Incoming email settings SharePoint not working

Recently I have started working in configuring SharePoint incoming email settings and completed the functionality on positive note :)

Why I am writing this article? – While working on this functionality I faced so many challenges and numerous error messages, & I would like to share those experiences and resolutions so that it would be useful for all the SharePoint communities.

I worked on two different environments and every environment has different challenges:

§  DEV environment

§  UAT environment

Development environment-

This is standalone environment i.e. configured as App plus WFE. It’s very easy to configure incoming email settings on standalone machine.

What are the pre-requisites required for incoming email settings?

1.   SMTP configuration

2.   Starting of SMTP service

3.   Setup send connector from exchange side

4.   Configure incoming email settings in SharePoint central administration ->system settings->Incoming email settings

5.   Configure incoming settings at the document library level.

Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287879%28v=office.14%29.aspx

Please use the above article for the detail information as it’s quite amazing.

I will not discuss here how to setup the incoming email as the above article will help you to get that information but in case of any queries/questions then please feel free to get back to me.

Notes-

1.   By means of send connector, you can set the routing for your server FQDN or hostname as per your requirements.

2.   Whatever the hostname you will set, you need to make that entry in SMTP also

3.   Last but important point, mail host – this will hold the mail address of your exchange server.

UAT environment- This environment hold one application server and one web front end. Tricky one! It’s always a challenge to configure the incoming email settings in multiple server environments.

Guidelines-

1.   Make sure you configure the SMTP on the front end servers

2.   Ensure you setup the proper path of drop folder across all front ends.

3.   It’s not recommended but sharing my experience as while configuring the SMTP, makes sure you use IP address in relay and connections tab.

4.   If you are using a hostname then ensure that you do make the entry of the same in SMTP under “outgoing email” tab.

5.   Do make the same hostname entry at the document library level.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you.

Product applies to-

1.   SharePoint server 2010

2.   SharePoint Foundation 2010

3.   SharePoint server 2013

4.   SharePoint Foundation 2013

5.   Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

References:-

Configure incoming email for a SharePoint 2013 farm

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262947.aspx

Configure incoming e-mail (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287879%28v=office.14%29.aspx

How to configure Incoming and Outgoing emails in SharePoint Server 2010

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/pareshg/archive/2010/04/23/how-to-configure-incoming-and-outgoing-emails-in-sharepoint-server-2010.aspx

Configure incoming e-mail (Office SharePoint Server Central Administration Help)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262775%28v=office.12%29.aspx