Email routing in cPanel: when to use Local or Remote

Reviewed on September 8, 2026 2 min read enrutamiento

Email routing tells cPanel whether to deliver a domain's messages to its local mailboxes or send them to another server. It is a separate setting from the MX records, which publish the email destination in DNS. Both must match the service you use.

Choose based on where the mailboxes are

Your setup	Option
Email is stored on this hosting	Local Mail Exchanger
Email is stored in Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or another server	Remote Mail Exchanger
An external spam filter then delivers the messages to this hosting	Local, with the filter set to deliver here
This server acts as a backup for another	Backup, only if you have deliberately set up that architecture

Backup does not create a backup of the mailbox. Do not choose it to protect the messages of a normal account.

Change the option

Open cPanel and go to Email Routing.
Select the affected domain.
Choose the right option and click Change.
Also check the public MX records.

Automatically Detect Configuration uses the MX records in the local cPanel zone. It does not watch public DNS or keep recalculating after later changes. If you use external DNS or have just moved your email, select the explicit option that applies.

Check both paths

Send a message to the mailbox from an external account and another from the website itself or an account on the hosting. That way you can spot a common case: external email arrives fine, but the website tries to deliver it to a local mailbox because cPanel still has the wrong setting.

If messages do not arrive, keep the full rejection and the time of the test. Check where the mailbox is actually stored before switching options: changing to Local does not migrate messages or create an account that exists with another provider.