My MX record points at a mail server with no address

Updated 2026-10-17

Short answer: your MX records tell other mail servers where to deliver your email. If one points at a name with no address, mail to you can bounce or be delayed, often after an email provider change where the old records were left behind.

How to check it yourself

  1. Look up your MX records: dig MX yourdomain.com.
  2. For each mail server name, look up its address: dig A mailservername and dig AAAA mailservername.
  3. Any that return nothing are broken.
  4. Remove old MX records, and make sure the ones left match your current email provider's instructions.

Why it matters

Your MX records tell the world which servers accept email for your domain. If an MX record points at a name that doesn't resolve to any address, senders can't deliver to it. Depending on the other records, mail can be delayed, bounced or silently lost, and you only find out when someone says they emailed you.

Common causes

  • The domain moved email providers and an old MX record was left behind.
  • The mail server's own DNS record was deleted while the MX still points at it.
  • A typo in the MX record's target name.
  • The MX points at a CNAME or a name that only exists inside a private network.

What Preventionlabs shows

Every report's DNS section checks for mail servers with no address, alongside your email authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).

Price

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