Bounce and complaint types
When a Broadcast can't be delivered, or a subscriber marks it as unwanted, the platform records a reason so you can clean your audience and protect sending reputation. This page explains the common categories you'll see in reports and on subscriber records.
A hard bounce is a permanent failure — the address is invalid or the domain doesn't exist — and the subscriber is typically suppressed automatically. A soft bounce is temporary — a full mailbox or a busy server — and the platform usually retries before giving up. A complaint means a subscriber marked your message as spam through their mail provider; complaints are the strongest signal to stop mailing an address.
Reference
| Type | Category | What it means | Typical action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hard bounce | Invalid recipient | The mailbox does not exist or the address is malformed | Address suppressed automatically |
| Hard bounce | No such domain | The domain has no mail server or does not resolve | Address suppressed automatically |
| Soft bounce | Mailbox full | Recipient's inbox is over quota | Retried; suppressed after repeated failures |
| Soft bounce | Server unavailable | Receiving server is down or temporarily deferring | Retried automatically |
| Soft bounce | Message too large | Content exceeds the recipient server's size limit | Review Edition size and images |
| Block | Policy / reputation | Receiving server refused based on content or sender reputation | Investigate authentication and content |
| Complaint | Spam report | Subscriber flagged the message via their provider | Address suppressed; stop mailing |
| Complaint | Unsubscribe / list-unsubscribe | Subscriber opted out through the mail client | Honored and suppressed |
Exact labels, thresholds, and retry windows are product- and provider-specific — confirm the wording shown in your account.
Notes
- Repeated soft bounces to the same address are usually converted to a hard bounce and suppressed after a threshold (confirm the exact threshold in your account).
- Suppressed addresses stay excluded from future Broadcasts account-wide until you review them on the suppression list.
- Block and complaint categories often point to authentication or content issues rather than a bad address — review sender setup before re-sending.
- Bounce reasons come from the receiving mail server, so wording and granularity vary between providers.
Related
Canonical terms: Author, Edition, Folder (Project Folder), Broadcast. See the Glossary.