Why Your Emails Aren’t Arriving Anymore and What You Can Do About It

In recent months we’ve been hearing the same story again and again: emails that never arrive, messages flagged as “suspicious”, or people insisting they never received anything at all. Very frustrating — especially when you think: “But I really did send that email.”

Good to know: in many cases it’s not caused by your website, and not by us either. Something has changed on the side of the major email providers: Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo and iCloud have become much stricter when checking incoming email.

Email providers now act like strict door guards

Imagine an email provider as a doorman. In the past, he waved almost everyone inside. He might glance quickly at a pass, but that was it.

Now things are different. The doorman looks long and carefully. He wants to be absolutely sure you are who you say you are before letting you in. He does this because spam, phishing and abuse have increased massively. Good for users — but it also means regular, legitimate emails sometimes get blocked.

Email services like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and iCloud are not being “difficult” — they’ve simply become much stricter.
And your email setup needs to follow those new rules.

Where things most often go wrong: forwarding (redirects)

We see this especially with associations, clubs, charities and teams. They use an email address on their own domain — for example info@yourdomain.com — and forward all mail automatically to a Gmail address. Sometimes even several people receive the same forwarded message.

It feels convenient: one inbox to check, everything delivered straight into Gmail. But that’s exactly where the problem starts.

When an email is forwarded, important technical data gets damaged or lost. You can see these as the original sender’s “security stamps”. These stamps are called SPF and DKIM.

Without those stamps, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or iCloud will think:
“Something doesn’t add up here. I don’t trust this. Block it.”

The result? Emails disappear. Sometimes into spam, but often you’ll never see them again.

Why forwarding used to work just fine

Many organisations say: “But we’ve done this for years — it always worked!”

True. In the past the checks were far more relaxed. The doorman barely looked and let almost everything through. But the rules have been tightened step by step. Providers want to protect their users better — and forwarding has become a major risk.

In short:

• Forwarding used to pass most checks without any issue.
• Now forwarding often breaks SPF/DKIM validation.
• This leads to blocking by Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and iCloud.

What you SHOULD do: use real mailboxes

The most important step to avoid problems: use real mailboxes instead of forwarding.

For addresses like info@, board@, contact@ or members@, it’s far better to create an actual mailbox on your domain. No forwarding to a private Gmail address — just a mailbox you log into directly.

Option 1: webmail

You can log in through webmail in your browser. It works on any computer or phone, and everyone with the login details can access the same mailbox.

Option 2: add the mailbox to your email app

You can add the mailbox to:

• Gmail
• Outlook
• Apple Mail
• Thunderbird
• the email app on your phone

You do this via IMAP. That means you’re directly viewing the mailbox on your own domain — with no forwarding tricks in between. Exactly what the new rules expect.Do you want to be sure your mailbox is set up correctly? In this article, I explain step by step how to configure IMAP so your emails actually arrive safely.

SPF, DKIM and DMARC in simple language

The names sound technical, but the function is simple. Think of them as stamps and signatures proving that your email is “real” and not fake.

• SPF – says which servers may send email for your domain.
• DKIM – adds a digital signature to every mail.
• DMARC – tells mail services what to do if a message fails checks (reject, or send to spam).

Together they act as an official ID. Without it, it’s much harder to get past the strict doorman at Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and iCloud.

Using newsletters? Then this is even more important

If you use a newsletter system such as:

• Mailchimp
• AcyMailing
• MailerLite
• Sendinblue / Brevo
• ActiveCampaign

Then these services must be officially authorised to send email on behalf of your domain. That also happens through SPF and DKIM. If not configured, your newsletter may easily be flagged as suspicious by Gmail or Outlook.

In short: the more systems you use to send mail, the more important it is to have these “stamps” correctly set up.

What you can check yourself

A few practical checks you can do today:

• Are you still using forwarding/redirects?
  Look in your hosting or email settings for active forwarding rules. If they’re there — replace them with a real mailbox.
• Do you log directly into the mailbox?
  Use webmail or add the mailbox via IMAP in Gmail, Outlook or another email app.
• Using a newsletter system?
  Check whether SPF and DKIM are properly set for that service.
• Test your email occasionally.
  Send a test email to several types of addresses (Gmail, Outlook/Hotmail, Yahoo, iCloud) and check whether everything comes through.
• Check if your email address has been leaked.
  Through the website Have I Been Pwned (https://haveibeenpwned.com/ ) you can quickly see whether your email address appears in known data breaches. This is unrelated to forwarding issues, but it’s still useful to know — especially if you notice unwanted emails or find yourself resetting passwords more often than usual.

What we do and don’t do

We believe it’s important to be transparent about this.

What we DO:

• Identify that email issues are likely caused by forwarding or stricter rules.
• Explain what’s happening in clear, simple language.
• Give general advice on a healthier, more reliable email setup.

What we DON’T do:

• No extensive email management or complex DNS configuration for all providers.
• No in-depth troubleshooting of forwarding-based setups.

Not because we don’t want to help — but because email systems have become a specialised field. Our focus is building and maintaining websites that work well, and part of that is giving you the right information about modern email behaviour.

Summary: how to avoid email troubles in 2025/2026

• Email services like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and iCloud have become much stricter.
• Forwarding/redirects often cause problems and blocking.
• Use real mailboxes on your own domain and log in directly.
• Make sure SPF, DKIM (and possibly DMARC) are correctly set, especially if you send newsletters.
• Test your email regularly using different providers.

With just a few adjustments, you can prevent most email issues. It takes a bit of getting used to, but after that you’ll have far more control over what happens to your messages.