topic Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working in Email

Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 01:34:46 GMT

I realized after about a month that all my emails to a regularly contacted friend xxx@cruzio.com were not being received. But her emails to me were arriving okay. The problem seems to have started in mid-November. I don't receive any indication that the messages to her have failed - I use Thunderbird as my mail agent on Linux. Plusnet host my own domain.

I have not changed anything at my end.

She has looked in her spam folder and all other reasonable sanity checks.

I sent her a test email from my emergency alternative account (gmail), which did arrive, but landed in her spam folder.

Now my question is whether this is cruzio.com ditching anything from me, or plusnet ditching anything to cruzio.com?

Advice much appreciated.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

Ali_A — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 14:38:53 GMT

Hi @breslaw

Are you able to ask your friend to add your email address as a "safe sender" on their cruzio.com email account, and then re-test sending an email?

Ali

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:37:23 GMT

I've been in contact with cruzio.com technical support. Apparently I am already on my friend's whitelist. However, when I tried sending a email to their test address demo@cruzio.com, that failed to arrive. Whilst messages to their support address customertickets@ticket.cruzio.com work fine.

So it seems that PN are blocking anything to @cruzio.com. The cruzio support people told me to raise this with PN. I rather dread doing this because email problems in the past have always been a rather soul destroying experience.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

MisterW — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 11:10:59 GMT

@breslaw if Plusnet were blocking mail to cruzio.com then you would almost certainly get an NDR (non delivery report) when you tried to send.

Plusnet host my own domain.

Ah! what is much more likely is that cruzio are marking your email as spam because its not authenticated with either SPF or DKIM.

Its not possible to enable DKIM for a PLusnet hosted domain but there is a workaround below to enable SPF. Do you already have that configured ?

Plusnet fully hosted and registered domain

For Plusnet brand registered and managed domains, SPF configuration is facilitated by the addition of a TXT record in the domain's DNS settings. Plusnet's DNS configuration tool for hosted domains does not permit the creation of TXT records. However, there is an unsupported "facilitation" which will create an SPF record for a hosted domain.

On the basis that your account ALREADY has a hosted domain:

Log into the user portal
Go to Manage Account
Manage Your Domains (Manage your domains link)
Configure domain name
Create an "Additional DNS records (Advanced)" as follows...

For the avoidance of doubt leave the left side blank, exactly as shown. It might take Plusnet's systems up to 6 hours to generate the SPF record.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:21:23 GMT

Thank you MisterW.

Create an "Additional DNS records (Advanced)" as follows...

I did that a few years ago, and the "additional record" exactly as you specified is showing under my breslaw.co.uk domain configuration options.

Furthermore, if cruzio were deeming xxx@breslaw.co.uk as spam, then why is it that customertickets@ticket.cruzio.com do receive my emails even if xxx@cruzio.com don't?

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

MisterW — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:29:07 GMT

then why is it that customertickets@ticket.cruzio.com do receive my emails even if xxx@cruzio.com don't?

A very good question...

Without access to any server logs its very difficult to determine what's happening.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:32:17 GMT

So any idea what I should do next?

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

MisterW — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:54:11 GMT

Have you tried sending from your native <account>.plus.com address ?

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 13:12:56 GMT

"Have you tried sending from your native <account>.plus.com address ?"

I've tried sending from the webmail portal rather than from my email client - Thunderbird.

I wouldn't know how to send from my native plus.com address. On webmail my domain address is the only identity that's visible.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

MisterW — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 13:24:28 GMT

On webmail my domain address is the only identity that's visible.

When you go to compose a message, to the right of the FROM address is an 'edit identities' link , click that and add a new identify. I suggest <accountname>@<accountname>.plus.com as that is the default catch-all OR if you already have a mailbox defined then use <mailbox>@<accountname>.plus.com

Then when back in compose , you should be able to select that new identity as the FROM

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 15:47:00 GMT

Thank you @MisterW . I've just tried that and I'll let you know what happens.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 03:04:36 GMT

Okay. So I sent an email from [Removed].plus.com on the webmail portal to the technical support guy at cruzio (customertickets@ticket.cruzio.com) with copy to demo@cruzio.com. Then I notified him that I'd done this with an email from my normal email address via Thunderbird.

He let me know that he'd received the latter notification, but hadn't received anything from [Removed].plus.com. His comment was:- "so it has to be something between our mail servers. They don't like talking to each other for some reason. I'm still waiting on word from our upstream provider."

This failure to communicate started in mid-November and continues. Prior to that, it had been fine for years.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Personal information removed from a public forum.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

MisterW — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 07:37:43 GMT

Checking ticket,cruzio.com and cruzio.cim, they are different mail servers, so that would possibly explain why one works and the other doesnt.

At least it sounds like cruzio are investigating the problem...

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:00:21 GMT

PN have investigated the problem. It is their "fault", but they can't fix it. Here's what they say:-

Essentially, your emails are failing a security 'ID check' called SPF. Think of this as an approved list of senders for your domain. Because your email isn't on that list, the receiving servers are rejecting it to protect against spam.

The reason you aren't getting a 'bounce-back' notification is due to a technical 'handshake' error. The two systems are failing to connect properly at such an early stage that the system can't even send you an error report to tell you what went wrong�the message just disappears.

Normally, we would just log into your domain settings and add the correct record to fix this. However, because we are currently migrating all accounts to a new provider, that part of your control panel is locked and we can't make changes right now.
At this stage, there are really only two ways forward:

The first is to wait for the migration to Greenby. Once you are moved over to their system, they will handle these security records automatically. They are aiming to have everyone moved by Easter 2026, but we don't have a specific date for your account yet, and these things can sometimes take longer than planned.

The second option�if you can't wait�is to transfer your domain hosting to a different provider entirely. This would give you back full control over your settings immediately so you could fix the records yourself, but it does involve moving your services away from us.
I know it�s frustrating not having a firm date for the migration, but until that move happens or the domain is moved elsewhere, the security block will remain in place."

I do have an SPF record which was added a couple of years ago. As they say, even if they wanted to change my DNS settings, they can't because ... well because. They can't explain why the handshake failed, or whether other emails from me are disappearing without bounce back, because they are no longer qualified to discuss email problems. So either I wait for an indefinite time until migration to Greenby, who then might not be able to fix the problem. Or I move my hosting and email elsewhere.

That's what they call "customer support".

Pretty shoddy if you ask me!

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

MisterW — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:37:37 GMT

That sounds like 'bovine excrement' to me!

but your domain DOES have an SPF record ?

Never heard of that, sounds like rubbish to me.

No they wouldn't. Its never been possible to add SPF records to the native <account>.plus.com domain (except on a very limited trial basis!)

'Its all going to be fine when its moved to Greenby' seems to be the favorite response at the moment.

They don't like talking to each other for some reason. I'm still waiting on word from our upstream provider."

Did cruzio ever come back with anything from their provider ?

TBH despite PN's awful response , I still think its a cruzio related issue.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:47:57 GMT

Thank you. What would you do in my position. The email problem is not a game-changer. But I'm also switching to full fibre in a couple of weeks and ditching my landline. If PN really can be so cavalier about customers' problems, I'm wondering if staying with them for anything is a good idea?

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

MisterW — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 17:14:37 GMT

If PN really can be so cavalier about customers' problems, I'm wondering if staying with them for anything is a good idea?

In my experience, the support (or lack of it!) problem is confined to 'legacy' functionality such as email and domains. These facilities havent been provided to new customers for some time now and so suppoirting them is becoming more & more difficult as first line staff have no (or very little) knowledge. Hence the plan to migrate them to Greenby!

What would you do in my position

Well TBH I expected the Greenby migration to be much smoother than it seems to be! I had one of my domains with Ecohosting (another brand of the Enix group of which Greenby is part) and the service was fine, but Greenby seem to be struggling!

I've had my domains with Mythic Beasts for a couple of years now and the service and support is excellent. As it happens I had cause to raise a ticket this morning regarding my addition of another domain. It was replied to with 30 mins and the problem fixed first time!

So if I were you , I'd move my domain to Mythic, a basic email only package is £20/yr if paid annually https://www.mythic-beasts.com/hosting. Whilst in theory there's a method to transfer email without any downtime (https://www.mythic-beasts.com/support/domains/transfer-no-downtime), because the Plusnet domain control is so limited, you would need to transfer the registration to Mythic as well (£7/yr) and there would be up to 24 hr downtime whilst the nameserver changes propagate.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:55:32 GMT

Thank you @MisterW. I'll follow up your suggestion.

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

breslaw — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:16:31 GMT

I've been looking at how to move my domain to mythic beasts, following that link you provided. Although mythic beasts seem to provide a DIY process to achieve this, the PN web page for domains says:-

"If you want to transfer your domain, please call us on 0800 432 0200"

Re: Emails to one recipient no longer working

MisterW — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:27:10 GMT

Yes, once you've got the Mythic account open, mailboxes configured and any existing mail transferred, you will need to transfer the domain registration.mMost domain control systems provide a mechanism to change the IPSTAG, the Plusnet one doesn't and so you have to get Plusnet to do it manually. Calling customer support MAY work if you get someone who understands the request, otherwise posting on here usually works.