Why is email delivery being delayed so long?

I am having an issue where incoming email is being delayed sometimes by as much as 12 hours when an identical email, sent at the same time, to my spouse arrives almost instantly. I will paste the headers of one of the emails below (scrubbed or privacy). If I am reading it right the email is sent at 8:33 Pacific time but does not arrive at the webhosts mailbox until 22:28 Pacific. It is then finally delivered to my gmail box at 23:38 Pacific. I don't see anything alarming in the headers to tell me why it would be getting delayed by over 12 hours. Any ideas what to do or look for? Headers of the email are below: Delivered-To: m-----------------@gmail.com Received: by 2002:a81:2285:0:0:0:0:0 with SMTP id i127csp394398ywi; Mon, 22 Feb 2021 23:38:37 -0800 (PST) X-Google-Smtp-Source: ABdhPJwz5uayKjiydX7gq3CAgq00ZXOKDnWBjAnOAKezf1PEKXy9amnLv4WOAUCj2h+YnrGOalDtcTJNq/c= X-Received: by 2002:a4a:9c85:: with SMTP id z5mr18985555ooj.93.1614065916464; Mon, 22 Feb 2021 23:38:36 -0800 (PST) Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of p-----------------@gmail.com designates 209.85.160.172 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=p---------------@gmail.com; dkim=pass header.i=@gmail.com header.s=20161025 header.b=M+hKFGhE Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of p--------------@gmail.com designates 209.85.160.172 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.85.160.172; Received: by 2002:a05:6808:1382:: with POP3 id c2mf3258766oiw.6; Mon, 22 Feb 2021 23:38:36 -0800 (PST) X-Gmail-Fetch-Info: j----------------.org 3 mail.--------------.org 110 j------------------.org Return-Path: Delivered-To: j-------------------.org Received: from ---------------hosting.net by ---------------hosting.net with LMTP id EKgFBqigNGCHSgAAXFtjMQ (envelope-from ) for ; Tue, 23 Feb 2021 06:28:56 +0000 Return-path: Envelope-to: j----------------.org Delivery-date: Tue, 23 Feb 2021 06:28:56 +0000 Received: from mail-qt1-f172.google.com ([209.85.160.172]:43150) by ------------------hosting.net with esmtps (TLS1.2) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (Exim 4.93) (envelope-from ) id 1lERBc-0004xV-1W for j-----------.org; Tue, 23 Feb 2021 06:28:56 +0000 Received: by mail-qt1-f172.google.com with SMTP id b3so3657354qtj.10 for ; Mon, 22 Feb 2021 22:28:18 -0800 (PST) **removed DKIM, etc** X-Gm-Message-State: AOAM532CJyggdiYT9lMaGkZ5oTiITwC8pF9b3+J25xSNa4GW3gnUnLBY 3sKdcGeqcV+31IDcO+Yo4AUMPXZAtbq/+A== X-Received: by 2002:a37:a811:: with SMTP id r17mr21952529qke.332.1614011592967; Mon, 22 Feb 2021 08:33:12 -0800 (PST) Received: from ?IPv6:2603:7000:3200:1564:1c16:3fc3:1dab:2690? (2603-7000-3200-1564-1c16-3fc3-1dab-2690.res6.spectrum.com. [2603:7000:3200:1564:1c16:3fc3:1dab:2690]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id t71sm12507732qka.86.2021.02.22.08.33.12 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128/128); Mon, 22 Feb 2021 08:33:12 -0800 (PST) Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-893EEF3E-66A5-4978-A5B8-2628A703F238 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Peter -------------------------@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0) Subject: Re: Artist Fellowship Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2021 11:33:11 -0500

ffeingol

February 27, 2021 00:46

Try pasting the headers here: Messageheader It will help you see how long the mail was in each server long it's path.

cPRex Jurassic Moderator

March 01, 2021 14:00

I would also check the mail logs directly on your server in /var/log/exim_mainlog to see if the mail transaction is being handled quickly there. If you see the message being accepted by Gmail quickly on your server side, you can at least be confident that the issue is not with your system, but something external to your machine.

maestroc

March 03, 2021 01:11

Try pasting the headers here: https://postimg.cc/CRdRg0PR]https://i.postimg.cc/CRdRg0PR/2021-03-02-20-08-50-Messageheader.png

March 13, 2021 14:57

Anyone know why things would be getting held up like this? Just got another one that appears it was sitting at google for 32 hours. Apparently this is happening with multiple senders. Not all emails are delayed but a lot of them are... And in looking at this, are they really getting held up at google or is it in the chain between cpanel and sending it on? [url=https://postimg.cc/ftL1LVWP]https://i.postimg.cc/ftL1LVWP/2021-03-13-09-55-24-Messageheader.png

March 14, 2021 02:06

I am being told by a google person that it is taking 20 seconds for him to connect to my MX server and that google times out after 10-15. Any idea what might be causing this or what I should do to fix it?

ottdev

March 14, 2021 12:00

Check your mail server statistics for clues as to whether it's not keeping up with volume. Also, test from several non-gmail sender accounts - do they arrive quickly .... is the issue with all inbound or only inbound from Gmail ? Check to see if any gmail IPs are blocked in your firewall ?

March 15, 2021 14:27

@maestroc - the 20-second delay is normal as outlined here:

microvax

October 23, 2021 00:15

Hello, It seems like I have this problem too. Today I received a report of an email that was sent today in the morning (using Gmail) appeared in the destination inbox (in my CPanel server) almost 9 hours after. PS: Greylisting is disabled in my server

cPanelAnthony

October 24, 2021 16:42

Hello @microvax Can you confirm whether or not these delayed emails actually exist in your Exim queue? There is a chance that they are stuck in the queue, but haven't yet been delivered. Next time you notice an email hasn't arrived, try checking "Mail Queue Manager" in WHM to see if it's actually on the server.

Why is email delivery being delayed so long?

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