Frequently Asked Questions

Different Bounce Types

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Last Updated: May 7, 2015 2:04 PM

A Bounce means an email was not successfully delivered to the contact. The specific reasons behind the undeliverable address depend on the bounce type: Hard, Soft, General, or Still Trying. We'll explain each type here:

Bounce Types

Hard Bounce:

These are email addresses that are totally unknown, obsolete, or incorrect. These will never be delivered to the recipient. These contacts are immediately suppressed, when they encounter a hard bounce. Most often these are old and expired addresses (If you spot obvious typos like example@example.con (instead of .com), you can unsuppress the contact and update the email.)

Soft Bounce:

These are email accounts that often have full mailboxes, their domain is temporarily down, or they’re currently not able to receive email. GoDaddy Email Marketing retries these types until we’re sure they won’t get through. Only after that time are these contacts suppressed.

General Bounce:

The most common form of General Bounce happens when a firewall exists on the server of the recipient and prevents them from receiving email from outside their network. This is common in the case of corporations that do not receive email from unknown sources. GoDaddy Email Marketing retries all General Bounces until it's certain they won’t get through, at which time the contact is suppressed from your active subscribers.

Still Trying:

These indicate that a particular message could not yet be delivered, but that the server is still trying. This bounce type is usually resolved when retrying.

Related Topics:

What Is "Marked As Spam" and What Can I Do About It?
What Do The Different Suppression Types Mean?
Why Did My Own Email Address Bounce?