add external contact

Question

can't receive email from external contact e.g. from my home email

Answer 1

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

To help narrow down the issue:

1. Could you describe your Outlook setup for me? For example, is it a work/school or personal account, and what type of account are you using (Microsoft 365, Outlook.com, Exchange, etc.)?
2. Have you checked if emails from your home account might be going to the Junk or Other folders?

---

Click "Add comment" to let me know.

Regards,

John J.D.

Answer 2

If you're unable to receive emails from an external contact, such as your home email, there are a few things you can check:

1. Network Configuration: Ensure that your network allows connections from the IP addresses used by Microsoft 365 datacenters. This is crucial for receiving emails from external sources.
2. Contact Configuration: Verify that the external contact's email address is correctly set up in your Exchange or Microsoft 365 environment. If the primary SMTP address is missing or invalid, this can prevent emails from being delivered. You can check this in the Exchange admin center by editing the external contact and ensuring the email address is formatted correctly.
3. Email Filtering: Check if any email filtering rules or spam settings might be blocking emails from that external contact. Sometimes, emails can be inadvertently marked as spam.
4. Throttling Issues: If there has been suspicious activity from the external contact's IP address, it may be temporarily restricted. In such cases, the sender might receive an NDR (Non-Delivery Report) indicating that access is denied.

By addressing these areas, you should be able to resolve the issue of not receiving emails from external contacts.

---

References:

• Microsoft 365 throttled traffic from my IP address
• "550 5.2.0 RESOLVER.ADR.BadPrimary" when an Exchange Online user sends mail to an external contact