This article explains how to ensure your MX records are appropriately configured. It assumes you've carried out the other steps included in I'm not receiving mail, which tests your configuration from end to end.

To view the currently configured MX records for your primary Google Apps domain:

• Sign in to the Google Admin console.
• Do one of the following:
  • In the classic Admin console, click Settings > Gmail.
  • In the new Admin console, click Google Apps > Gmail > Users.
    ^{Where is it? Which Admin console do I have?}

To examine the status of MX records for your domain, you can also run an application from your computer or use the Google Apps Toolbox CheckMX tool. Do this to ensure you configured your MX records correctly to use with Google Apps mail servers.

Using CheckMX to investigate MX records

1. Enter your domain name in Google Apps Toolbox CheckMX tool:
   
   To see results for a domain already configured to use Google Apps, enter: positivetip.org
    
2. Submit the form.
    
3. Verify the results. A message of "No problems were found" indicates you've correctly configured your domain's MX records for Google Apps.
   
   This assumes a basic setup rather than dual delivery or any of the other advanced delivery options available to you. Use of advanced delivery options results in warnings that should correspond to your configuration. For instance, a dual delivery setup will produce a warning  of "dual delivery detected."
    
4. If CheckMX encounters any misconfiguration, it presents a linked error indicating "There were some critical problems detected with this domain." Click the link to see the list of issues, which are flagged yellow or red depending on severity and linked to a related Help Center article for resolution. Visit those articles to fix the issue.

Using nslookup on your computer

The application nslookup comes with most operating systems and can be used to look up name server details from your Windows, Mac, or Linux command line.

1. To start the command line in Windows, Click Start > Run, enter "cmd" and press enter.
   On Mac or Linux, start the terminal.
2. Enter the following command (substituting in your actual domain name):
   nslookup -q=mx yourdomain.com

3. Interpret the output as we do in our example, spottedfig.org:
   nslookup -q=mx spottedfig.org
   

   Will return results matching the list on the MX record values page:

   Server:    8.8.8.8
Address:    8.8.8.8#53

   Non-authoritative answer:
spottedfig.org    mail exchanger = 10 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
spottedfig.org    mail exchanger = 1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
spottedfig.org    mail exchanger = 5 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
spottedfig.org    mail exchanger = 5 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
spottedfig.org    mail exchanger = 10 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

   The relevant part of this output comes after the first two lines starting with "Non-authoritative answer." This tells us that spottedfig.org has five MX records configured. Specifically:
   1. Email messages will be delivered first to ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM., which has the highest priority as it has the lowest number with priority 1.
   2. If messages can’t be delivered to this server, email messages will be delivered to the servers with the second-highest priority level, which is ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. or  ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM., both of which have priority of 5.
   3. If messages can’t be delivered to these servers, email messages will be delivered to the servers with the third-highest priority level, which is ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. or  ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM., both of which have priority of 10.

4. Optionally, examine the first two lines of the nslookup output and ensure the IP address shown (in this case, 8.8.8.8) represents your desired name server.. You may have configured a different name server depending on your ISP or custom configuration. You can choose to append 8.8.8.8 to the nslookup command to force use of the Google Public DNS resolution service:
   
   nslookup -q=mx spottedfig.org 8.8.8.8

If you're still having trouble getting email flowing, remember to follow the instructions in I'm not receiving mail to test your configuration from end to end.