Topics Map > Communication and collaboration > Email

Email, Emails Being Missed or Not Arriving

To figure out why emails aren't showing up where you expect them to, or where they are ending up instead, start by checking these settings.

EDE Mail Delivery

The first step in tracking down a missing email is to ensure that email routing is set up correctly for your account. Log in to the Electronic Directory Editor (EDE) and look for the mail field. It should be one of the following:

For more information on using EDE and configuring forwarding, please see  Email, How to set up email forwarding.

Caveats

If external email is redirected away from the University's mail server (by setting this to anything besides @mx.uillinois.edu), Technology Services will not be able to track what happens to a message afterwards.

Current staff members are not able to edit this setting, and by default must use their @illinois.edu email address for conducting university business, rather than directing mail elsewhere.

Google Apps @ Illinois is only provided as a service to current students, faculty, and staff; others should not use the @g.illinois.edu setting.

Changes to the EDE mail field may take up to 4 hours to sync with the mail server, and will not take effect immediately.

Inbox Rules

If messages are staying on the University mail server (EDE mail field is @mx.uillinois.edu or @g.illinois.edu) but you are not finding them where you expect, next check if you have any inbox rules or filtering set up. These can be used to redirect or file away some messages, and may be catching mail you don't expect them to.

For Microsoft accounts, Outlook's rules can be found here: https://outlook.office.com/mail/options/mail/rules

For Google accounts, Gmail's filters can be found here: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/filters

Email software (such as the installed version of Outlook, Apple Mail, or smartphone applications) can also perform sorting, filtering, or redirection on its own, or its connection to the mail server may fall out of sync. Check the Outlook web app for missing messages or different contents to see if this is the case. If messages appear in the website but not in your email software, try removing the account from the software and adding it back.

Other potential causes

Spam

Missing emails may have inadvertently been flagged as spam.

Messages that are marked as spam often end up in your Proofpoint Spam Digest. Also be sure to check Deleted, Spam, Junk, etc. folders.

Preferred Address

If you are a student and you are having issues receiving course emails (from your instructors), please check that your preferred email address in UI Self Service (under the Personal Information > Email Addresses tab at https://apps.uillinois.edu/selfservice) is correct. If it is not listed correctly, please see Enterprise, University Assigned, Preferred Email Address.

Still missing email?

If you're able to provide the Technology Services Help Desk with a specific example of an email that's gone missing, we may be able to track down whether or not the mail server saw it and what may have happened to it. Contact the Help Desk by email at consult@illinois.edu or by phone at 217-244-7000 and provide the following details:

  • timestamp the message was sent (or a date and a range of hours, if the exact time is not known)
  • sending address the message originated from
  • recipient address the message was sent to
  • subject of the message, if known


Keywords:
forward redirect redirecting missing miss course emails exchange email delivery log logs splunk trace history 
Doc ID:
72756
Owned by:
Exchange M. in University of Illinois Technology Services
Created:
2017-04-20
Updated:
2024-09-16
Sites:
University of Illinois Technology Services