Emails stuck in the delivery queue

Products

• Messaging Gateway Hardware

Issue/Introduction

Need assistance to check why emails stuck in the delivery queue

Environment

SMG 10.8 10.9

Resolution

To analyze why emails are stuck in the delivery queue, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Status > Message Queues in the Symantec Messaging Gateway (SMG) Control Center.

2. Under the Search Filters, do the following:

   • Set the Host field to the specific scanner where the emails are queued.

   • Set the Queue to Delivery.

   • Set the List to All.

This will display all emails currently in the delivery queue for the selected host.

If emails appear in the Delivery queue, it indicates that they have already been processed by SMG and an attempt was made to deliver them to the next-hop mail server. However, delivery has failed.

To determine the reason for the failure:

• Check the Error column for each queued email. This will provide the SMTP error or other reason why delivery was not successful (e.g., no mail server available, recipient server temporarily unavailable, etc.).

• Review the From and To addresses to determine if the messages were sent to valid and legitimate domains. Mass emails sent to non-existent or misconfigured domains often result in queuing due to DNS resolution issues or lack of reachable mail servers.

By examining the error messages and recipient domains, administrators can identify misconfigurations, temporary recipient-side issues, or invalid recipient addresses that are preventing email delivery.