# 501 5.5.4 You are not allowed to send from this address

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/501-5-5-4-you-are-not-allowed-to-send-from-this-address/293684>\
**Category:** Self-hosting\
**Tags:** email\
**Created:** [January 31, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/501-5-5-4-you-are-not-allowed-to-send-from-this-address/293684 "2024-01-31T21:03:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hellekin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/hellekin/32/51636_2.png) [@hellekin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/hellekin)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/501-5-5-4-you-are-not-allowed-to-send-from-this-address/293684/1 "2024-01-31T21:03:22Z")

</div>

Testing the Discourse email setup from a Thunderbird client, I can send and receive email without a problem. But in Discourse, no email is sent with this error:

`501 5.5.4 You are not allowed to send from this address. `

What does this error mean?  
Where is it generated? According to what rules?

The SPF record only allows the MX to send email (configured as `DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS`), which does not seem to pose any issues with other domains, since SMTP clients connect to the MX to send.

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