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I'd like to use Gmail for Work for my own domain and I have troubles setting it up.

So, before that in my DNS config I had an "A" record (mail.example.com), pointing to the email server I used. Now, to use Gmail for Work, it is required to add a few "MX" records (starting with priority: 1) to my DNS config. I did that, but I left the "A" record there (with priority: 0). And the whole thing is not working properly.

Sometimes when I try to send an email (from a different email, like my hotmail address) to [email protected] it is ok, but sometimes (especially when I try to reply to an email received from [email protected]) I get this error:

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

[email protected]

Technical details of permanent failure:
We tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain example.com by mail.example.com. [OLD_SERVER_IP].

The error that the other server returned was:
550 relay not permitted by administrator

Is it because of the "A" record is still there? If not, how could I fix it? I spoke to the support team of my domain registrar and they told me that having the "A" record there is fine because the MX is also there and the email should not even touch the server I used before.

The changes were made about 5-6 hours ago.

Thank you very much four your help.

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  • 1
    Please provide the domain in question.
    – EEAA
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:06
  • Also, please provide the entire contents of the error message you posted.
    – EEAA
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:07
  • I take if you have enabled and validated the domain name in google apps and sufficient time has passed for DNS records to propagate.
    – albal
    Aug 6, 2015 at 18:27
  • I validated the domain name. I don't know how much time it takes to propagate the records, but the annoying thing is that it is only half-working. Sometimes when I try to send an email it is ok, but sometimes I get the error.
    – laszlokiss
    Aug 6, 2015 at 18:30
  • DNS does not propagate - but previous lookups may be cached around the internet. The caches will usually expire within a day or so. That's why, when you switch mailservers, you should have the old server forward to the new for a while during the switchover.
    – Jenny D
    Aug 6, 2015 at 19:28

2 Answers 2

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We tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain example.com by mail.example.com

If that's the A record of your OLD server as you pointed out in your question, there's your answer. You can't send email to your "Gmail for Work" account (let's say [email protected]) and expect your old mail server that isn't hosting mailboxes for [email protected] to accept them or relay them. The 550 error is because your mail.example.com server is getting the email sent to it and isn't setup to relay it again outbound to Google's servers.

You stated you left your A record with a priority of 0, which I am taking to mean you left it in the MX records list. If you aren't hosting mail for this example.com on that server anymore then it shouldn't be listed in your MX records at all. You can leave the A record around, but your MX records should only point to the FQDN or IPs of your mail host.

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  • Yes that is exactly the A record of my old server. I'm only scratching the surface here, I have no relevant knowledge with this kind of stuff, but as I sad my domain registrar support told me that the "A" record is fine there. This was a little suspicious for me to. For Google, I had to set these MX records: support.google.com/a/answer/174125?hl=en
    – laszlokiss
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:26
  • I have only one list, with the name, type, content, ttl and prio colums. And there is a value there "mydomain.com", "A", [OLD_SERVER_IP], 3600,0
    – laszlokiss
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:28
  • Your MX records should only contain your mail servers that send/receive email for that domain. If you are only hosting mail for that domain now on Google then the link you provided should be the only entries for your MX record. You shouldn't have the "mail.mydomain.com" record in the MX record at all. It's fine if you keep an A record around for it, but it shouldn't be in the MX record at this point if it isn't hosting mail for the domain.
    – TheCleaner
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:38
  • All MX records are pointing to Google's servers.
    – laszlokiss
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:41
  • and the name of the MX records is "example.com". Google said that it should be either blank or "@" but the UI where I'm managing the records does not allow to set either of those. So I have the mx records like this: "example.com", "MX", "ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM", 3600, 1
    – laszlokiss
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:50
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This seems to be related to the SMTP server you are using to send email. Not the MX record the rest of us are using to send you emails.

There isn't a lot of information in your question but the error 550 relay not permitted by administrator is pretty clear. Your SMTP server is refusing to relay emails using the credentials you provided.

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  • This is unlikely; the error message looks like the one his outgoing mailserver would use when the receiving mailserver refuses the email.
    – Jenny D
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:16
  • I don't think that either, I try to reply from a Gmail or Hotmail email account. I did not make any config there.
    – laszlokiss
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:22
  • @Jenny D, error 550 relay not permitted by X only pertains to SMTP authentication issues. So it would make much more sense that HIS smtp server is returning this error.
    – Alex
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:24
  • Are you using a mail client or the webmail from Gmail and Hotmail?
    – Alex
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:32
  • I am using the webmail from Gmail and Hotmail
    – laszlokiss
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:39

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