Bounces that arrive later
How Vecta reads the "address not found" emails that land in your inbox after sending, and which ones put someone on the do-not-email list.
Many bad addresses aren't refused instantly. The receiving server accepts the email, then minutes or hours later sends an "address not found" message back to your mailbox. Vecta reads those messages so those people stop being emailed.
This needs reply tracking
Vecta can only see these messages if you've entered the IMAP details on the mailbox (the optional reply-tracking section). Without it, only instant refusals are caught.
What happens to each kind
| What came back | What Vecta does |
|---|---|
| The address doesn't exist | The email is marked bounced, the contact is marked bounced and the address goes on the do-not-email list. |
| Their mailbox is full | The email is marked failed with a plain note. The person is not blocked, because it may work later. |
| The server blocked the message (often spam filtering) | The email is marked failed with a plain note. The person is not blocked: the address may be perfectly good. |
| Delivery delayed | Nothing yet. The server is still trying. |
Only a dead address is blocked. If every spam block put people on the do-not-email list, one bad day with a provider would silently empty a good list.
If something looks wrong
- A contact became "bounced" days after I sent: a notice arrived late. Open the person: their email history says it came back undeliverable.
- A bounce notice arrived but the person wasn't blocked: it was a full mailbox, a spam block or a delay, not a missing address.
- Late bounces never appear: check the mailbox has IMAP details and a recent "last checked" time. A wrong IMAP password shows as an error on the mailbox.
- A replied-to email isn't counted as a reply: bounce notices are deliberately never counted as replies.
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Related articles
Understanding Bounce Handling
What a bounce really is, how Vecta tells a dead address apart from your own broken settings, and why that matters enormously.
The do-not-email list
See who is blocked and why, add people by hand, import a list, and lift a block safely.
Cleaning a list before you send
How the list check finds typos, throwaway addresses and domains that can't receive mail, and what it can't tell you.