Knowledge Base

You receive a bounce message that says User unknown in virtual alias table

Problem Description

You receive a bounce message that indicates "User unknown in virtual alias table". This means that the server you sent the message to does not have that email address configured. If you know the email address exists, then there's a good chance that the message was routing to the wrong server.
 

Problem Resolution

Most often this issue occurs when you've added the domain that you're sending to within your hosting account and forgot to disable mail for the domain even though mail is handled elsewhere.


For example, let's say you're sending to [email protected]. You have msrack.com added to your CWP account, yet mail for msrack.com is handled with Google Apps rather than within your Websavers server.
 

To resolve this problem, disable mail for the domain on your local server using the following steps:

  1. Log in to CWP
  2. Choose the Mail tab
  3. Choose the "Change Settings" button in the bar across the top (beside Create Email Address)
  4. Uncheck the box beside "User unknown in virtual alias table"

Try sending your message again. 

If the domain is set up as an alias, be sure that it's not also aliasing mail, since the mail is handled off-site. Simply DNS aliasing is enough to ensure it works as it should. Go to the domain's configuration and choose "Settings". Uncheck Mail and click OK.

Please rate this article to help us improve our Knowledge Base.

18212 143