Configuring Email Forwarding in Plesk

Email forwarding allows you to automatically redirect incoming emails from one address to another. This is useful for consolidating email accounts, routing departmental emails, or ensuring you receive messages at your preferred inbox. This guide covers all forwarding options available in Plesk on {{COMPANY_NAME}} Windows hosting.

Types of Email Forwarding

1. Forward and keep a copy -- Emails are forwarded to another address and also stored in the original mailbox
2. Forward only (no local mailbox) -- Emails are forwarded to another address without keeping a copy
3. Catch-all forwarding -- All emails sent to non-existent addresses at your domain are forwarded to a specific address

Setting Up Basic Email Forwarding

Step 1: Log in to Plesk

Access your Plesk panel and navigate to your domain.

Step 2: Go to Mail Settings

1. Click Mail in the left sidebar
2. Click on the email address you want to set up forwarding for

Step 3: Configure Forwarding

1. Click the Forwarding tab
2. Check the box Activate mail forwarding
3. In the Add email address field, enter the destination email address
4. Click the Add button (or the plus icon)
5. You can add multiple forwarding addresses by repeating step 4
6. Click OK to save

Tip: To keep a local copy of forwarded emails, make sure the Mailbox option is still enabled on the Mailbox tab. If you disable the mailbox, emails will only be forwarded and not stored on the server.

Forward to Multiple Addresses

You can forward one email account to several recipients:

1. Open the email account settings in Plesk
2. Go to the Forwarding tab
3. Add each destination address one at a time:

- [email protected]

- [email protected]

- [email protected]

1. Click OK

All forwarding addresses will receive a copy of every incoming email.

Forward-Only (No Local Mailbox)

To use an email address purely as a forwarder without storing emails:

1. Open the email account in Plesk
2. Go to the Mailbox tab
3. Uncheck the mailbox option (or set mailbox size to 0)
4. Go to the Forwarding tab
5. Enable forwarding and add destination addresses
6. Click OK

This saves disk space as emails are only stored at the destination.

Tip: Use this for addresses like [email protected] or [email protected] that you want to redirect to your main mailbox.

Setting Up a Catch-All Address

A catch-all address receives all emails sent to non-existent addresses at your domain.

In Plesk:

1. Go to Mail > Mail Settings
2. Select your domain
3. Under Mail for non-existent users, select Forward to address
4. Enter the destination email address
5. Click OK

When to Use Catch-All

Good use cases:

• Small businesses that want to capture all possible emails
• When transitioning from old email addresses to new ones

Caution:

• Catch-all addresses receive a lot of spam
• Spammers often try random addresses, and all of those emails will hit your catch-all
• Consider using spam filtering if you enable catch-all

Email Forwarding Best Practices

1. Keep SPF Records Updated

When forwarding emails, the forwarding server becomes the sender. This can cause SPF failures at the destination. To mitigate:

• Ensure your SPF record includes your server: v=spf1 a mx ~all
• If forwarding to Gmail or Outlook, note that these providers may flag forwarded emails

2. Use SRS (Sender Rewriting Scheme)

Plesk supports SRS, which rewrites the sender address during forwarding to pass SPF checks at the destination:

1. Go to Mail > Mail Settings
2. Select your domain
3. Enable SRS if available
4. Click OK

3. Monitor Forwarding Health

Periodically check:

• That forwarded emails are arriving at the destination
• That forwarded emails are not being marked as spam
• Your mail queue for stuck/deferred messages

4. Avoid Forwarding Loops

Never create a forwarding loop where:

• Address A forwards to Address B
• Address B forwards back to Address A

This creates infinite loops that can overload your mail server and may result in your server being blacklisted.

Managing Forwarding Rules

Viewing All Forwarding Rules

1. Go to Mail in Plesk
2. The email list shows icons indicating which accounts have forwarding enabled
3. Click on any account to see its forwarding configuration

Removing a Forwarding Address

1. Open the email account in Plesk
2. Go to the Forwarding tab
3. Click the Remove (trash/X) icon next to the address you want to remove
4. Click OK

Disabling Forwarding Entirely

1. Open the email account
2. Go to the Forwarding tab
3. Uncheck Activate mail forwarding
4. Click OK

Using Mail Aliases as an Alternative

If you want multiple addresses to deliver to the same mailbox without creating separate accounts:

1. Go to Mail in Plesk
2. Click on the main email account
3. Go to the Aliases tab (if available)
4. Add alias addresses (e.g., support@, help@, contact@)
5. All aliases deliver to the same mailbox

Tip: Aliases are simpler than forwarding when all addresses belong to the same domain and the same person reads all emails.

Troubleshooting Forwarding Issues

Checking the Mail Queue

1. In Plesk, go to Tools & Settings > Mail Server Settings
2. Click Mail Queue
3. Look for stuck or deferred messages
4. Delete problematic messages or flush the queue

Common Forwarding Scenarios

Scenario 1: Department Email

Forward [email protected] to the entire sales team:

• Forward to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Scenario 2: Personal to Professional

Forward [email protected] to your personal Gmail while keeping a server copy.

Scenario 3: Domain Migration

Forward all old domain email to new domain during a transition period.

Related Articles

• Setting Up Email Accounts in Plesk
• Creating and Managing MSSQL Databases in Plesk
• How to Deploy an ASP.NET Application in Plesk

Need help with email forwarding? Contact our support team at {{SUPPORT_EMAIL}} or open a ticket at {{SUPPORT_URL}}.