In straightforward terms, email defer occurs when the system starts to reject outgoing emails instead of placing them in a queue once a user has sent the maximum permitted emails per hour.
This situation usually arises when an account sends emails to addresses that fail or defer beyond the established limit.
The message "exceeded the max defers and failures per hour" is a cPanel notification indicating that outgoing emails are being retained on the server until the number of emails that have either failed or been deferred drops below the email threshold.
In Exabytes shared hosting, the maximum defer limit is set at 30.
Domain users can only resume sending emails after a 1-hour blocking period.
When the defer error surpasses this limit of 30, the following exception will be displayed:
==========
This message was automatically generated by mail delivery software.
A message you sent was unable to be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
emailaddress@gmail.com
Domain thedomain.com has surpassed the maximum defers and failures per hour (30/30 (100%)) allowed. Message discarded.
=========
Possible Cause and Solution
1. The email address may have been compromised to send spam emails.
If a user is facing the defer limit issue due to compromised email accounts, it is advisable to change the email password to a stronger one, consisting of at least 18 characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Additionally, it is recommended to scan the computer with updated antivirus software to eliminate any malware, adware, spyware, rootkits, trojans, etc.
If the problem persists and the user is utilizing an email application like Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird, the user can temporarily disable the mail app to halt email sending from the application.
In the meantime, the user can utilize webmail to send & receive emails.
2. Bulk email sending (intentionally)
If the users are encountering the defer limit issue due to intentionally sending bulk emails for marketing purposes, they should consider subscribing to an Email Marketing Service such as EBuzzzz (Exabytes Email Marketing) which is more suitable for bulk email delivery needs.
3. Mailbox full
If users are experiencing the defer limit issue due to a full mailbox, they can log in to cPanel -> Email Accounts, select the account that has reached the maximum email quota, and perform housekeeping to reduce email usage.
4. Email Forwarding
If a user encounters a defer limit issue from sending too many emails to the forwarding address, they can log in to cPanel and delete the related forwarding address.
Furthermore, please be advised that configuring an email forwarder to free email service providers such as Hotmail.com, Gmail.com is strictly prohibited in the shared hosting environment.
https://support.exabytes.com.my/en/support/solutions/articles/14000031633-email-forwarding-policy