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I've run into a quirky GSuite/Gmail deliverability issue from a PHP mail() form on one of my websites. Here's the scenario in as much detail as I can give:

We have two businesses (A and B), each with its own domain. Both domains are set up in our corporate GSuite instance with BusinessA.com being primary.

I recently built a new website for BusinessB.com. The contact form on the site is programmed with PHP's mail() to email the form responses to 2 BusinessB.com addresses, however, the emails are not coming through. We've done the obligatory spam checks, and I've set up a new test account for BusinessB.com (testb@BusinessB.com). No BusinessB.com form response make it to the inbox. (Regular inbound and outbound email is working properly.)

To troubleshoot I added my BusinessA.com email along with an external (non-GSuite) Gmail address to the recipient list, both receive the form submissions with no issue.

Next, I added the alias testb@BusinessA.com to the testb@BusinessB.com test email address. When I add this alias to the recipient list, the form submission also comes through with no issue.

Last, I tested an existing BusinessA.com GSuite Group that forwards to the two original BusinessB.com addresses. The form responses sent to this group forward on to the two original recipients with no issue at all. (This is currently in place as a work-around, but I still need to resolve the issue)

Since the BusinessA.com address, the external Gmail address, the alias address, and the Gsuite Group all receive the email, I don't believe it is a result of a coding error.

It is important to note that prior to Business B's new domain and website they had a different domain, which resides also on the same hosting provider and is also set up as a domain in our corporate GSuite instance. There had been no form deliverability issues previously.

This leads me to believe it is something in GSuite on the domain level.

Are there domain specific settings that I am missing? Could it be a DNS record is needed? Am I thinking through this wrong?

UPDATE - solved the issue. After multiple additional attempts at rephrasing my search, I ran across this: can't send email to addresses at my own domain, while not the same question per se, @user2428118‘s answer did the trick. It was a setting in cpanel that made the difference. I already had the MX records that he mentioned so it was as easy as selecting the option of ‘remote mail exchanger’.

ceporcella
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  • You can certainly contact Google support to produce SMTP logs. Otherwise this is just an observational problem description. – mario Sep 07 '18 at 23:55
  • Mario, thank you for your response, yes I will have our admin contact Google for the logs. That being said, the question that you marked my question as a duplicate of is not at all addressing my issue - I have clearly shown that PHP's mail() is not where the issue is originating from. I am specifically asking if there is a setting in gsuite's domain setup that I am missing that might keep one of my domains from receiving my email, while another receives it. Is there a better place to ask such a question? – ceporcella Sep 09 '18 at 02:40
  • The issue is **always** using the `mail()` function and a lackluster MTA config. If it's not about code, such questions are better served on ServerFault. Albeit they won't be able to answer without concrete logs and debugging either. Having a MX/DNS lookup woe is somewhat farfetched, unless the logs indicate so. SPF records (as indicated in the reference) would still seem most relevant. – mario Sep 09 '18 at 07:07
  • So I was able to find the answer after multiple additional attempts at rephrasing my search, I ran across this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1107730/cant-send-email-to-addresses-at-my-own-domain @user2428118‘s answer did the trick. It was a setting in cpanel that made the difference. I already had the MX records that he mentioned so it was as easy as selecting the option of ‘remote mail exchanger’. – ceporcella Sep 19 '18 at 04:55

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