What does my email bounceback mean?
When a mail server cannot send or deliver an email, it generates a "bounceback" message that describes what happened, including the reason it failed.
If you receive a bounceback message, you can cross reference its error code with the information below to find out what caused the issue and how to resolve it.
These examples use the domain coolexample.com and its email address holly@ — you'll need to replace these with your own information.
Here are the most common bounceback message errors:
- Recipient Account Related Bounces
- Invalid Recipient Bounces
- Sender Related Bounces
- Content Related Bounces
- Rate Limiting Bounces
- RBL Related Bounces
- Common Bouncebacks with Hosted Exchange
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Common Bouncebacks with Email
| Bounceback Error | Cause of Error | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 421 Server temporarily unavailable. Try again later. IB101 | The email queue is experiencing higher than normal email volume. | Please try again later. |
Recipient Account Related Bounces
| Bounceback Error | Cause of Error | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Account storage limit | The recipients account has reached it's storage limit and cannot receive email at this time. | The recipient needs to clear out the receiving folder to make room for more email. |
| Account does not exist | The email the sender sent to does not exist. | Verify that the recipient email was entered correctly. |
| Account disabled | The recipient account exists but its ability to receive mail has been disabled. | Typically these accounts remain permanently disabled, but you can try sending the email again later. |
| Delivery timeout | This could happen for possible reasons. | Please try again later. |
| This message is looping: it already has my Delivered-To line. (#5.4.6) | The recipient account is forwarding the message in a loop. | This is commonly caused by the receiver having two addresses that forward to each other. They need to correct their forwarding settings. |
Invalid Recipient Bounces
| Bounceback Error | Cause of Error | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 550 Recipient not found. | The recipient is not a valid email address. | Remove the invalid recipient from your email. |
| 451 Sorry, I wasn’t able to establish an SMTP connection. I’m not going to try again; this message has been in the queue too long. |
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Sender Related Bounces
| Bounceback Error | Cause of Error | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 535 Authentication not allowed on IBSMTP Servers. IB401 | Authentication is not allowed on inbound mail. | Do not attempt to authenticate when sending mail to this server. |
| 550 holly@coolexample.com Blank From: addresses are not allowed. Please provide a valid From. IB501 | The email message "from" is blank. | Add a valid "from" address and try to send the email again. |
| 550 holly@coolexample.com IP addresses are not allowed as a From: Address. Please provide a valid From. IB502 | Email messages cannot be sent "from" an IP Address. | Add a valid "from" address and try to send the email again. |
| 550 coolexample.com From: Domain is invalid. Please provide a valid From: IB506 | The domain doesn't have valid MX Records, an IP address, or there were issues during the DNS lookup when the email was sent. | Verify that you are sending from a valid domain. Then verify that the domain has valid DNS records by doing an external DNS lookup. If the DNS isn't valid, it must be fixed before you resend the email. |
| 550 holly@coolexample.com Invalid SPF record. Please inspect your SPF settings, and try again. IB508 | The sending email address's domain has an SPF record that does not authorize the sending email server to send email from the domain. | Modify the SPF record to include the server you are trying to send from, or remove the SPF record from the domain. |
| 421 Temporarily rejected. Reverse DNS for this IP failed. IB108 | The IP address attempting to send mail does not have reverse DNS setup, or the DNS lookup failed. | Verify the sending IP address has reverse DNS setup before resending the email. |
Content Related Bounces
| Bounceback Error | Cause of Error | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 552 This message has been rejected due to content judged to be spam by the Internet community. IB212 | The email message contains a link, attachment, or pattern caught by our filters as spam. | Please include an option to opt out in your email messages. Then check your sending lists to ensure you are only sending to recipients who have selected to opt in to receiving your mail. If you feel this message has been flagged as spam erroneously, please be sure to obtain a copy of the original message attempting to be sent, and then contact support. |
| 552 Virus infected message rejected. IB705 | The email message containing a link, attachment, or pattern caught by our filters as a possible virus. | Please include an option to opt out in your email messages. Then check your sending lists to ensure you are only sending to recipients who have selected to opt in to receiving your mail. If you feel this message has been flagged as spam erroneously, please be sure to obtain a copy of the original message attempting to be sent, and then contact support. |
Rate Limiting Bounces
| Bounceback Error | Cause of Error | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 452 This message contains too many recipients Please reduce the number of recipients and retry. IB605 | The message has attempted to mail too many recipients. | Please reduce the number of recipients and try again. |
| 421 Connection refused, too many sessions from This IP. Please lower the number of concurrent sessions. IB007 | This IP address currently has too many sessions open. | Please lower the number of open sessions and try again. |
| 554 This IP has been temporarily blocked for attempting to send too many messages containing content judged to be spam by the Internet community. IB110 | This IP address has attempted to send too many messages containing content judged to be spam and has been blocked for an hour. | If you are not sending spam, you'll need to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to see why your IP address is sending so many emails. Something in your system is causing the issue, and you'll need to troubleshoot. C3: To determine and confirm ownership of the IP address, you can do an IP address look up through DNS Stuff, senderbase.org or any other look-up tool. |
| 554 This IP has been blocked for the day, for attempting to send too many messages containing content judged to be spam by the Internet community. IB111 | This IP address has attempted to send too many messages containing content judged to be spam and has been blocked for the remainder of the day. | Please check the content of your message and try again later. |
| 554 This IP has been temporarily blocked for attempting to mail too many invalid recipients. IB112 | This IP address has attempted to mail too many invalid recipients and has been blocked for an hour. | Please check your recipient list and try again later. |
| 554 This IP has been blocked for the day, for attempting to mail too many invalid recipients. IB113 | This IP address has attempted to mail too many invalid recipients and has been blocked for the remainder of the day. | Please check your recipient list and try again later. |
| 550 This IP has sent too many messages this hour. IB504 | This IP address has reached the maximum allowed messages for that hour. | Please try again later. |
| 550 This message has exceeded the max number of messages per session. Please open a new session and try again. IB510 | This IP address has reached the maximum allowed messages for that session. | Please try again later. |
| 550 This IP has sent too many to too many recipients this hour. IB607 | This IP address has reached the maximum allowed recipients for that hour. | Please try again later. |
RBL Related Bounces
| Bounceback Error | Cause of Error | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 554 RBL Reject. | This IP address has been blocked from our internal RBL. | Follow the link provided in the bounceback to submit a request to remove this IP address. |
| 554 Connection refused. This IP has a poor reputation on Cloudmark Sender Intelligence (CSI). IB103 | This IP address has a poor reputation on Cloudmark Sender Intelligence (CSI). | Check Cloudmark Sender Intelligence to see the reputation of the sending IP. |
| 554 Connection refused. This IP is listed on the Spamhaus Block List (SBL). IB104 | This IP is listed on the Spamhaus Block List. | Check to see if the IP is listed on the Spamhaus Block List. |
| 554 Connection refused. This IP is listed on the Exploits Block List (XBL). IB105 | This IP is listed on the Spamhaus Exploits Block List. | Check to see if the IP is listed on the Spamhaus Exploits Block List. |
| 554 Connection refused. This IP is listed on the Policy Block List (PBL). IB106 | This IP is listed on the Spamhaus Policy Block List. | Check to see if the IP is listed on the Spamhaus Policy Block List. |
Common Bouncebacks with Hosted Exchange
| Bounceback Error | Cause of Error | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| IMCEAEX-_O= CHOST_OU=EX CHANGE+20AD MINISTRATIVE +20GROUP+20+28F YDIBOHF23SPDLT +29_CN=RECIPIENTS_ CN =coolexample@ex2. secureserver.net #550 5.1.1 RESOLVER.ADR. ExRecipNot Found; not found ## | There are cached entries from the Nickname List or you deleted your Nickname Cache File. | Please see . |
| holly@coolexample.com #550 5.1.1 RESOLVER. ADR.ExRecipNotFound; not found ## | The email arrived at the incorrect server, potentially caused by a DNS issue. | Make sure you entered the correct email address. Verify the recipients' domain and MX records are properly configured for Hosted Exchange. For more information, see . |
