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Emails just disappearing
Question asked by Dware - 10/9/2014 at 1:48 PM
Unanswered
Hello! 

Recently, we've had an issue with emails just disappearing to a specific domain. 
The logs confirm that they are sent out, but admins on the other side claim they don't ever see a log of the email ever hitting their server. 
 
Our mail server is the only server they have these sorts of problems with.
This is the only instance of this ever happening.  

An NSLookup of the domain in question on the email server proves the target MX records are as they should be. 

I could successfully telnet into the target server over port 25. 

There aren't any bouncebacks, or any indication that the email has been lost. 

Anyone have any experience with this kind of issue? 
 
Thanks!
Dicky

14 Replies

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Erick Baum Replied
We used to have this problem before we started using a delivery service. The problem was always a spam filter on the other end. Your mail server logs should show the communication with the remote server in your delivery log. If you can verify it was accepted by the remote server, then their server did something with the message. Unfortunately, not all mail server administrators know how to properly troubleshoot these issues so it can be a little frustrating. If you can verify that you handed it off in your delivery logs, the IP address of your server should be in their logs somewhere (assuming they have proper logging configured).
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Dware Replied
2014.10.09] 14:31:00 [12745] Delivery for ***OURDOMAIN*** to ***THEIRDOMAIN*** has completed (Delivered) Filter: None
[2014.10.09] 14:31:00 [12745] Delivery finished for ***OURDOMAIN*** at 2:31:00 PM [id:120599712745]


These two log lines are enough to prove our system has done its due diligence?

What's really weird is we don't get any bounce backs. Usually, if something gets filtered our clients forward us bounce backs. Here.... nothing....

It should also be mentioned that the target is a Rack Tables client, so I'm pretty sure they know their stuff. I want to say this is DNS related, but the NSlookup proves it's working just fine.
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Erick Baum Replied
Sorry, your SMTP logs would show the actual communication with the other mail server.
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Dware Replied
Clearly we're missing the communication from the log lines. Any ideas on further troubleshooting?
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Erick Baum Replied
Do you have your SMTP and Delivery log level set to Detailed?
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Dware Replied
We do have SMTP and delivery set to detailed, which is part of what makes this event really strange.
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Erick Baum Replied
You running the latest version of SmarterMail?
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Dware Replied
We are running 12.0 currently, but we were having this problem at 12.3 as well. The client said they weren't having trouble until we upgraded to 12.3, so we reverted to 12.0. Unfortunately unless we schedule in downtime we can't just throw up a new version.
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Erick Baum Replied
So even though you've downgraded back to 12.0 which you weren't having the problem with before, the problem stayed?
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Dware Replied
That is correct.
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Dware Replied
I don't think it's version related, but the timelines were very close, so it was our first shot at solving the issue.
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Erick Baum Replied
Do you use Declude to scan messages or any other third party spam/virus filters?
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Employee Replied
Employee Post
Hello Dware,
 
Thanks for the information on the steps to troubleshoot the missing emails. If you have not considered opening a Support ticket you may want to review the following two folders to see if there are any indication of the emails either being removed or possible placed into another location.
 
From what we have observed in the past is that either Declude was intercepting or removing the emails prior to delivery and in some instances the PROC folder in SmarterMail held the emails inadvertently.
 
As Erick mentioned, do you have any specific email scanning software or possible third party virus applications such as Declude installed ?  The other possible issue could be the PROC folder contains the emails. We have observed users enabling this security option in the SmarterMail application and not realize that this process will place messages into this folder to be analyzed in the background.
 
Security Shield | Antispam administration | Options | Enable spool proc folder
 
While the messages are in the Spool Proc folder, .hdr can manipulate elements of the message, such as edit, write, and add headers. Once the scan has been completed, the message will be placed back into the spool.
 
If I recall, the default location to the Declude log folder is: [C:\SmarterMail\Declude\logs.]  and the default location to the Proc folder is:
 
[C:\SmarterMail\Spool\proc]
 
Thanks.
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Walter Ndege Replied
Morning
We are having issue of mails disappearing in sent items folders of some of our members of staff. We are on smartermail version 13.3. What can be causing this? For example, mails disappearing in sent items folder up to 15.12.2015.

You can reach me on wndege@phoenix-assurance.com

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