Why an email failed: bounces, blocks and failures

When an email doesn't go out, your email log says so and tells you why. This guide explains what each outcome means, so you know where to look and what to do.

#Where a failure shows up

Open your SendWP dashboard, open your site and go to Emails. An email that didn't make it is marked Bounced, Failed or Blocked. Open it, and its Status card shows the Reason.

If the email isn't in your log at all, it never reached SendWP: see Emails not arriving.

#Tried again before it fails

Your site hands each email to SendWP, which queues it and sends it from there. If a send attempt doesn't go through, SendWP tries again before it marks the email Failed. You don't need to do anything.

#Bounces

A bounce is the recipient's mail server saying no.

• A hard bounce is permanent: the address doesn't exist, or the domain doesn't take email. Check the address for typos. A customer may have mistyped it in a form.
• A soft bounce is temporary: a full mailbox, or a server that's having a bad day. These often clear up on their own.

Open the bounced email in your log to see the reason. If an address keeps bouncing, stop sending to it: add it to your block list (below) and ask the person for a working address.

#Spam complaints

When someone marks one of your emails as spam, the email gets a complaint icon in your log and a Spam Complaint entry on its timeline. The Spam Complaints card on your Deliverability page counts them for your site. Complaints hurt your domain's reputation, so if the same address complains, add it to your block list.

#Blocked: your own block list

Blocked means the address or domain is on your block list, so we didn't send to it. You manage the list yourself under your site's Settings → Block List: enter an email address or a whole domain and click Add, or click Remove next to an entry to start sending to it again.

#Failed for another reason

The Reason on the email tells you what happened. Usually something about the email itself meant it couldn't go out. Not sure what a reason means? Send it to us at support@sendwp.com with the email's subject and date, and we'll explain.