Bluehost Web Hosting Help

Email Troubleshooting Sending

Having trouble sending email? Then you're in the right place. We've gathered all of the information regarding the most common email sending issues and compiled it into an easy-to-use troubleshooter. We've designed this process to narrow down the possibilities with each step so you can find a solution as quickly as possible.

First, try accessing your webmail client. Go to bluehost.com/webmail, enter your email address and password, and then click Login.
Getting an error message when you try to log in?

What error message do you see?

"Access denied. Your IP address is blacklisted."

If you're seeing an "Access Denied" error instead of the login screen, check out If Your Local IP Is Blacklisted for more information.
"Email address or password is incorrect."
- Make sure you've entered your complete email address (such as john@example.com) and case-sensitive password, and then try again.
- If that doesn't work, try resetting your email account password.
- And if you're still getting this error message after a few or more failed login attempts, it's possible your IP has been temporarily blacklisted to stop what seems like suspicious activity. Wait two hours, and then try to log in again.
"Invalid login attempt. That account doesn't seem to be available."
- This error is often caused by a mistyped character or inadvertent space. Re-type your complete email address (such as john@example.com) and case-sensitive password, and then try again.
- Make sure the domain is assigned to your account as an Addon or Parked domain. The primary domain on a hosting account is assigned automatically, but additional domains are not. Check out Assigning Domains for more information.
- Did you get to the webmail login page from a bookmark? It could be outdated. Try logging in at bluehost.com/webmail instead.
"Could not reliably determine that address [user@example.com] is installed on our network. Please log into webmail through your Control Panel."
- Our webmail login system couldn't find your email server because the domain is not pointed to Bluehost. If you want to host your email and manage your DNS at Bluehost, you need to use our name servers. Check out Bluehost Name Servers for more information.
- If you don't intend to use a Bluehost server to receive emails but you need to retrieve an old email from when you were using Bluehost for email, you'll need to access your webmail another way.
- 1. Log in to your Bluehost control panel.
  2. Come back to this page and click the following link: https://my.bluehost.com/cgi-bin/cplogin?goto_uri=/frontend/bluehost/mail/pops.html
  3. Locate your email address in the list
  4. On the right side of the email account, click More and then Access Webmail.
Getting an error message after logging in successfully?

Check out Email Error Messages for more information.
Once you're logged in, click Compose and send a test message to the same email address you're sending from. For example, if the email address you're testing is john@example.com, you would send an email from that account TO john@example.com, so the sender and recipient are the same.

After clicking Send, did you get an error message?

Check out Email Error Messages for more information.

Did the message arrive in your inbox but disappear shortly afterward?

If so, see Missing Emails.
Did the message fail to arrive at its destination?
- Wait five minutes, and then check for new messages again. If it still hasn't arrived, check your email filters to make sure it wasn't moved to another folder. Check out Account Level Email Filtering for more information.
- Are any forwarders set for your email account? See if you have any forwarders set to "discard," which deletes incoming email for that address; or "pipe to program," which redirects mail away from your inbox. Check out Email Forwarders for more information.
Now that we know your email address can send and receive messages internally, let's see if it can send to an external mail server. Click Compose and send a test message to an email address outside of Bluehost, such as your personal Gmail account.

Did you get an error after sending your message?

Check out Email Error Messages for more information.
Did the message fail to arrive at its destination?
- Sending an email is usually instantaneous, but it can still take a few minutes for the message to be received and accepted by the incoming mail server. If it's taking more than a few minutes for the message to arrive at its destination, check out Email Delay for more information.
If you haven't resolved your problem yet, the issue is most likely related to your email application. Nearly every email application problem comes down to a misconfigured setting. Compare your email application settings to those in our Email Application Setup guide.
Do all of your settings look correct, even though you're still having trouble sending mail?
- Make sure you've entered your complete email address (such as john@example.com) and case-sensitive password, and then try again. Remember to use the same password that you used to access your webmail.
- Delete/Remove the email account from the application, and then set it up again. Check out Email Application Setup for more information.
- While going through the setup process, make sure to enable SMTP User Authentication. If you're using Apple Mail, turn off the option to Automatically detect and maintain settings.
- Double check that you are using the full email address including the domain name as the username (such as john@example.com).
- Re-enter your email password. Remember, it's the same password that you used to get into webmail.
Are you getting an "Authentication Failed" or similar error when entering the same username and password that allowed you to access your webmail?

The local IP address your email application is using may be blacklisted, which can happen after a few too many failed login attempts within a short period. If you suspect this is the problem, try using another internet connection, such as a mobile data or a WiFi, and try again. Check out If Your Local IP Is Blacklisted for more information.
Have you tried everything on this list without success?

Here are a few other suggestions:
- If you've tried everything on this list and your email application still doesn't work even though webmail does, try using a different email application. There are plenty of free email applications to choose from in the app store for your device. If you're looking for a desktop application, we recommend Thunderbird, which is free and works on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
- And if all else fails, contact our Technical Support Department for further assistance.