Searching for messages in the mail server logs

You can search for specific messages in the SMTP session logs (ports 25, 465, and 587), mail delivery logs, and Spamdyke logs via the Mail logs subsection of the Control Panel -> Logs section. You can find several examples on how to search for specific messages listed below:

• Searching for outgoing messages
• Searching for incoming messages

There is more information about the format of the log messages in the Mail Logs Format article.

Searching for outgoing messages

To search the mail server logs for a message that you have sent, you should use the following search criteria in the Mail logs subsection of the Control Panel -> Logs section:

Note: Replace mailboxname@example.com with your e-mail address, and recipient@example.com with the e-mail address of the recipient.

1. Enter the full mailbox you used for sending the message (e.g. mailboxname@example.com) in the Sender field.
2. Enter the full mailbox of the recipient (e.g. recipient@example.com) in the Recipient field. This setting is optional.
3. Select the time interval for your search via the Date interface.
4. From the Search in options, select the SMTP session logs and Mail delivery logs.
5. Press the Search button.

The SMTP session logs will show you any SMTP sessions matching the search criteria, while the mail delivery logs will show you detailed delivery information about the messages matching the search criteria.

Note: Messages sent by scripts in which the sender is not defined as a mailbox in your hosting account will be sent from a system mailbox on the server (e.g. anonymous@sXXX.sureserver.com). These messages will not appear in your search results.

Searching for incoming messages

If you would like to check the mail server logs for an incoming message addressed to any of your hosting account's mailboxes, you should use the following search criteria in the Mail logs subsection of the Control Panel -> Logs section:

Note: Replace mailboxname@example.com with your e-mail address, and sender@example.com with the e-mail address of the message sender.

1. Enter the full mailbox of the sender (e.g. sender@example.com) in the Sender field. This setting is optional.
2. Enter your full mailbox that the message was addressed to (e.g. mailboxname@example.com) in the Recipient field.
3. Select the time interval for your search via the Date interface.
4. From the Search in options, select the Mail delivery logs and Spamdyke logs.
5. Press the Search button.

The mail delivery logs will show you detailed information about the delivery status of your messages matching the search criteria, while the Spamdyke logs will show if the message was accepted or rejected by the Spamdyke protection service. More details about Spamdyke are available in our Spamdyke/Graylisting article.

Note: Messages addressed to mailboxes that do not exist in your hosting account will not appear in the search results; however, the sender will receive a bounce-back error message with more information about the failed delivery.