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Email Routing and how to configure it in cPanel

Last updated by Alex Gangat on March 25, 2020 11:46

What is Email Routing?

Email routing controls incoming/outgoing mail to the email accounts on the cPanel account.

It is really important to have this setting correctly configured if for instance it is set incorrectly then the mail service won't be able to deliver email for any accounts on that domain.

Some examples of this are:

If the mail is set to Remote but it's actually Local to the server (MX records pointing to the server), the incoming messages will be rejected. Mail sent from scripts will still be successful but will be rejected due to the same issue.

If mail is set to Local but the email is actually Remote (e.g. Office 365/Google Apps), email sent from web scripts or contact forms will not be delivered as the message never leaves the server.

To configure your Email Routing for a cPanel account.


1. Login to your cPanel account. When you first set up an account with us, you would have received an email with the details on how you can gain access to your control panel. If you have lost those details, feel free to raise a support ticket or call in.

2. Once logged in to your cPanel account navigate to Email Routing.

3. If you have add-on/subdomains then you will need to select the domain you want to change the email routing on from the drop-down menu, if you only have the one domain on the account ignore this step and move to step 4.

4. You will see 4 radio buttons:

  • Automatically Detect Configuration: This will automatically detect which type of routing to use based on which Mail Exchange (MX) records are in place.
  • Local Mail Exchanger: This means the server will accept mail for this domain and will deliver to the local mailbox.
  • Backup Mail Exchanger: This will make the server act as a backup Mail Exchanger and will hold mail until a Mail Exchanger (MX) with a lower priority number becomes available.
  • Remote Mail Exchanger: This will configure the server to not accept mail for this domain, and will send all mail to the lowest priority number Mail Exchanger (MX)

Once you select the correct mail routing option then you just need to click change and the setting will take effect.

If you are unsure of which setting to select feel free to raise a support ticket or call in and we will be happy to help.