Testing and troubleshooting email

You've configured forwarding and set up sending — now let's make sure everything actually works. This guide walks you through testing your setup and provides help for common issues.

The Complete Test

The best way to verify your setup is to simulate what your customers experience: send an email to your team address and reply to it from Jelly.

What you'll need:

• A personal email account that's completely separate from your Jelly setup — a personal Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo, or any other email you can use. This account acts as a pretend customer.

1

Test Receiving

First, let's verify that emails are arriving in Jelly.

• From your personal email, compose a new message

• Send it to your team address (e.g., [email protected])

• Use a clear subject like "Test email - please ignore" so you recognise it

• Send the email

Now switch to Jelly and watch for the email to arrive. It should appear within a few seconds — usually almost instantly.

What to check:

• The email appears in your Jelly inbox

• The sender shows correctly (your personal email address)

• The subject line and message body display properly

• Any formatting in the original email looks right

• If you included attachments, they're visible

If the email doesn't arrive:

• Look in Jelly's spam folder — the email might have been filtered

• Wait a minute — email is usually fast, but occasionally takes a moment

• Check your forwarding settings — go back to your email provider (Gmail, Exchange, etc.) and verify that forwarding is enabled and saved

• Verify the forwarding address — make sure you're forwarding to the correct Jelly address ([email protected])

Gmail specific note:

• Remember that you need to not only add the forwarding address, but also select it in the dropdown and click Save Changes. This is the most common issue we see.

2

Test Sending

Now let's verify you can send replies that look like they're coming from your team address.

• In Jelly, open the test email you just received

• Click Reply

• Check that the "From" address shows your team address ([email protected] or whatever you configured)

• Write a brief reply — something like "This is a test reply from Jelly"

• Send the reply

Now go back to your personal email and wait for the reply to arrive. Again, this should only take a few seconds.

What to check:

• The reply arrived in your personal email

• The "From" address shows your team address, not a Jelly address

• There's no "sent via" or "on behalf of" notice (unless you used single-email verification, where this is expected)

• The email doesn't look like spam or have any warnings

• You can click Reply and it goes back to your team address

If the reply doesn't arrive:

• Check your personal email's spam folder — it might have been filtered

• Verify sending is set up — in Jelly's Email Setup, make sure your address shows a checkmark indicating it's verified

• For Gmail connections — try disconnecting and reconnecting your Google account

• For DNS verification — double-check that your DNS records are correctly configured

3

Test the Reply Loop

For the final test, let's make sure the whole conversation flow works:

• In your personal email, reply to the test message from Jelly

• Check that this reply appears in Jelly, in the same conversation thread

• In Jelly, reply again

• Verify this second reply arrives in your personal email

If all of this works, congratulations — your email setup is complete. Customers can email you, you can respond from Jelly, and the conversation threads properly.

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What "Working Correctly" Looks Like

When everything is set up properly:

• Emails arrive quickly — usually within seconds of being sent

• Messages display correctly — formatting, images, and attachments all work

• Conversations thread properly — replies stay grouped together, not split into separate conversations

• Replies come from your address — recipients see your team address ([email protected]), not a Jelly address

• No spam warnings — your emails land in recipients' inboxes, not spam folders

• Back-and-forth works — you can have a multi-message conversation without issues

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Troubleshooting

If something isn't working, the sections below will help you diagnose and fix the issue.

Emails Not Arriving in Jelly

This means forwarding isn't working correctly. Let's figure out why.

First, check the basics:

• Is forwarding enabled? Go to your email provider's settings and verify that forwarding is turned on, not just configured.

• Is the forwarding address correct? Double-check that you're forwarding to [email protected] (with your actual team slug).

• Did you save the settings? This sounds obvious, but it's the most common issue with Gmail — people configure forwarding but forget to click Save Changes.

• Check Jelly's spam folder. Emails might be arriving but getting filtered.

Gmail-specific issues: Gmail's forwarding has multiple steps, and missing any one of them means forwarding won't work:

1. You added a forwarding address (Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP → Add a forwarding address)

2. You confirmed the verification email (this arrived in Jelly)

3. You went back to Gmail settings and reloaded the page

4. You selected "Forward a copy of incoming mail to" and chose your Jelly address

5. You clicked Save Changes at the bottom of the page

If any of these steps was missed, forwarding won't be active. Go through them again to be sure.

Exchange-specific issues: Exchange environments often block external forwarding by default. If you've configured forwarding but emails aren't arriving:

• Verify you're using server-level forwarding (Exchange Admin Center or PowerShell), not Outlook rules

• Ask your Exchange admin to check if external forwarding is permitted

• Check mail flow rules, Remote Domains settings, and outbound spam policies

Still not working? Send us an email at support and include:

• Which email provider you're using

• What steps you've taken so far

• Whether any test emails have arrived at all

Emails Arriving But Looking Wrong

If emails arrive in Jelly but they look strange — like the content is quoted or wrapped inside another message — you're probably using the wrong type of forwarding.

What's happening: Some forwarding methods (particularly Outlook rules and user-level Exchange forwarding) don't forward the original email. Instead, they create a new email with the original quoted inside, like this:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [email protected]
Date: [date]
Subject: Help needed

[Original message here]

This breaks how Jelly displays conversations, and replies won't work properly.

How to fix it: You need to use "true" forwarding that delivers the original email intact:

• Gmail: The standard Gmail forwarding (in Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP) works correctly

• Exchange: Use server-level forwarding via Exchange Admin Center or PowerShell (see Exchange Setup), not Outlook rules

• Other providers: Use native forwarding features, not rules that "forward as attachment" or create new messages

Can't Send — Address Not Verified

If you're trying to send but Jelly says the address isn't verified, or the address isn't appearing in the "From" dropdown:

For Gmail-connected addresses:

1. Go to Email Setup in Jelly

2. Try disconnecting your Google account (click the disconnect option next to it)

3. Reconnect by clicking "Connect with Google" and signing in again

4. Make sure you grant all requested permissions

For DNS-verified addresses:

1. Go to Email Setup in Jelly

2. Check if your domain shows as verified (look for a checkmark)

3. If not verified, click to check the verification status

4. If verification keeps failing, double-check your DNS records:

   • Make sure both records (DKIM TXT and return-path CNAME) are added

   • Verify you copied the values exactly from Jelly

   • Try adding or removing trailing dots from hostnames

   • Wait 10-15 minutes for DNS propagation and try again

For single-email verification:

• If you verified a single address (not the whole domain): make sure you clicked the verification link in the email and that you're sending from the exact address you verified.

Replies Going to Recipient's Spam

If your test replies are landing in spam instead of the inbox, there are a few possible causes:

Using single-email verification:

• Single-email verification is a fallback option that doesn't provide full email authentication. If you're seeing deliverability issues, consider switching to domain verification:

  1. Get access to your domain's DNS settings

  2. In Jelly's Email Setup, go through domain verification

  3. Add the DKIM and return-path DNS records

  4. Once verified, your emails will be properly authenticated

DNS records aren't correct:

• Verify both DNS records are correctly configured

• Check that there aren't conflicting DKIM records for your domain

• Make sure your existing SPF record (if you have one) isn't causing issues

New sender reputation:

• Sometimes emails from a newly configured domain take a little time to build reputation. If your DNS is correct, the issue may resolve itself as recipients mark your emails as "not spam" and email providers learn your sending patterns.

"Sent Via" Notice Appearing

If recipients see something like "From: [email protected] via letsjelly.com" in their email client, this means you're using single-email verification.

This is expected behavior for single-email verification. The "via" notice appears because we can't fully authenticate your emails without DNS records.

To remove it:

1. Get access to your domain's DNS settings

2. In Jelly's Email Setup, set up domain verification

3. Add the required DNS records

4. Once verified, the "via" notice will no longer appear

Wrong "From" Address Showing

If emails are sending but showing the wrong "From" address:

• Make sure you're selecting the right address: when composing, check the "From" dropdown and select the correct address.

• Verify the address is set up: if the address you want isn't in the dropdown, you need to add it in Email Setup first.

For Gmail aliases:

• If you're trying to use a Gmail alias, make sure it's properly linked to your Gmail connection in Jelly. Go to Email Setup, add the alias address, and choose to link it to your existing Gmail account.

Conversations Not Threading Properly

If replies are creating new conversations instead of staying in the same thread:

• This usually fixes itself: email threading depends on specific headers in the messages. If the original email's headers are unusual or if something is modifying them in transit, threading might break. This is relatively rare.

• Check for forwarding issues: if you're using the wrong type of forwarding (one that wraps the original email), threading won't work. Make sure you're using proper forwarding as described in the setup guides.

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Getting More Help

If you've tried the troubleshooting steps above and things still aren't working, we're here to help.

When you contact us, please include:

• Which email provider you're using (Gmail, Microsoft 365, Exchange, Fastmail, etc.)

• Which part isn't working (receiving, sending, or both)

• What you've already tried

• Any error messages you're seeing

• Screenshots if possible

The more detail you can provide, the faster we can help you get things working.

→ Contact Jelly Support

We know email setup can be frustrating, especially if you're not familiar with DNS or your email provider's forwarding options. Don't hesitate to reach out — we've helped lots of teams through this process and we're happy to help you too.