Understanding email statuses: hard bounce, delivered, pending, and more

Understanding the different email statuses such as Hard Bounce, Delivered, Processed, or Pending is crucial. This helps you understand why some transactional e-mails don't reach recipients and how to resolve these issues.

What are email statuses?

Email statuses show what happens to your email after you send it with Lettermint. They indicate whether an email has been delivered, is still in the queue, or couldn't be delivered. By tracking these statuses, you can quickly identify issues and take action to ensure your emails reach their intended recipients.

At Lettermint, you can easily track the status of your sent emails through our dashboard. Here, you receive real-time updates and detailed information about each sent email, keeping you informed about the performance of your transactional emails.

Our email statuses explained

Below, you'll find explanations of the different email statuses you may encounter in our dashboard. This way, you'll know exactly what's happening with your emails.

Processed

This means your email has been successfully processed by Lettermint and has been handed over to our sending infrastructure for delivery to the recipient.

Delivered

This status indicates that your email has been successfully delivered to the recipient's mail server, such as Gmail, iCloud, or Outlook. This means the email was correctly sent by Lettermint and received by the recipient's server.

Hard bounce

This status indicates that your email couldn't be delivered because the email address is invalid. This could mean that the email address doesn't exist, the domain name is incorrect, or the mail server permanently rejected the email.

Delayed (Soft bounce)

This status indicates that your email couldn't be delivered temporarily. Unlike a hard bounce, where the issue is permanent, a soft bounce can be caused by temporary problems such as a full inbox or an offline server.

Common causes of a soft bounce include:

• The recipient's inbox is full
• The recipient's mailbox is not properly configured
• The recipient's mailbox is inactive
• The recipient's mail server is temporarily offline
• The recipient's mail server has received too many emails in a short period
• The email is too large for the recipient's inbox (e.g., due to attachments)

Suppressed

This status means the email was not sent because the address is on the Suppressed list (excluded from delivery). This usually happens due to:

• Multiple hard bounces
• A recipient unsubscribed from your emails (e.g. a newsletter)
• A recipient reported your email as spam

You can view and manage this list via Projects → Project → Route → Suppressions in the dashboard.

Spam complaint

This status occurs when the recipient's email provider rejects your email during the delivery attempt due to a spam complaint. This means the email address has previously reported emails as spam, and Lettermint is blocking further deliveries to protect the recipient.

Conclusion

Understanding the different email statuses helps you grasp the performance of your transactional emails and quickly resolve any issues.

Our dashboard provides detailed information for each sent email, so you can always check the delivery status and take immediate action if necessary.