Can you help me troubleshoot this Gmail problem?

October 19, 2021 9:02 AM

Please bear with me because I'm not a tech person, but I'm having a Gmail problem related to my work and it's making me scared and unhappy. Can you help me troubleshoot it?

I have my personal gmail account -- Blah@gmail.
I have my professional email -- WorkBlah@BlahDomain. This was set up through Weebly 8 years ago.

Up until today, all email sent to WorkBlah arrived in my Blah@gmail inbox. I could reply to it and my outgoing email shows as being from WorkBlah. I could write a new email and choose whether to make it look like it was coming from WorkBlah or just Blah.

Starting today:
-- I received an email to WorkBlah and responded. I got this bounce message: You no longer have access to WorkBlah@BlahDomain. To send this email, choose a different "from" address and try again. Learn more at https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370?hl=
-- When I follow that "learn more" link and follow the instructions, I go to my gmail settings and accounts and see that WorkBlah is already there, and the option to respond from that email is enabled. I've also tried signing out and signing in again.
-- I can still receive emails to WorkBlah. I can't send from WorkBlah.

Is this a Weebly-side problem? I've sent a help request to them; they're super slow at responding. I'm definitely fulled paid up on the Weebly end.

Can you help me figure out what's going wrong?

posted by BlahLaLa to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

Do you own BlahDomain? Is Weebly looking after it for you? When does your registration for BlahDomain expire and need to be renewed? Did that happen correctly?
In terms of Weebly, they may have blocked GMail passing mail through Weebly or GMail using trusted credentials to send-on-behalf of Weebly's mail system at BlahDomain.
posted by k3ninho at 9:31 AM on October 19, 2021

Response by poster: Yes, I own BlahDomain and Weebly is looking after it for me. My registration is paid up until next year and didn't renew recently.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:36 AM on October 19, 2021

I think the issue lies within your "workblah" settings not your GMail settings for "blah". Maybe you have to reauthorize blah to send from workblah. From your first bullet point under Starting today, I think it is saying that workblah has revoked permission to send as them and you need to reauthorize or delete and reset up.
posted by AugustWest at 9:49 AM on October 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Friends, I did finally get through to Weebly customer service. Here's what they said:

"I have updated the MX records. It can take 24 hours to process, however most of the time a few hours. Try the email again in a few hours and it should be working."

So first of all I will wait a few hours and hopefully it'll be working. But can someone tell me what "MX records" means? (Weebly customer service is annoying to access so I don't want to try asking them this.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:12 AM on October 19, 2021

Wikipedia: A mail exchanger record (MX record) specifies the mail server responsible for accepting email messages on behalf of a domain name.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:26 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Sounds like Weebly made an incorrect change or had some other issue that made your blah email not able to access workblah at the same place it usually did.
posted by AugustWest at 10:49 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Adding to the MX record note: some very basic spam and phishing filters will not accept email from a different outbound mail server to the MX record - gmail is blocking you from sending in this state to preserve its own server’s reputation, if you’ll forgive a very basic explanation.
posted by carbide at 10:59 AM on October 19, 2021

Response by poster: I really appreciate the explanations so far. If any of you have the patience to keep checking this thread, I will update it if I have any further questions. Email definitely isn't working yet...but it's only been a hour.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:09 AM on October 19, 2021

Response by poster: The current update is that earlier today, I could still receive emails to WorkBlah. Now, I can't. People who try to write to me get this message:

550 5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or unnecessary spaces. Learn more at https://support.google.com/mail/?p=NoSuchUser d7sor611402ilv.52 - gsmtp

Does this sound like a normal part of the process as things reset?
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:28 PM on October 19, 2021

Best answer: That does not sound normal. That sounds like support misunderstood your request.

I'm assuming your mail server was hosted by Weebly, and then you either had it forwarded to Gmail from the weebly side, or had Gmail accessing that mail server and downloading the email? Also that you do not have a Google Workspace account (paid or grandfathered) with google providing the mail server for your work domain?

My guess is that the support person changed your MX records as if you had a Google Workspace setup, when you do not, and now Google is bouncing the emails because, as far as their mail servers are concerned, "WorkBlah@BlahDomain" isn't a customer.

You can look up the MX records of your own domain at any number of sites - the top google search was MXToolbox. If you type your domain into that site, and it turns up a bunch of records that end in google.com, as shown in the Google Workspace support page, that will confirm that bit of the problem. At that point, unless you really do have Google Workspace, then you need to go back to Weebly and have them fix your MX records to point to wherever your actual mail server is. That will restore your inbound mail at least.
posted by yuwtze at 3:26 PM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My wife ran into an issue last night that sounds very similar to what you’re dealing with. This is how she fixed it (this is very much not step-by-step directions, but if you’re close to the answer this might get you across the finish line).
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 4:45 PM on October 19, 2021

Response by poster: If anyone is still paying attention to this thread, I'm diving into it again this morning.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:50 AM on October 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Still in customer service hell -- because it feels like the 1st half of the problem is on Weebly's end, and the second has to do with Gmail's alias problem that a lot of people are having. I need to fix the first part first, so I can at least receive the emails.
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:38 PM on October 20, 2021

Response by poster: I keep updating this just in case some future person finds it helpful. Today I managed to get Weebly to undo whatever they did yesterday, so I now can receive emails again...mostly. For some reason when I send from my personal gmail to my work email, it just disappears into the ether. Tomorrow I'll try to deal with that and solve the alias solution, which I haven't been able to manage by following some of the ideas in those reddit threads.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:43 PM on October 20, 2021

Response by poster: (I asked a follow-up question later as the problem continued...)
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:11 PM on November 6, 2021