Bounces - Soft vs Hard
Overview
When an email is rejected by an email server, it is called a "bounce". Bounces are labeled as either "hard" or "soft" to indicate the reason for the rejection. This article explains the difference between the two, and how to search for bounce activity in .
Hard Bounce
A hard bounce indicates a permanent reason an email cannot be delivered. There are lots of reasons for a hard bounce to occur, but the core of it is that it's a permanent failure. You should remove any hard bounced email addresses from your ATS database. You can use to indicate any hard bounces automatically in your ATS.
Common reasons for a hard bounce include:
- The recipient's email address does not exist.
- The domain name does not exist.
- The recipient's email server has completely blocked delivery.
Soft Bounce
A soft bounce is an email that couldn't be delivered for a temporary reason. Often email providers will attempt to redeliver the email a few times. If an email gets three soft bounces, will treat it as a hard bounce.
Common reasons for a soft bounce include:
- The recipient's mailbox is full (over quota).
- The recipient's email server is down or offline.
- The email message is too large.
Ideally your bounce rate will be under 2.5%. If it goes higher than that, you may start to have issues with delivery.
Searching for Bounce Activity
In you can search for emails that have been labeled as a soft or hard bounce. Simply select the Bounce Activity list logic, and select from the drop down field which bounces to search for: Any, Hard, or Soft.