Postfix mail for domain.com loops back to myself Error and Solution

Posted on in Categories , , , , , , , , last updated June 2, 2009

I can send and receive mail using user@example.com, but system generated emails such as root@mail.example.com bounce backup with an error:

May 1 03:14:52 mail postfix/smtp[62798]: 23CA4BD6B40: to=, relay=none, delay=0.01, delays=0/0/0/0, dsn=5.4.6, status=bounced (mail for mail.example.com loops back to myself)

How do I fix this error?

Postfix did found a dns reply to your email server, but it hasn’t been configured to deal with address such as root@mail.example.com. In other words, your server is configured to accept user@example.com but not as user@mail.example.com. This is well known config problem with virtual domain. To fix this error either add system FQDN to mydestination or relay_domains. Postfix accepts mail for domain listed in virtual_mailbox_domains, virtual_alias_domains, and domains that resolve to IP addresses listed in inet_interfaces and proxy_interfaces. Update mydestination using postconf or by editing main.cf file:

mydestination = localhost.$mydomain, localhost, mail.example.com

Once done reload postfix:
# service postfix reload

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. He has worked with global clients and in various industries, including IT, education, defense and space research, and the nonprofit sector. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+.

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9 comment

  1. I’ve done it but does not works for me, this is what i got:
    at /etc/postfix/main.cf
    myhostname = example.tdl
    myorigin = /etc/mailname
    mydestination = example.tdl, localhost, localhost.localdomain

    at /etc/mailname
    example.tdl

    at /etc/hostname
    example.tdl

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  2. another cause is when you have too mail servers with same hostname
    it happened for me
    watch out for “greeted me with my own hostname”
    @Andrés Chandía
    i don’t think that is a FQDN
    I proper FQDN is “myhost.mydomain.com.”
    or even “myhost.mysubdomain.mydomain.com.”
    though it depends if the trailing dot is inluded or not
    the important thing is that if you do a ping or nslookup
    you get your host (the mail server)
    from anywhere in the interenet (the FQDN must be unique)

    Reply Report comment

  6. sorry to nudge and old post, just wanted to drop a line, for webmin what worked for me was:
    What domain to use in outbound mail – use hostname
    Internet hostname of this mail system – myactualdomain.tld
    Local internet domain name – myactualdomain.tld

    in the config file it looks something like this:
    mydomain = myactualdomain.tld
    myhostname = myactualdomain.tld

    hope this helps, worked out for me on EC2

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