Q67J6fS6xs+eyD781SUtdFdBhig2Bs=;
  • b=MzMWgTjvHCCypK8VmN/+97Q4Nm7eXng6xFMuj3bF2s+LvykoQix2k000ftAH+cmEln
  • OVbiZJf1J/ZW60MsVLG9pDj0r+F/hA/J9A3IzSEj1qvetxn3wmvEvdO1REw0I9x+6VzU
  • haAxog9XMAg/f9rsiM9gBlm6MamDJZ5VKv9D8h5Yh/BdXiJDZg3tj9wv1bmQF7xIywqN
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  • rv8w/9Fj0J+CnTn8cXL96DjZWOJrz1EwOCSKyWwdMn1h2f6kYAcO5mFJ/rfQkk6tcrx2
  • iWww==
  • X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
  • d=1e100.net; s=20230601; t=1744018125; x=1744622925;
  • h=to:in-reply-to:references:message-id:date:subject:mime-version
  • :content-transfer-encoding:from:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc
  • :subject:date:message-id:reply-to;
  • bh=IHdxC90FwlDs+Q67J6fS6xs+eyD781SUtdFdBhig2Bs=;
  • b=xVaaObcfBWBfgoRVDez4XLQac8QAKALo9VZG9TY5D9iktoyQwUFcu0TOpvd+ig+DYz
  • Ttd6xlJRqjPO95z45WnD5itin4i6Ta9VIPWCwaR7MGmsl4IWMYhpM7DX3IPpqB4a9J9g
  • dTdZMalEsJcF/3QXjKJnObVjGC5r2Rk/MwdaIIrN00GiCKtmDfviEaiQa72DODTeEmBd
  • aUWIKbfnEmrelljFLUFjUYagrD4FAsM1qLWhq+8h2/MB4WZB2H+SenoLV1riaL1aUPWS
  • cguJmtNzXBgkMh/VaOUKqYW5q6MJVt7Iz5mFqLVgi4GeHtYwcvAm0djOGPEWtEnzQ0ic
  • bIcA==
  • X-Gm-Message-State: AOJu0YzFSePwLdVEc/SKlR6yDuJpDxfylifDtc3kT9+z5U387/vFUtlS
  • PLc8cMVutvoGXsJYgZQDELwZBwVoydRvcrreVV410o3IyTWMadleMJy4vg==
  • X-Gm-Gg: ASbGncsMd7qWzv3ztjyZgdMbQ0cKf1wfPVj5tq6gIkQDg8/JVOcOmbEr1e4ZYTr/5fj
  • O/vg1ewgB/rdWyVSwyfLSQMXwUIOk4CvZAQ9LKZMKGhZjCeysSpqhNRL1wX+F+9lxjnz+EuqV/u
  • V/VRqW+eGnjzGgt2L3Kk9eEff3aHF3K0qLZGBXNGwewBus0Oezq4P9S8EdP0PRETTUECssq6yez
  • GziCBE/0Me1YWm/nE6GjOPgMe8BNgwhohw2pibifs/VvJbEdbd6tT+gVYSO48NBdwvdFi5xsna1
  • f9IAGScSu57H+usSk0evSFhFn3X5+Sp5VkPj6njd+06v3y1z/OBAOs51NSLQ89JMwRNJ6mdZsqL
  • EewL6h3BM
  • X-Google-Smtp-Source: AGHT+IG2GXTEaB1h8KsYF0VF3tCOWKpa1lzG+ARD00XDPGNAEcD8n47GtZtfzhlduMGqzU+9BT5Hbg==
  • X-Received: by 2002:ac8:5acc:0:b0:477:41e5:cb8d with SMTP id d75a77b69052e-479249bf9d1mr175485691cf.44.1744018125372;
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:45 -0700 (PDT)
  • Received: from smtpclient.apple ([2600:4041:d0:1300:480e:2e72:7af8:9248])
  • by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id d75a77b69052e-4791b057e6csm57759751cf.13.2025.04.07.02.28.44
  • for <[email protected]>
  • (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128/128);
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:44 -0700 (PDT)
  • From: Redacted <[email protected]>
  • X-Google-Original-From: Redacted <[email protected]>
  • Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
  • Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
  • Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0)
  • Subject: Re: recipe
  • Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2025 05:28:33 -0400
  • Message-Id: <[email protected]>
  • References: <[email protected]>
  • In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
  • To: [email protected]
  • X-Mailer: iPad Mail (22D82)
  • X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.8
  • X-Spam-Score: -17
  • X-Spam-Bar: -
  • X-Ham-Report: Spam detection software, running on the system "redacted.my-hosting-provider.com",
  • has NOT identified this incoming email as spam. The original
  • message has been attached to this so you can view it or label
  • similar future email. If you have any questions, see
  • root\@localhost for details.
  • Content preview: REDACTED
  • Content analysis details: (-1.8 points, 5.0 required)
  • pts rule name description
  • ---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
  • -1.9 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayes spam probability is 0 to 1%
  • [score: 0.0000]
  • 0.0 RCVD_IN_VALIDITY_CERTIFIED_BLOCKED RBL: ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE:
  • The query to Validity was blocked. See
  • https://knowledge.validity.com/hc/en-us/articles/20961730681243
  • for more information.
  • [209.85.160.175 listed in sa-accredit.habeas.com]
  • 0.0 RCVD_IN_VALIDITY_RPBL_BLOCKED RBL: ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE: The
  • query to Validity was blocked. See
  • https://knowledge.validity.com/hc/en-us/articles/20961730681243
  • for more information.
  • [209.85.160.175 listed in bl.score.senderscore.com]
  • 0.2 FREEMAIL_ENVFROM_END_DIGIT Envelope-from freemail username ends
  • in digit
  • [REDACTED[at]gmail.com]
  • -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record
  • 0.0 FREEMAIL_FROM Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail
  • provider
  • [REDACTED[at]gmail.com]
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID_EF Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from
  • envelope-from domain
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from
  • author's domain
  • 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily
  • valid
  • X-Spam-Flag: NO
  • (Message body redacted)
  • </pre>
  • </details>
  • I have a domain and now use it for my primary email address. In addition to depositing mail in that mailbox, this address also currently forwards to my Gmail account. (Yes I know, and I want to relocate 20+ years of saved email, but not today.) I set up the forwarding using the CPanel "Forwarders" page.
  • I've known for a while that Gmail sometimes silently drops incoming email -- it doesn't bounce or go to the spam folder; it just disappears. The rules by which Gmail decides to do that are opaque. I get a lot of actual spam and malware delivered to my spam folder, too, so it doesn't seem to be that Gmail is hyper-aggressive.
  • In recent weeks I have noticed an increase in legitimate email not arriving at Gmail. This includes messages sent directly to me (not mailing lists), sometimes in response to messages I sent, and includes senders I have explicitly whitelisted with Gmail. *Most* mail gets through; *some* gets silently dropped, and I can't characterize it yet -- I haven't seen any *unique* traits in the affected messages.
  • I used https://www.mail-tester.com to check that DMARC, DKIM, SPF, etc from my domain are fine; it reports 10/10 (authenticated, not blocklisted, passes SpamAssassin). I checked the "email deliverability" report on CPanel and it looks fine. CPanel's "track delivery" shows no failures. (I know that the missing Gmail messages wouldn't show up here, as Gmail is silently swallowing them, but I checked to see if anything *else* is showing up there.)
  • Long-term I want to stop using Gmail, but: (1) I'm not there yet and (2) I don't know if Gmail is dropping my messages to *other Gmail users*. So I'd like to figure out what's going wrong here. How can I debug (and ideally fix) this problem?
  • Here are the headers from a message that arrived -- *from* a Gmail address, for extra irony -- at my domain, but did not subsequently arrive at my Gmail address after forwarding. My reply, sent from my domain, *did* arrive at the recipient's Gmail address, interestingly (not all messages get blackholed).
  • ("Redacted", "mydomain", and "my-hosting-provider" are my redactions.)
  • <details>
  • <pre>
  • Return-Path: <[email protected]>
  • Delivered-To: [email protected]
  • Received: from redacted.my-hosting-provider.com
  • by redacted.my-hosting-provider.com with LMTP
  • id YAYMLtaa82cvqQAAflZDjA
  • (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
  • for <[email protected]>; Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Return-path: <[email protected]>
  • Envelope-to: [email protected]
  • Delivery-date: Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Received: from mail-qt1-f175.google.com ([209.85.160.175]:52619)
  • by redacted.my-hosting-provider.com with esmtps (TLS1.2) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  • (Exim 4.98.1)
  • (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
  • id 1u1imd-00000000Tfi-3sXU
  • for [email protected];
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Received: by mail-qt1-f175.google.com with SMTP id d75a77b69052e-4774ce422easo42549131cf.1
  • for <[email protected]>; Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:47 -0700 (PDT)
  • DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
  • d=gmail.com; s=20230601; t=1744018125; x=1744622925; darn=MYDOMAIN.org;
  • h=to:in-reply-to:references:message-id:date:subject:mime-version
  • :content-transfer-encoding:from:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id
  • :reply-to;
  • bh=IHdxC90FwlDs+Q67J6fS6xs+eyD781SUtdFdBhig2Bs=;
  • b=MzMWgTjvHCCypK8VmN/+97Q4Nm7eXng6xFMuj3bF2s+LvykoQix2k000ftAH+cmEln
  • OVbiZJf1J/ZW60MsVLG9pDj0r+F/hA/J9A3IzSEj1qvetxn3wmvEvdO1REw0I9x+6VzU
  • haAxog9XMAg/f9rsiM9gBlm6MamDJZ5VKv9D8h5Yh/BdXiJDZg3tj9wv1bmQF7xIywqN
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  • rv8w/9Fj0J+CnTn8cXL96DjZWOJrz1EwOCSKyWwdMn1h2f6kYAcO5mFJ/rfQkk6tcrx2
  • iWww==
  • X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
  • d=1e100.net; s=20230601; t=1744018125; x=1744622925;
  • h=to:in-reply-to:references:message-id:date:subject:mime-version
  • :content-transfer-encoding:from:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc
  • :subject:date:message-id:reply-to;
  • bh=IHdxC90FwlDs+Q67J6fS6xs+eyD781SUtdFdBhig2Bs=;
  • b=xVaaObcfBWBfgoRVDez4XLQac8QAKALo9VZG9TY5D9iktoyQwUFcu0TOpvd+ig+DYz
  • Ttd6xlJRqjPO95z45WnD5itin4i6Ta9VIPWCwaR7MGmsl4IWMYhpM7DX3IPpqB4a9J9g
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  • bIcA==
  • X-Gm-Message-State: AOJu0YzFSePwLdVEc/SKlR6yDuJpDxfylifDtc3kT9+z5U387/vFUtlS
  • PLc8cMVutvoGXsJYgZQDELwZBwVoydRvcrreVV410o3IyTWMadleMJy4vg==
  • X-Gm-Gg: ASbGncsMd7qWzv3ztjyZgdMbQ0cKf1wfPVj5tq6gIkQDg8/JVOcOmbEr1e4ZYTr/5fj
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  • X-Google-Smtp-Source: AGHT+IG2GXTEaB1h8KsYF0VF3tCOWKpa1lzG+ARD00XDPGNAEcD8n47GtZtfzhlduMGqzU+9BT5Hbg==
  • X-Received: by 2002:ac8:5acc:0:b0:477:41e5:cb8d with SMTP id d75a77b69052e-479249bf9d1mr175485691cf.44.1744018125372;
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:45 -0700 (PDT)
  • Received: from smtpclient.apple ([2600:4041:d0:1300:480e:2e72:7af8:9248])
  • by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id d75a77b69052e-4791b057e6csm57759751cf.13.2025.04.07.02.28.44
  • for <[email protected]>
  • (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128/128);
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:44 -0700 (PDT)
  • From: Redacted <[email protected]>
  • X-Google-Original-From: Redacted <[email protected]>
  • Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
  • Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
  • Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0)
  • Subject: Re: recipe
  • Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2025 05:28:33 -0400
  • Message-Id: <[email protected]>
  • References: <[email protected]>
  • In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
  • To: [email protected]
  • X-Mailer: iPad Mail (22D82)
  • X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.8
  • X-Spam-Score: -17
  • X-Spam-Bar: -
  • X-Ham-Report: Spam detection software, running on the system "redacted.my-hosting-provider.com",
  • has NOT identified this incoming email as spam. The original
  • message has been attached to this so you can view it or label
  • similar future email. If you have any questions, see
  • root\@localhost for details.
  • Content preview: REDACTED
  • Content analysis details: (-1.8 points, 5.0 required)
  • pts rule name description
  • ---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
  • -1.9 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayes spam probability is 0 to 1%
  • [score: 0.0000]
  • 0.0 RCVD_IN_VALIDITY_CERTIFIED_BLOCKED RBL: ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE:
  • The query to Validity was blocked. See
  • https://knowledge.validity.com/hc/en-us/articles/20961730681243
  • for more information.
  • [209.85.160.175 listed in sa-accredit.habeas.com]
  • 0.0 RCVD_IN_VALIDITY_RPBL_BLOCKED RBL: ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE: The
  • query to Validity was blocked. See
  • https://knowledge.validity.com/hc/en-us/articles/20961730681243
  • for more information.
  • [209.85.160.175 listed in bl.score.senderscore.com]
  • 0.2 FREEMAIL_ENVFROM_END_DIGIT Envelope-from freemail username ends
  • in digit
  • [REDACTED[at]gmail.com]
  • -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record
  • 0.0 FREEMAIL_FROM Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail
  • provider
  • [REDACTED[at]gmail.com]
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID_EF Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from
  • envelope-from domain
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from
  • author's domain
  • 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily
  • valid
  • X-Spam-Flag: NO
  • (Message body redacted)
  • </pre>
  • </details>
#2: Post edited by user avatar Monica Cellio‭ · 2025-04-09T17:16:31Z (26 days ago)
added headers from a message that did not get forwarded
  • I have a domain and now use it for my primary email address. In addition to depositing mail in that mailbox, this address also currently forwards to my Gmail account. (Yes I know, and I want to relocate 20+ years of saved email, but not today.)
  • I've known for a while that Gmail sometimes silently drops incoming email -- it doesn't bounce or go to the spam folder; it just disappears. The rules by which Gmail decides to do that are opaque. I get a lot of actual spam and malware delivered to my spam folder, too, so it doesn't seem to be that Gmail is hyper-aggressive.
  • In recent weeks I have noticed an increase in legitimate email not arriving at Gmail. This includes messages sent directly to me (not mailing lists), sometimes in response to messages I sent, and includes senders I have explicitly whitelisted with Gmail. *Most* mail gets through; *some* gets silently dropped, and I can't characterize it yet -- I haven't seen any *unique* traits in the affected messages.
  • I used https://www.mail-tester.com to check that DMARC, DKIM, SPF, etc from my domain are fine; it reports 10/10 (authenticated, not blocklisted, passes SpamAssassin). I checked the "email deliverability" report on CPanel and it looks fine. CPanel's "track delivery" shows no failures. (I know that the missing Gmail messages wouldn't show up here, as Gmail is silently swallowing them, but I checked to see if anything *else* is showing up there.)
  • Long-term I want to stop using Gmail, but: (1) I'm not there yet and (2) I don't know if Gmail is dropping my messages to *other Gmail users*. So I'd like to figure out what's going wrong here. How can I debug (and ideally fix) this problem?
  • I have a domain and now use it for my primary email address. In addition to depositing mail in that mailbox, this address also currently forwards to my Gmail account. (Yes I know, and I want to relocate 20+ years of saved email, but not today.) I set up the forwarding using the CPanel "Forwarders" page.
  • I've known for a while that Gmail sometimes silently drops incoming email -- it doesn't bounce or go to the spam folder; it just disappears. The rules by which Gmail decides to do that are opaque. I get a lot of actual spam and malware delivered to my spam folder, too, so it doesn't seem to be that Gmail is hyper-aggressive.
  • In recent weeks I have noticed an increase in legitimate email not arriving at Gmail. This includes messages sent directly to me (not mailing lists), sometimes in response to messages I sent, and includes senders I have explicitly whitelisted with Gmail. *Most* mail gets through; *some* gets silently dropped, and I can't characterize it yet -- I haven't seen any *unique* traits in the affected messages.
  • I used https://www.mail-tester.com to check that DMARC, DKIM, SPF, etc from my domain are fine; it reports 10/10 (authenticated, not blocklisted, passes SpamAssassin). I checked the "email deliverability" report on CPanel and it looks fine. CPanel's "track delivery" shows no failures. (I know that the missing Gmail messages wouldn't show up here, as Gmail is silently swallowing them, but I checked to see if anything *else* is showing up there.)
  • Long-term I want to stop using Gmail, but: (1) I'm not there yet and (2) I don't know if Gmail is dropping my messages to *other Gmail users*. So I'd like to figure out what's going wrong here. How can I debug (and ideally fix) this problem?
  • Here are the headers from a message that arrived -- *from* a Gmail address, for extra irony -- at my domain, but did not subsequently arrive at my Gmail address after forwarding. It *did* arrive at the recipient's Gmail address, interestingly. ("Redacted", "mydomain", and "my-hosting-provider" are my redactions.)
  • <details>
  • <pre>
  • Return-Path: <[email protected]>
  • Delivered-To: [email protected]
  • Received: from redacted.my-hosting-provider.com
  • by redacted.my-hosting-provider.com with LMTP
  • id YAYMLtaa82cvqQAAflZDjA
  • (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
  • for <[email protected]>; Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Return-path: <[email protected]>
  • Envelope-to: [email protected]
  • Delivery-date: Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Received: from mail-qt1-f175.google.com ([209.85.160.175]:52619)
  • by redacted.my-hosting-provider.com with esmtps (TLS1.2) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  • (Exim 4.98.1)
  • (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
  • id 1u1imd-00000000Tfi-3sXU
  • for [email protected];
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 04:28:54 -0500
  • Received: by mail-qt1-f175.google.com with SMTP id d75a77b69052e-4774ce422easo42549131cf.1
  • for <[email protected]>; Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:47 -0700 (PDT)
  • DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
  • d=gmail.com; s=20230601; t=1744018125; x=1744622925; darn=MYDOMAIN.org;
  • h=to:in-reply-to:references:message-id:date:subject:mime-version
  • :content-transfer-encoding:from:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id
  • :reply-to;
  • bh=IHdxC90FwlDs+Q67J6fS6xs+eyD781SUtdFdBhig2Bs=;
  • b=MzMWgTjvHCCypK8VmN/+97Q4Nm7eXng6xFMuj3bF2s+LvykoQix2k000ftAH+cmEln
  • OVbiZJf1J/ZW60MsVLG9pDj0r+F/hA/J9A3IzSEj1qvetxn3wmvEvdO1REw0I9x+6VzU
  • haAxog9XMAg/f9rsiM9gBlm6MamDJZ5VKv9D8h5Yh/BdXiJDZg3tj9wv1bmQF7xIywqN
  • 8UbhT23Wggeifw9OStwjYUL+EaPNC1zBaOclq/ODPHhWZlHb19vRlHEwP8OJ/Yl5AlvW
  • rv8w/9Fj0J+CnTn8cXL96DjZWOJrz1EwOCSKyWwdMn1h2f6kYAcO5mFJ/rfQkk6tcrx2
  • iWww==
  • X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
  • d=1e100.net; s=20230601; t=1744018125; x=1744622925;
  • h=to:in-reply-to:references:message-id:date:subject:mime-version
  • :content-transfer-encoding:from:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc
  • :subject:date:message-id:reply-to;
  • bh=IHdxC90FwlDs+Q67J6fS6xs+eyD781SUtdFdBhig2Bs=;
  • b=xVaaObcfBWBfgoRVDez4XLQac8QAKALo9VZG9TY5D9iktoyQwUFcu0TOpvd+ig+DYz
  • Ttd6xlJRqjPO95z45WnD5itin4i6Ta9VIPWCwaR7MGmsl4IWMYhpM7DX3IPpqB4a9J9g
  • dTdZMalEsJcF/3QXjKJnObVjGC5r2Rk/MwdaIIrN00GiCKtmDfviEaiQa72DODTeEmBd
  • aUWIKbfnEmrelljFLUFjUYagrD4FAsM1qLWhq+8h2/MB4WZB2H+SenoLV1riaL1aUPWS
  • cguJmtNzXBgkMh/VaOUKqYW5q6MJVt7Iz5mFqLVgi4GeHtYwcvAm0djOGPEWtEnzQ0ic
  • bIcA==
  • X-Gm-Message-State: AOJu0YzFSePwLdVEc/SKlR6yDuJpDxfylifDtc3kT9+z5U387/vFUtlS
  • PLc8cMVutvoGXsJYgZQDELwZBwVoydRvcrreVV410o3IyTWMadleMJy4vg==
  • X-Gm-Gg: ASbGncsMd7qWzv3ztjyZgdMbQ0cKf1wfPVj5tq6gIkQDg8/JVOcOmbEr1e4ZYTr/5fj
  • O/vg1ewgB/rdWyVSwyfLSQMXwUIOk4CvZAQ9LKZMKGhZjCeysSpqhNRL1wX+F+9lxjnz+EuqV/u
  • V/VRqW+eGnjzGgt2L3Kk9eEff3aHF3K0qLZGBXNGwewBus0Oezq4P9S8EdP0PRETTUECssq6yez
  • GziCBE/0Me1YWm/nE6GjOPgMe8BNgwhohw2pibifs/VvJbEdbd6tT+gVYSO48NBdwvdFi5xsna1
  • f9IAGScSu57H+usSk0evSFhFn3X5+Sp5VkPj6njd+06v3y1z/OBAOs51NSLQ89JMwRNJ6mdZsqL
  • EewL6h3BM
  • X-Google-Smtp-Source: AGHT+IG2GXTEaB1h8KsYF0VF3tCOWKpa1lzG+ARD00XDPGNAEcD8n47GtZtfzhlduMGqzU+9BT5Hbg==
  • X-Received: by 2002:ac8:5acc:0:b0:477:41e5:cb8d with SMTP id d75a77b69052e-479249bf9d1mr175485691cf.44.1744018125372;
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:45 -0700 (PDT)
  • Received: from smtpclient.apple ([2600:4041:d0:1300:480e:2e72:7af8:9248])
  • by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id d75a77b69052e-4791b057e6csm57759751cf.13.2025.04.07.02.28.44
  • for <[email protected]>
  • (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128/128);
  • Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:28:44 -0700 (PDT)
  • From: Redacted <[email protected]>
  • X-Google-Original-From: Redacted <[email protected]>
  • Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
  • Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
  • Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0)
  • Subject: Re: recipe
  • Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2025 05:28:33 -0400
  • Message-Id: <[email protected]>
  • References: <[email protected]>
  • In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
  • To: [email protected]
  • X-Mailer: iPad Mail (22D82)
  • X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.8
  • X-Spam-Score: -17
  • X-Spam-Bar: -
  • X-Ham-Report: Spam detection software, running on the system "redacted.my-hosting-provider.com",
  • has NOT identified this incoming email as spam. The original
  • message has been attached to this so you can view it or label
  • similar future email. If you have any questions, see
  • root\@localhost for details.
  • Content preview: REDACTED
  • Content analysis details: (-1.8 points, 5.0 required)
  • pts rule name description
  • ---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
  • -1.9 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayes spam probability is 0 to 1%
  • [score: 0.0000]
  • 0.0 RCVD_IN_VALIDITY_CERTIFIED_BLOCKED RBL: ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE:
  • The query to Validity was blocked. See
  • https://knowledge.validity.com/hc/en-us/articles/20961730681243
  • for more information.
  • [209.85.160.175 listed in sa-accredit.habeas.com]
  • 0.0 RCVD_IN_VALIDITY_RPBL_BLOCKED RBL: ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE: The
  • query to Validity was blocked. See
  • https://knowledge.validity.com/hc/en-us/articles/20961730681243
  • for more information.
  • [209.85.160.175 listed in bl.score.senderscore.com]
  • 0.2 FREEMAIL_ENVFROM_END_DIGIT Envelope-from freemail username ends
  • in digit
  • [REDACTED[at]gmail.com]
  • -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record
  • 0.0 FREEMAIL_FROM Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail
  • provider
  • [REDACTED[at]gmail.com]
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID_EF Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from
  • envelope-from domain
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature
  • -0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from
  • author's domain
  • 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily
  • valid
  • X-Spam-Flag: NO
  • (Message body redacted)
  • </pre>
  • </details>
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Monica Cellio‭ · 2025-04-07T17:47:38Z (28 days ago)
How do I stop Gmail from silently dropping legitimate email?
I have a domain and now use it for my primary email address.  In addition to depositing mail in that mailbox, this address also currently forwards to my Gmail account.  (Yes I know, and I want to relocate 20+ years of saved email, but not today.)

I've known for a while that Gmail sometimes silently drops incoming email -- it doesn't bounce or go to the spam folder; it just disappears.  The rules by which Gmail decides to do that are opaque.  I get a lot of actual spam and malware delivered to my spam folder, too, so it doesn't seem to be that Gmail is hyper-aggressive.

In recent weeks I have noticed an increase in legitimate email not arriving at Gmail.  This includes messages sent directly to me (not mailing lists), sometimes in response to messages I sent, and includes senders I have explicitly whitelisted with Gmail.  *Most* mail gets through; *some* gets silently dropped, and I can't characterize it yet -- I haven't seen any *unique* traits in the affected messages.

I used https://www.mail-tester.com to check that DMARC, DKIM, SPF, etc from my domain are fine; it reports 10/10 (authenticated, not blocklisted, passes SpamAssassin).  I checked the "email deliverability" report on CPanel and it looks fine.  CPanel's "track delivery" shows no failures.  (I know that the missing Gmail messages wouldn't show up here, as Gmail is silently swallowing them, but I checked to see if anything *else* is showing up there.)

Long-term I want to stop using Gmail, but: (1) I'm not there yet and (2) I don't know if Gmail is dropping my messages to *other Gmail users*.  So I'd like to figure out what's going wrong here.  How can I debug (and ideally fix) this problem?