Disable the Local Email Service

To use an external mail server in combination with a hosted domain on a different web server, you must disable the email service so that outgoing emails are routed from the web server to the actual email server.

Problem Description

If you are running the Plesk Control Panel on a server, an email configuration is automatically created as soon as you add a new domain. If this domain uses a different email server, outgoing emails are no longer delivered by the Plesk system using the MX (Mail Exchange) DNS record, but are instead delivered locally via the Plesk server.

Solution

Disabling the domain’s local email service deactivates the local email lookup, and outgoing emails will be delivered correctly via the corresponding MX record.

Disable the Service in the Plesk Control Panel

To disable your email service, you must first log in to your Plesk Control Panel.

To do this, under Websites & Domains, click on the desired domain and then click the Email tab to configure the Email Settings.

To disable the local email service, under Enable Email Service on This Domain, select the option “Disabled for Incoming Email.”

Once you have enabled this option, you can confirm the changes to the email settings by clicking “OK.” Afterward, outgoing emails from this server will no longer be delivered locally but will be correctly routed to the destination server via the MX record.