What are the most common causes of hard bounces?
- Hard bounces result from permanent conditions that will not change:
- Address does not exist:
- User never existed at this domain. User account was deleted. Typo created invalid address.
- Domain issues:
- Domain does not exist. Domain has no MX records. Domain not configured for email.
- Permanent account status:
- Account permanently disabled. Account converted to alias without forwarding. Mailbox abandoned and removed.
- Policy-based permanent rejection:
- Address or domain permanently blocklisted. Sender permanently banned. Content type never allowed.
- Response to hard bounces:
- Suppress immediately. Do not retry. Remove from active lists. Investigate source for list quality issues.
- Hard bounces are closed doors. The destination simply does not exist or will never accept from you.
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