Error "554 Relay Access Denied" or "Not Permitted to Relay" Print

What the error means

If you try to send an email and it fails immediately with a message similar to:

554 5.7.1 <name@recipientdomain.tld>: Relay access denied

or a variation like "550 not permitted to relay" or "relaying denied," it means the mail server refused to accept your outgoing message because it could not verify that you are allowed to send through it. The server is not rejecting the recipient, it is rejecting you as an unauthenticated sender.

Mail servers only relay messages for users who prove who they are. Without that rule, anyone on the internet could send spam through the server. So this error is almost always an authentication or settings problem in your mail program, and it is fixable on your side in a few minutes.

The usual causes

• Outgoing authentication is switched off in your mail program. The most common cause by far. Your program is connecting to the outgoing (SMTP) server without logging in first.
• Wrong outgoing port. Some networks block port 25 for ordinary users, and older setups still try to use it. Outgoing mail should use port 465 (SSL) or 587 (TLS).
• Wrong outgoing server name. The outgoing server was set to your internet provider's server, or to a server your account doesn't exist on, often left over from an old setup or a migration.
• A saved password that is no longer correct. If the mailbox password was changed recently, the outgoing connection fails authentication and some programs report it as a relay error rather than a password error.

How to fix it

1. Open your mail program's account settings and find the outgoing (SMTP) server section.
2. Set the outgoing server to the same mail server as your incoming server, typically mail.yourdomain.tld.
3. Enable outgoing authentication. The setting is usually called "My outgoing server requires authentication" or "Use same settings as incoming." The username is your full email address, and the password is your mailbox password.
4. Set the port to 465 with SSL enabled (or 587 with TLS if 465 is not available).
5. Save and send a test message to an outside address such as a Gmail account, then reply to it, to confirm both directions work.

Still not working?

If the settings above are correct and you still see the error, the two remaining suspects are a recently changed password that hasn't been updated in the mail program, or your current network blocking the port. Try switching networks (for example from office Wi-Fi to mobile data) to rule out the network. If it still fails, open a support ticket and tell us the exact error message, which mail program and device you are using, and the email address involved, and we will check the account and server side for you.