Hard vs. Soft Bounces, Error Codes & What to Do
When sending emails, it’s normal to occasionally run into delivery issues. At Raklet, we help you understand these problems by identifying the type of error and what actions you can take to resolve them (if needed).
In this guide, we’ll break down:
The difference between hard and soft bounces
What do common email error codes mean
How Raklet handles these errors
Practical tips for improving your email deliverability
What Are Bounces?
A bounce happens when an email can’t be delivered to the recipient's inbox. The receiving email server usually returns a reason, and based on that, Raklet classifies bounces into two categories:
Soft vs. Hard Bounces
Emails that cannot be delivered to an email server are referred to as bounces. The email server generally provides a reason for the incident, and at Raklet, we use those reasons to determine how to handle that email address. We categorize bounces into two types: hard bounces and soft bounces.
In this article, you’ll learn about hard and soft bounces in Raklet.
Things to know:
- Raklet can't predict whether or not an email will bounce.
- The receipts for your bounces will be available in your email reports for 30 days after the email is sent.
- Different internet service providers (ISPs) bounce email messages based on their own rating systems and definitions.
Hard Bounces = Permanent Failures (Delivery Failed)
A hard bounce indicates a permanent reason an email can't be delivered. Here are some common reasons an email may hard bounce:
Common reasons:
The email address doesn’t exist
The domain name is invalid
The recipient server has blocked delivery
Authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) failed
Your domain or IP is blacklisted
Raklet Policy: If an email hard bounces, the address is automatically cleaned from your audience and excluded from future emails.
Note: In rare cases, valid email addresses may hard bounce due to issues on the recipient’s server.
Soft Bounces = Temporary Issues
Soft bounces typically indicate a temporary delivery issue and are handled differently than hard bounces by Raklet. When an email address soft bounces, it will immediately display as a soft bounce in the email report. Raklet will retry sending several times before taking further action.
If an email address continues to soft bounce, the address will eventually be considered a hard bounce and cleaned from your audience. While there are many reasons an email address may soft bounce, these are some of the most common:
Common reasons:
Mailbox is full (over quota).
Mailbox isn't configured correctly.
Mailbox is inactive.
The recipient email server is down or offline.
The recipient email server has received too many emails during a period of time.
The email message is too large.
Domain name does not exist. This may be a temporary issue.
Email message blocked due to content.
The email message doesn't meet the recipient server’s policies.
The email message failed DMARC.
The email message doesn't meet the recipient server’s anti-spam requirements.
The email message doesn't meet the recipient server’s anti-virus requirements.
The email message doesn't meet the recipient server’s sender requirements.
Email can't be relayed between email servers.
Email can't be relayed for unknown reasons.
Raklet Policy: If there is no subscriber activity, we allow 7 soft bounces before converting it to a hard bounce. If the contact has previous activity, we allow up to 15 soft bounces before converting a soft bounce into a hard bounce.
Email Bounce Reporting on Raklet
You can view bounce reasons and status for each campaign in your email report dashboard (Details).
The receipts for your bounces will be available in your email reports for 30 days after the email is sent.
Raklet cannot predict in advance whether a message will bounce — bounces depend on external server rules and recipient configurations.