Forward email problem

[jnmacuser]

Hi all,

I've got a little problem. We're running OSX Server 10.4 i believe and a number of Macs networked to it.

An email forward was setup by editting the aliases file so that all emails sent to "bob" were forwarded to "bob@hotmail.com".

Unfortunately the forwarding address was incorrect and the problem wasn't rectified until a few days after the forward was setup. All emails sent to bob were met with a message informing them that it couldn't be sent.

The email address has now be changed so it's correct. However the question i have to ask is what happened to all of the emails sent between when the forward was setup and when the forward was fixed? Have they stayed in "bob"s inbox and can we forward those emails to "bob@hotmail.com", or did they just not get delivered at all?

Thanks in advance for any help.

jim

[macworks]

They didn't get delivered at all because bob had no mailbox on your server. However, when an email SMTP server is passed a message to deliver, it typically continues trying for up to 4 hours. I don't know if this behavior is affected by your server responding with "Undeliverable" or not.

[jnmacuser]

That's pretty much the conclusion i came to. If all emails are being answered with a message saying they weren't delivered then the senders would know that and would try again.

Didn't know it continued trying for 4 hours, not that that really helps here, but it's always good to know!

Thanks for your help Chris.

[Kees Buijs]

Originally Posted by jnmacuser

That's pretty much the conclusion i came to. If all emails are being answered with a message saying they weren't delivered then the senders would know that and would try again.

Didn't know it continued trying for 4 hours, not that that really helps here, but it's always good to know!

Thanks for your help Chris.

As far as i know, it will keep trying even longer with a interval of 4 hours. Only if the message are copied on you mailserver, they are lost (or undeliverable or send to a special user).

If the user gets that message depends on the settings of the receiving mailserver as some mailservers dump all mail to unrecognised email addresses. Best is to send a message to all know users to ask if they want to resend any messages send in the last days.


Good luck, Kees