4 ms·

> The issue isn't with the user's email. The issue is with the site's email provider. If the email server sending out the one time links is under heavy load or

by gog 6y ago

> The issue isn't with the user's email. The issue is with the site's email provider. If the email server sending out the one time links is under heavy load or for some reason has a backlog, it may take a while for the links to actually get to the user That is not completely true. I've been operating my own mail server for almost a decade, since I am the only person using it the volume of email I send out is almost none. I've observed on more then one occasion that sending an email to my gmail or my fathers gmail account can sometimes take 20 minutes or more to show up in gmail inbox although I know that google accepted the email as soon as it was sent.

jacoblambda 6y ago
You'd have to look at your logs when it happens but google has a habit of tarpitting(i.e. repeatedly delaying email receipt) emails from servers they don't necessarily "trust". For large providers (i.e. those that would be used for handling one-time link emails), this normally isn't a problem however for small or self hosted email servers it can be from time to time. I'm not sure what all goes into ~~the algorithm~~ that google uses to decide to tarpit emails from a server but I'd make sure that you have your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all set up properly to give google as little of an excuse to dislike your server as possible. It's not a great solution but I've long since given up on any attempt at self-hosting email and just use my own domain with protonmail at this point since the industry seems to be so hostile to self-hosting.
- gog 6y ago
  Thank you. I've checked my logs and everything looks normal on my end and I do suppose it is some kind of tarpitting, but it doesn't show in the logs. I do have DKIM, strict SPF and DMARC policies, MTA-STS, SMTP TLS Reporting, latest TLS support and valid certificates, there is nothing else I can do on my end.
  - jacoblambda 6y ago
    One other thing you might be able to try is to try reaching out to Google about it if it's a consistent issue. There is a contact form floating around somewhere for mail server operators to reach out to the GMail infra team about this kind of thing but IDK where it is or if they even still check it. I wouldn't put to much faith in it though, particularly considering Google's reputation wrt support.
    - leesalminen 6y ago
      It’s true, we send millions of mails per month and Google doesn’t give 2 shits about anyone’s email deliverability issue. All avenues of contact are black holes on that front regardless of how much you pay them.
    - cgtyoder 6y ago
      lol "try reaching out to google" that was my good laugh for the day.

by gog 6y ago

jacoblambda 6y ago

You'd have to look at your logs when it happens but google has a habit of tarpitting(i.e. repeatedly delaying email receipt) emails from servers they don't necessarily "trust". For large providers (i.e. those that would be used for handling one-time link emails), this normally isn't a problem however for small or self hosted email servers it can be from time to time. I'm not sure what all goes into ~~the algorithm~~ that google uses to decide to tarpit emails from a server but I'd make sure that you have your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all set up properly to give google as little of an excuse to dislike your server as possible. It's not a great solution but I've long since given up on any attempt at self-hosting email and just use my own domain with protonmail at this point since the industry seems to be so hostile to self-hosting.

gog 6y ago
Thank you. I've checked my logs and everything looks normal on my end and I do suppose it is some kind of tarpitting, but it doesn't show in the logs. I do have DKIM, strict SPF and DMARC policies, MTA-STS, SMTP TLS Reporting, latest TLS support and valid certificates, there is nothing else I can do on my end.
- jacoblambda 6y ago
  One other thing you might be able to try is to try reaching out to Google about it if it's a consistent issue. There is a contact form floating around somewhere for mail server operators to reach out to the GMail infra team about this kind of thing but IDK where it is or if they even still check it. I wouldn't put to much faith in it though, particularly considering Google's reputation wrt support.
  - leesalminen 6y ago
    It’s true, we send millions of mails per month and Google doesn’t give 2 shits about anyone’s email deliverability issue. All avenues of contact are black holes on that front regardless of how much you pay them.
  - cgtyoder 6y ago
    lol "try reaching out to google" that was my good laugh for the day.