Why emails may fail to deliver — and what you can do

SignedX uses a trusted, high-deliverability email provider to ensure your envelopes and notifications reach recipients reliably. To protect the sender reputation of all customers, the system actively monitors failed delivery attempts — automatically applying temporary or permanent blocks (denylists) when email issues occur repeatedly. This helps keep your messages trusted by mail providers and prevents deliverability problems across your organisation.

Soft bounces

Soft bounces are temporary issues and usually don't mean the email address is invalid. They may occur when:

• A recipient's mailbox is full
• The receiving mail server is temporarily unavailable
• The server accepts email but encounters a temporary issue while processing it

To protect system reputation, SignedX applies escalating denylist rules if a soft bounce happens repeatedly:

• First soft bounce → blocked for 24 hours
• Second soft bounce → blocked for 7 days
• Third soft bounce → blocked for 30 days
• Fourth soft bounce → permanently denylisted

These time-based blocks stop your organisation from unknowingly sending repeated messages to an unstable inbox.

Hard bounces

Hard bounces indicate more permanent issues, such as:

• The email address doesn't exist
• The domain is invalid
• The recipient's email server confirms the mailbox is not real

Because these failures strongly impact email reputation:

• First hard bounce → blocked for 30 days
• Second hard bounce → permanently denylisted

This helps prevent future attempts to email addresses that are not valid.

Marked as spam

If a recipient marks your email as spam, this signals to mail providers that messages were unwanted. To protect all SignedX users:

• Spam complaints → automatically denylisted for 365 days

This safeguard helps maintain long-term deliverability and prevents future issues with mail providers.

What happens when an email fails

Whenever an email cannot be delivered, SignedX automatically notifies the sender. These notifications typically include:

• A short diagnostic message
• The reason for failure (bounce, block, spam report, etc.)

When viewing the envelope in your SignedX dashboard:

• The recipient's status will show as Failed
• Clicking the status reveals detailed error information
• You can take next steps — such as checking for typos, updating the address, or contacting support

Organisation Owners can also access a complete overview via Settings → Email History, which includes:

• Delivery timestamps
• Open and click activity
• Failure reasons
• Overall email performance

This makes troubleshooting fast and transparent.

What to do if an email is blocked

If you believe the email address is valid:

We recommend asking the recipient or their IT team to check:

• Inbox storage
• Spam filters
• Allowlist settings
• Email server configuration

Email deliverability issues can be frustrating, but SignedX provides full visibility, automatic protection, and responsive support to keep your communication running smoothly.