Guide

"The remote server is misconfigured": why your email bounced

"Your message couldn't be delivered because the remote server is misconfigured" means the mail server for the address you wrote to refused your email.

If it's email to your own domain, see where it's going with Email check.

In short: your letter reached the right town, but the post office there says it doesn't handle that address. Either the town's signpost (the MX record) points to the wrong post office, or that post office was never told about the address. Only whoever runs that domain's email can fix it.

"Remote" means the other side: the server that takes email for the address you sent to, not your own. The bounce comes from Gmail, so you'll see it if you send from Gmail or Google Workspace.

What you'll see

The heading: Message not delivered
The sentence: Your message couldn't be delivered to [address] because the remote server is misconfigured. See technical details below for more information.
The line that matters: Underneath, after "The response from the remote server was:" or "The response was:". It gives a code and the other server's own words, which say what's wrong.

What the line under it means

"not permitted to relay", "Relay access denied", "Unable to relay", "Please turn on SMTP Authentication": The server the domain points to won't take email for that domain from outside, as if the domain weren't its job. Often the domain's MX record (the setting that says which server takes its email) points to an old or wrong server, or nobody added the domain on the right one.
"Hop count exceeded - possible mail loop" (5.4.14 or 5.4.6, Microsoft 365 and Exchange): Your email went round in a circle between their servers until it was stopped. Microsoft says only the domain's email admin can fix it.
Anything else: Read the words after the code: they're the other server's reason. Codes starting with 5.7 are security rules; see "550 5.7.1": why your email was refused.

If you were emailing someone else

The fault is in their setup, and sending again won't help until they fix it.

Reach them another way (phone, another address, their website's contact form) and tell them their email is bouncing.
Forward them the whole bounce, so their email provider or web person can see the line under it.
If you like, run their domain through Email check. The "Receiving email" line shows which service their email goes to, which helps them spot an old one.

If it's email to your own domain

If people tell you emails to your address bounce with this message, fix it the same day: you're missing everything sent to your domain from Gmail, and maybe from elsewhere too.

Run your domain through Email check. The "Receiving email" line says which service your email goes to, for example Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or a server name.
Compare it with the service where you read your email. If you moved your email and the MX record still points to the old service, that's the likely cause.
Send the bounce and your Email check result to whoever runs your email or your domain's settings, with the message below.

Send this to your email provider

Not sure what to say? Copy this into an email, add your website's address, and send it.

Hi,

Emails to [our address] from Gmail are bouncing with "Your message couldn't be delivered because the remote server is misconfigured."

The line under it says: [paste the line after "The response was:"]
It started on: [date]
Did anything change around then: [moved email, new host, domain renewal, or "not that I know of"]

Could you check that our domain's MX records point to the right server, and that our domain is set up on it to receive email? Please tell me what you changed.

Thanks

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