Changing MX records

To change MX records, go to Services, your hosting, DNS Zone Editor (if your domain uses our nameservers) and update the records there. MX records tell the internet where to deliver email for your domain - get them wrong and mail bounces, or worse, silently goes nowhere. If you're hosting email with Flashcloud, you don't need to touch this at all: MX records are set automatically when you set up an Email Account. You only need to edit MX records yourself when you're moving to a third-party email provider like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, or when you're consolidating email onto a different mail server.

Where you edit depends on which nameservers your domain uses. If your domain points at ns1.flashcloud.com and ns2.flashcloud.com, edit MX records from Services, your hosting, DNS Zone Editor. If your domain uses nameservers at another provider, you'll edit MX records there instead - see changing nameservers at GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Cloudflare. For the full picture on how records are organized and which panel does what, see DNS records and how to manage them.

What an MX record actually contains

Each MX record has two parts: a priority number and a target hostname. Mail servers trying to deliver to your domain look up your MX records, sort them by priority (lower numbers get tried first), and attempt delivery to the first one that responds. If it fails, they fall back to the next priority tier.

A typical single-server setup looks like priority 10 pointing at mail.yourdomain.com. If you want a backup mail server, you'd add a second record at a higher priority number, like 20, pointing at a fallback host. For a broader rundown of what MX records do alongside A, CNAME, and TXT records, see DNS record types explained.

Switching to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365

Both providers give you a specific set of MX records to add during setup, usually several records at different priorities pointing at their mail servers. The process is the same either way:

1. Copy the exact MX records the provider gives you during their domain setup wizard. Don't paraphrase or guess at the hostnames - they need to match exactly.
2. Open the DNS editor for your domain (DNS Zone Editor if you're on our nameservers).
3. Delete any existing MX records pointing at your old mail server. Leaving old records in place alongside new ones splits delivery unpredictably - some mail goes to the old server, some to the new one.
4. Add each MX record the provider gave you, matching priority numbers exactly.
5. Add any accompanying TXT records for SPF and domain verification, most providers require these in the same setup step.

Mail delivery follows DNS propagation timing: how fast the change takes effect depends on the TTL set on the old records, and remote mail servers may have your old MX records cached until that TTL expires. Don't decommission your old mailboxes until you've confirmed mail is flowing to the new destination.

Moving MX records back to Flashcloud hosting

If you're moving email hosting back to us after using a third-party provider, remove the third-party MX records from the DNS Zone Editor and set up an Email Account under your hosting service. Your zone ships with a default _dmarc TXT record set to monitoring only (p=none); edit that record if you want stricter enforcement.

Common mistakes that break mail delivery

• Leaving stale MX records in place. Old records pointing at a decommissioned mail server cause intermittent bounces as senders round-robin between working and dead destinations.
• Using an IP address instead of a hostname. MX records must point at a hostname (like mail.yourdomain.com), never an IP address directly. If that hostname doesn't already have an A record, add one.
• Mismatched priority numbers. If a provider tells you to use priority 1 for their primary server and you enter 10 instead, it may still work, but if you have other records at lower numbers, mail could try those first and fail before ever reaching the intended target.
• Editing nameservers instead of DNS records. On the Domains side, editing DNS under your domain only changes nameservers, not individual records like MX. If you're trying to change where mail routes and you're stuck in a nameservers screen, you're in the wrong place - head to your hosting service's DNS Zone Editor instead.

When to contact support

If you've updated MX records and mail still isn't arriving after a few hours, or you're not sure which records to remove without breaking a working setup, open a ticket from Support in the portal. A real person can check your current DNS zone and confirm what's routing where before you make changes that affect live email.