Mail records aren't proxied because Cloudflare's proxy only understands HTTP and HTTPS traffic, and mail uses different protocols and ports entirely. MX records, and any mail-related subdomains like mail.yourdomain.com or autodiscover, resolve straight to your mail server's real IP with no proxy layer in between. On most hosting accounts, Cloudflare's proxy settings live on a dedicated CDN page reached from the account sidebar, and that toggle covers web traffic only, it never touches how your mail routes.
If mail suddenly stopped working after a DNS change, the fix is almost always to confirm those records point directly at the server and aren't wrapped in anything that intercepts port 80/443 traffic. Read on for why this is true structurally, not just a setting you could flip.
Why email can't be proxied
Cloudflare's proxy (the "orange cloud" concept on cloudflare.com) works by sitting in front of your web server: it terminates the HTTPS connection, inspects and caches what it can, then forwards the request on. That model depends on the traffic being HTTP or HTTPS. Mail servers speak entirely different protocols: SMTP for sending (port 25, 465, or 587), IMAP for retrieving mail (port 993), and older POP3 setups on other ports. None of that is something a web proxy can sit in front of.
This is also why an MX record is a different record type from an A or CNAME in the first place. An MX record just tells other mail servers which host accepts mail for your domain. It's a piece of routing information, not a URL that gets requested and cached. There's no "response" to proxy, so the entire concept doesn't apply. For the fuller picture of how record types differ and how DNS resolution works end to end, see what is DNS? Nameservers, records, and how the internet finds your site.
What this looks like in your DNS zone
On Flashcloud-hosted domains, DNS records live under Services → your hosting → DNS Zone Editor (nameservers are edited separately, under Domains, and only control which servers are authoritative, not what the records say). In the zone editor, your MX record and any mail-related A or CNAME records (like mail.yourdomain.com) are set to resolve directly, with no proxy applied. If you ever see a mail-related hostname showing proxied status, it's worth fixing: a proxy on a mail hostname wouldn't route any mail through it, it would add a layer that mail clients can't work with.
The same logic extends to your SPF record, which is a TXT record listing which servers are allowed to send mail as your domain. It's unrelated to proxy status too, since it's a policy statement other mail servers check, not something a request gets routed through. If you're troubleshooting deliverability rather than a records question, SPF records: what they are and how to set one up covers the format and when you'd need to edit it yourself.
What proxying a web hostname actually changes
When you turn on the proxy for your main domain or a subdomain that serves a website, you're changing how browser requests reach that specific host. It caches static assets, applies the security and speed settings on the CDN page, and hides your origin IP for that traffic. None of those settings, not SSL/TLS mode, not Always Use HTTPS, not the WAF-style protections, reach into how mail moves. They're scoped to the hostname's HTTP/HTTPS behavior only. For a full rundown of what each toggle on that page does, see every Cloudflare setting explained.
There's no separate cloudflare.com dashboard to log into and no per-record orange-cloud icon to click. The proxy toggle available to you is per domain and scoped to web traffic. You won't find a mail-specific proxy switch because mail was never part of what that toggle covers.
When to contact support
If mail stops delivering after a DNS or domain change and you've confirmed your MX and mail A/CNAME records look correct in the DNS Zone Editor, open a ticket from Support in the portal. Include the domain and roughly when mail stopped working, and a real person will check things on our end rather than guessing from the client side.