When you view the Activity tab, each email sent via the SMTP Relay displays a status indicating its delivery state. This article explains what each status means and what you can do when an issue is detected.
What it's used for
Understanding statuses allows you to:
- Quickly know whether an email was successfully delivered
- Identify the nature of a delivery issue
- Take the right action based on the status displayed
Delivery statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Rejected | The message was not accepted by the server before sending. Possible causes: invalid address, SMTP sending quota reached on your account, or unauthenticated domain. |
| Accepted | The message was received and accepted by Cyberimpact's server. |
| Pending | The message is in the sending server's queue, waiting to be transmitted to the recipient. |
| Delivered | The message was accepted by the recipient's server. |
| Deferred | A temporary error occurred, the system will automatically retry delivery. |
| Soft bounce | Delivery failed after several attempts due to a temporary cause. |
| Hard bounce | Delivery failed permanently, usually due to an invalid or non-existent address. |
How it works
Final vs. temporary statuses
Each delivery status belongs to one of two categories:
Final statuses: once reached, they will no longer change: Delivered, Soft bounce, and Hard bounce.
Note: an email displayed as Delivered may subsequently change to a soft or hard bounce. Some servers initially accept the message, then send a non-delivery notification afterward. In that case, the status is automatically updated in the mailing statistics on the dashboard, but you will see the "Delivered" activity followed by the bounce in your activity history.
Temporary status: an email with a Deferred status could not be delivered due to a temporary error, but delivery has not been abandoned. The system will automatically retry until the message is delivered or the maximum retry period is reached. No action is required on your part.
Common causes of a Deferred status
- Receiving server temporarily unavailable
- Recipient's inbox temporarily inaccessible
- Temporary limit imposed by the destination server
Common causes of a Soft bounce
- Recipient's inbox is full
- Destination server temporarily unavailable or inaccessible after several attempts
- Message temporarily filtered as spam by the recipient's server
- Recipient's domain temporarily not found in DNS
Common causes of a Hard bounce
- Non-existent or invalid email address
- Recipient's domain does not exist
Why an email may be refused or rejected
Here are the most common reasons why a message displays the Rejected status:
Unauthenticated domain
The domain used in the sender address is not properly configured. Verify that your 3 CNAME records (DKIM 1, DKIM 2, SPF/Return-Path (MX)) are validated in the Domains tab.
Sending quota reached
The monthly limit of your plan has been reached. New messages are refused until the billing period renews or a higher plan is selected.
Too many recipients
A message cannot contain more than 50 recipients. Recipients beyond this limit are rejected.
Message too large
The total size of the message exceeds 20 MB. Reduce the size of attachments or use download links for large files.
Invalid address
The sender or recipient address is incorrectly formatted or does not exist.
See also: