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  3. issue with mailing list delivery when using external SMTP server

issue with mailing list delivery when using external SMTP server

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Solved Support
mailmail relaysmtpmailing-lists
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  • girishG
    girishG
    girish
    Staff
    wrote on last edited by
    #5

    I think this has been reported previously about mailing list. Cloudron uses SRS but gmail and friends don't support SRS. I don't have an answer but we have to investigate on our side whether we can implement mailing list "reliably". So far, it's a low priority since the main use case for mailing list is internal mail distribution and it's not a real mailing list like the kernel mailing lists with external people . The feature initially came from Groups feature of Cloudron which was just forwarding mail to internal users.

    avatar1024A 1 Reply Last reply
    2
    • girishG girish

      I think this has been reported previously about mailing list. Cloudron uses SRS but gmail and friends don't support SRS. I don't have an answer but we have to investigate on our side whether we can implement mailing list "reliably". So far, it's a low priority since the main use case for mailing list is internal mail distribution and it's not a real mailing list like the kernel mailing lists with external people . The feature initially came from Groups feature of Cloudron which was just forwarding mail to internal users.

      avatar1024A
      avatar1024A
      avatar1024
      wrote on last edited by avatar1024
      #6

      @girish Hi Girish, I see the issue you mean (I also reported it a while ago, it was about double forward) but this one is different (although the cause might be same). Before switching to the external SMTP the mailing list was working fine for this use case, it's only after switching that it started happening.

      While the other issue was a bit niche, this issue / use case seems more critical as it affects the basic functioning of mailing lists when using an external smtp.

      1 Reply Last reply
      2
      • sponchS
        sponchS
        sponch
        wrote on last edited by
        #7

        Same here (since sending through Brevo (Sendinblue)).

        1 Reply Last reply
        3
        • avatar1024A
          avatar1024A
          avatar1024
          wrote on last edited by
          #8

          To add to this, I've tested it sending only to internal users, with then a subsequent forward with a sieve filter to the @gmail/@posteo adresses, it also fails.

          It feels this makes Cloudron mailing lists unusable with external SMTP.

          1 Reply Last reply
          1
          • avatar1024A
            avatar1024A
            avatar1024
            wrote on last edited by avatar1024
            #9

            I've also tried to create a mailbox (test@mydomain.coop) and set-up a redirect with roundcube to three "external" email addressed (@gmail / @posteo), delivery fails with all of them. So it is not specifically with Cloudron mailing lists but a bigger issue with redirects in general. @staff any clues?

            1 Reply Last reply
            1
            • avatar1024A avatar1024 referenced this topic on
            • J joseph has marked this topic as solved on
            • avatar1024A
              avatar1024A
              avatar1024
              wrote on last edited by
              #10

              Do we know why this has been marked as solved?

              1 Reply Last reply
              1
              • jamesJ
                jamesJ
                james
                Staff
                wrote on last edited by
                #11

                Hello @avatar1024
                Since @joseph marked this topic as solved on 02.03.2026 and the last response was 16.07.2025 it could be that a Cloudron update has resolved this issue since then.
                Do you still experience this issue and if so on what Cloudron version?

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • girishG
                  girishG
                  girish
                  Staff
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #12

                  @avatar1024 external relay services will only relay addresses that you added to them explicitly. So if you added foo.com into postmark, postmark will only relay email address which have From as *@foo.com .

                  The idea of mail forwarding is that the From address has to be that of the original. So, the From address has to set to say someone@posteo.com . Postmark will reject these emails (correctly).

                  So to summarize: domain-locked relays and keeping the original sender on forwards/lists do not go together. You can relay or you can transparently forward third-party mail, not both. There's nothing Cloudron can do about this from what I know.

                  avatar1024A 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • girishG girish

                    @avatar1024 external relay services will only relay addresses that you added to them explicitly. So if you added foo.com into postmark, postmark will only relay email address which have From as *@foo.com .

                    The idea of mail forwarding is that the From address has to be that of the original. So, the From address has to set to say someone@posteo.com . Postmark will reject these emails (correctly).

                    So to summarize: domain-locked relays and keeping the original sender on forwards/lists do not go together. You can relay or you can transparently forward third-party mail, not both. There's nothing Cloudron can do about this from what I know.

                    avatar1024A
                    avatar1024A
                    avatar1024
                    wrote on last edited by avatar1024
                    #13

                    @girish said:

                    @avatar1024 external relay services will only relay addresses that you added to them explicitly. So if you added foo.com into postmark, postmark will only relay email address which have From as *@foo.com .

                    The idea of mail forwarding is that the From address has to be that of the original. So, the From address has to set to say someone@posteo.com . Postmark will reject these emails (correctly).

                    So to summarize: domain-locked relays and keeping the original sender on forwards/lists do not go together. You can relay or you can transparently forward third-party mail, not both. There's nothing Cloudron can do about this from what I know.

                    Thanks for the explainer @girish. Does that means one cannot use an external relay to replace the built in SMTP server if we use mailing lists (or the mailbox + forward implementation in Cloudron 10) - given most likely senders and mailing lists members with use random email providers?

                    girishG 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • avatar1024A avatar1024

                      @girish said:

                      @avatar1024 external relay services will only relay addresses that you added to them explicitly. So if you added foo.com into postmark, postmark will only relay email address which have From as *@foo.com .

                      The idea of mail forwarding is that the From address has to be that of the original. So, the From address has to set to say someone@posteo.com . Postmark will reject these emails (correctly).

                      So to summarize: domain-locked relays and keeping the original sender on forwards/lists do not go together. You can relay or you can transparently forward third-party mail, not both. There's nothing Cloudron can do about this from what I know.

                      Thanks for the explainer @girish. Does that means one cannot use an external relay to replace the built in SMTP server if we use mailing lists (or the mailbox + forward implementation in Cloudron 10) - given most likely senders and mailing lists members with use random email providers?

                      girishG
                      girishG
                      girish
                      Staff
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #14

                      @avatar1024 said:

                      Does that means one cannot use an external relay to replace the built in SMTP server if we use mailing lists (or the mailbox + forward implementation in Cloudron 10) - given most likely senders and mailing lists members with use random email providers?

                      Yes, with a typical smart host / relay you cannot keep the original sender on list/forward delivery to Gmail/Posteo/etc.

                      I want to mention that this is for the forwarding feature. Forwarding requires From address to be preserved. A mailing list behaves differently. It rewrites From/Reply-To etc and makes itself the originator of the email. This feature was never implemented in Cloudron. The forwarding feature was incorrectly labeled as mailing list and this misnaming is fixed in Cloudron 10.

                      I guess we have to look into Distribution lists/mailing lists for the next releases, if you are interested in this. But the From address will change, not sure if it will work for your use case. It's usually meant for group@example.com or list@example.com style workflows.

                      avatar1024A 1 Reply Last reply
                      2
                      • girishG girish

                        @avatar1024 said:

                        Does that means one cannot use an external relay to replace the built in SMTP server if we use mailing lists (or the mailbox + forward implementation in Cloudron 10) - given most likely senders and mailing lists members with use random email providers?

                        Yes, with a typical smart host / relay you cannot keep the original sender on list/forward delivery to Gmail/Posteo/etc.

                        I want to mention that this is for the forwarding feature. Forwarding requires From address to be preserved. A mailing list behaves differently. It rewrites From/Reply-To etc and makes itself the originator of the email. This feature was never implemented in Cloudron. The forwarding feature was incorrectly labeled as mailing list and this misnaming is fixed in Cloudron 10.

                        I guess we have to look into Distribution lists/mailing lists for the next releases, if you are interested in this. But the From address will change, not sure if it will work for your use case. It's usually meant for group@example.com or list@example.com style workflows.

                        avatar1024A
                        avatar1024A
                        avatar1024
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #15

                        @girish said:

                        @avatar1024 said:

                        Does that means one cannot use an external relay to replace the built in SMTP server if we use mailing lists (or the mailbox + forward implementation in Cloudron 10) - given most likely senders and mailing lists members with use random email providers?

                        Yes, with a typical smart host / relay you cannot keep the original sender on list/forward delivery to Gmail/Posteo/etc.

                        I want to mention that this is for the forwarding feature. Forwarding requires From address to be preserved. A mailing list behaves differently. It rewrites From/Reply-To etc and makes itself the originator of the email. This feature was never implemented in Cloudron. The forwarding feature was incorrectly labeled as mailing list and this misnaming is fixed in Cloudron 10.

                        I guess we have to look into Distribution lists/mailing lists for the next releases, if you are interested in this. But the From address will change, not sure if it will work for your use case. It's usually meant for group@example.com or list@example.com style workflows.

                        Thanks Girish, and yes a mailing list feature will be useful for some of my use case.

                        I guess the point here is that it's a shame there isn't a way to use an external relay as a blanket replacement (i.e. covering all email features including forwarding) to the built-in SMTP server cause those services have added features to ensure reliable delivery (say when the server has a bad IP rep and gets regularly blocked notably by Microsoft stupid IP range blacklist approach).

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        1
                        • M
                          M
                          msbt
                          App Dev Super Fan
                          wrote on last edited by msbt
                          #16

                          Just chiming in here because I ran into the same problem (i.e. a formerly working Postmark email forwarder for a group of externals is not working anymore, because none of them use the cloudrons' domain). What's the current solution, set up a separate mailinglist app? Or would switching to the internal mailserver solve it?

                          Happy Hosting & Web Development

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • girishG
                            girishG
                            girish
                            Staff
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #17

                            @msbt does postmark have more info on why it is rejecting the email?

                            so from all my research on this, forwarding via a smart host (especially postmark) is not solvable. Postmark doesn't allow the envelope from and the email from addresses to mismatch. Fundamentally, this means forwarding will not work the way you want.

                            M 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • girishG girish

                              @msbt does postmark have more info on why it is rejecting the email?

                              so from all my research on this, forwarding via a smart host (especially postmark) is not solvable. Postmark doesn't allow the envelope from and the email from addresses to mismatch. Fundamentally, this means forwarding will not work the way you want.

                              M
                              M
                              msbt
                              App Dev Super Fan
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #18

                              @girish but why was it working on Cloudron 9? It only stopped after upgrading to 10, when addresses got migrated from mailinglist to forwards.

                              That's the odd thing, there's not really a proper error message, no suppression in Postmark itself. In the mail logs it just says [cloudron] final rcpt list is ["<group@example.com>","<cc1@somesite.com>","<cc2@gmail.com>"]. The mail arrived at the two cc'ed addresses, but the group@example.com forwards never make it. Maybe because LMTP bypasses the filters?

                              Happy Hosting & Web Development

                              girishG 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • M msbt

                                @girish but why was it working on Cloudron 9? It only stopped after upgrading to 10, when addresses got migrated from mailinglist to forwards.

                                That's the odd thing, there's not really a proper error message, no suppression in Postmark itself. In the mail logs it just says [cloudron] final rcpt list is ["<group@example.com>","<cc1@somesite.com>","<cc2@gmail.com>"]. The mail arrived at the two cc'ed addresses, but the group@example.com forwards never make it. Maybe because LMTP bypasses the filters?

                                girishG
                                girishG
                                girish
                                Staff
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #19

                                @msbt internally, the behavior of the previous mailing list and current forwarding is the same. It was only a rewording to clarify what the feature is doing. So, I think we have to investigate further why it has stopped working in Cloudron 10.

                                Don't you see anything on the postmark logs? You should see three separate emails coming to postmark (the to and the two ccs). You should also see the 3 events in the cloudron eventlog. Do you see a mail to group@example.com ?

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • M
                                  M
                                  msbt
                                  App Dev Super Fan
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #20

                                  @girish no, postmark never sees the group@example.com because it's internal mail

                                  Happy Hosting & Web Development

                                  girishG 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • M msbt

                                    @girish no, postmark never sees the group@example.com because it's internal mail

                                    girishG
                                    girishG
                                    girish
                                    Staff
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #21

                                    @msbt ah, that's why you said LMTP! And nothing in Cloudron eventlog?

                                    @james can you help reproduce this please?

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • M
                                      M
                                      msbt
                                      App Dev Super Fan
                                      wrote on last edited by msbt
                                      #22

                                      @girish in Cloudron everything looks normal, in the last row it lists the external group mailbox, internal team and the 2 external cc'ed users (cut off), the internal mails get saved, the cc'ed ones sent, but the group never attempts to forward the mails.

                                      image.jpeg

                                      Happy Hosting & Web Development

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      1
                                      • jamesJ
                                        jamesJ
                                        james
                                        Staff
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #23

                                        Hello @msbt
                                        I need to understand the set up first to reproduce it.

                                        1. domain in Cloudron e.g.: cloudron.dev
                                        2. mail settings for cloudron.dev smart host configured to use postmark
                                        3. 2x mailboxes on Cloudron for group@cloudron.dev and team@cloudron.dev
                                          3a. (group|team)@cloudron.dev are configured to forward to e.g.: someinbox@gmail.com
                                        4. a mail is sent to (group|team)@cloudron.dev and 2x cc e.g.: cc1@gmail.com and cc2@outlook.com

                                        Resulting in:

                                        • cc1 and cc2 delivered
                                        • group and team saved locally on Cloudron, but never forwarded to someinbox@gmail.com

                                        Did I get this right?

                                        M 1 Reply Last reply
                                        1
                                        • jamesJ
                                          jamesJ
                                          james
                                          Staff
                                          wrote on last edited by james
                                          #24

                                          Hello @msbt
                                          I have tested the following set up on Cloudron 10.0.4:

                                          • domain cloudron.dev smart host configured for postmark
                                          • local inbox groupone@cloudron.dev owned by a group named groupone
                                          • local inbox grouptwo@cloudron.dev owned by a group named grouptwo

                                          Forward settings:

                                          • groupone@cloudron.dev forward settings to grouptwo@cloudron.dev and external@gmail.com
                                          • grouptwo@cloudron.dev forward settings to external@outlook.com

                                          Sending a mail to groupone@cloudron.dev is delivered to:

                                          • groupone@cloudron.dev
                                          • grouptwo@cloudron.dev
                                          • external@gmail.com
                                          • external@outlook.com

                                          From this set up I was not able to reproduce your issue.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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