Emails Stuck in Queue with "Retry time not reached" and "Connection timed out" Errors

Vinicius Nogueira

• July 11, 2025 14:17

Hi,

Out of nowhere, emails on my server stopped sending. They remain in the queue and are not being delivered. The error messages I see in the Exim queue are:

• retry time not reached for any host for

• retry time not reached

• Connection timed out

I have already contacted my hosting provider (Hostinger VPS), and they confirmed that port 25 is open and not blocked from their end.

This issue is affecting all outgoing mail attempts, and the queue keeps growing with messages stuck due to these errors.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Any suggestions on what might be causing this or how to further troubleshoot it within WHM/cPanel?

Thanks in advance!

• 

  mtindor

  • July 11, 2025 15:09

  If it is truly affecting ALL outbound mail, it sounds like the firewall on your server (CSF?) is blocking outbound TCP 25.

  If you have access via SSH, just try telnetting (assuming telnet is installed) some remote mail server port 25 such as "telnet smtp.google.com".   If you do that, you should get something like:

  220 mx.google.com ESMTP a1e0cc1a2514c-888ec214f99si1153451241.38 - gsmtp

  If you don't get a 220 message when telnetting TCP 25 of a remote mail server, then your issue is likely a firewall issue where your firewall is blocking TCP 25 outbound.

   

   

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• 

  quietFinn

  • July 12, 2025 12:16

  "telnet smtp.google.com" does not work, it has to be "telnet smtp.google.com 25"

   

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  Vinicius Nogueira

  • July 14, 2025 18:47

  I tested telnet smtp.google.com 25 and got the following:
  
  Trying 2607:f8b0:4004:c17::1b...
  Connected to smtp.google.com.
  Escape character is '^]'.
  220 mx.google.com ESMTP 6a1803df08f44-70497df24f0si103804976d6.482 - gsmtp

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  Vinicius Nogueira

  • July 14, 2025 18:54

  I think the following is happening: there's an email configured for mass XML dispatch to clients, and it was getting stuck in the queue, exceeding the maximum emails per hour. I suspect it's hitting a sending timeout from the providers themselves. Could this be it, or could it be an internal system freeze?

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