Email Troubleshooting: Common Problems and Solutions

    This article dives into the most common email-sending issues in the Magentrix portal and provides easy-to-follow steps for troubleshooting them. This guide will provide you with the necessary knowledge to diagnose and fix common portal email issues whether you are a portal admin user or an IT professional responsible for managing the platform. If at any point you have questions or need further assistance, please contact Magentrix Support.

    How to send test emails 

    There is a feature in the portal that allows admin users to send a test email in order to check deliverability. 

    Navigate to Create > Email Template and select one of the templates available in the portal.

    On the top right side of the page, click on "Send Test Email

    You can send the email preview by typing the email address under the "Send email preview to:" and clicking “Send”.

    Note: When submitting an email test, merge fields and links such as the login link will not be populated.

    How to access Email Notifications

    For further details on how to access Email notification logs, please refer to this documentation

    If your portal emails are managed by Magentrix and not your organizations SMTP server, Magentrix provides you with access to a list of email logs based on emails sent by the portal.

    A "Bounce" status indicates that the email was not delivered due to an issue and was returned to the sender. It is possible for an email to be marked as Delivered, but silently blocked by the recipient's server. 
    Please refer to the "Solving Most Common Email Issues" section below for more details.

    Most Common Email Issues

    Bounce types:

    Suppression List: Suppression Lists are features of Amazon SES that block specific email addresses. The list is created when emails are bounced a few times due to delivery issues. Future emails sent to that address will be blocked by SES, preventing unwanted or spam emails. 

    Examples of suppressed email messages:

    smtp: 5.1.1 Amazon SES has suppressed sending to this address because it has a recent history of bouncing as an invalid address.
    smtp: 5.1.1 Amazon SES did not send the message to this address because it is on the suppression list for your account.


    Invalid email address: The recipient's email address may be invalid, either because it contains a typo, the domain name is misspelled, or the email account has been closed or deleted. Examples of invalid email messages:

    smtp: 550 5.4.1 Recipient address rejected: Access denied.
    smtp: 550-5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist.
    smtp: 552 1 Requested mail action aborted, mailbox not found
    smtp: 550 5.4.4 Invalid domain
    smtp: 554 4.4.7 Message expired: unable to deliver in 840 minutes.


    Mailbox full: If the recipient's inbox is full, they may not receive new messages until more space is added or old emails are removed. Examples of full mailbox messages:

    smtp: 554 5.2.2 The recipient's mailbox is full and cannot accept any new messages at this time. Please try again later or contact the recipient to inform them that their mailbox is full.
    smtp: 554 5.2.2 mailbox full Failed to process message due to a permanent exception with message


    Spam filter: The email message may have triggered a spam filter or been identified as spam, causing it to be blocked from delivery. Examples spam rejected messages:

    smtp: 550 5.7.1 Message contains spam or virus. DMARC policy violation.
    smtp: 550 Unable to add ADRESS because host IP is listed on bl.spamcop.net
    smtp:550 5.7.350 Remote server returned message detected as spam
    smtp: 554 Refused. Your IP address is listed in the RBL at bl.spamcop.net
    smtp: 550 Service unavailable; Client host [a9-63.smtp-out.amazonses.com] blocked by bl.spamcop.net


    DMARC Policy: It's an email authentication protocol that allows a domain owner to specify which email servers are authorized to send emails on their behalf and instructs receiving email servers on how to handle emails that fail authentication. DMARC policy is the set of rules and instructions that a domain owner publishes in their DNS records to specify how receiving email servers should handle unauthenticated emails. The sender may receive a bounceback message indicating that the email was not delivered due to a DMARC policy failure. 

    smtp: 550-5.7.26 Unauthenticated email from DOMAIN is not accepted due to DMARC policy.
    smtp: 550 5.7.1 Sender domain DMARC policy authentication failure. Please contact the administrator of the domain you are trying to send under if this was legitimate mail.

    For more information on email rejection error codes, please refer to this website.


    Solving Most Common Email Issues

    Suppression list: The Magentrix Support should be contacted when an email is rejected due to being added to the suppression list. If the address is valid, removing it from the list may solve the deliverability issue. If the email bounces again, the bounce message will point to the reason the address was added to the suppression list. In many cases, the address is invalid by spelling. After some rejections by “invalid email address”, the address is added to the Suppression List.

    Invalid email address: Double-check the address for possible spelling errors. The account may be deleted. 
    In order to check if the address is valid please refer to this website.

    Mailbox full: The recipient must be notified that their inbox is full. The emails will be delivered again once the inbox is cleared. 

    Spam filter/Silent Blocked: If the email notifications indicate that the email has been "Delivered" but the recipient is still not receiving it, the message may be Silent/Blocked or stuck in Spam Folder. It may be necessary for the recipient to whitelist the portal's email address to bypass the spam filter or the silent blocker. Additionally, the recipient can also reach out to their IT team in order to add the IPs of the dedicated email server to their whitlist.
    The relevant IPs are 54.240.33.204 and 54.240.33.205.

    DMARC Policy: Bounced emails caused by DMARC errors. Publish valid SPF and DKIM records and align them with the domain used in the "From" header to prevent DMARC errors and improve email deliverability. In order to resolve the DMARK error, contact Magentrix Support. 
    In order to check if the domain has DMARC installed, please refer to this website.

    How to improve email deliverability

    Please note that as part of the Go-Live process, Magentrix Support completes the first two items listed below by coordinating with the client's IT team. You can reach out to Magentrix Support to verify that your portal's email is under the dedicated SES server and also DKIM verified. Additionally, Magentrix Support can be contacted in order to set Custom Mail FROM Domain. 


    1. Moving from the shared email server to the dedicated SES server: A shared SES server is utilized by several AWS accounts, suitable for small organizations with low email-sending requirements. On the other hand, a dedicated server is exclusive to one AWS account and has its own IP address and server. This ensures enhanced email deliverability and reduces the risk of bounced emails. 

    2. DKIM verification: DomainKeys Identified Mail adds a digital signature to an email message to verify its sender and prevent email spoofing and phishing. The signature is created using a private key and verified using a public key, which is published in the organization's DNS record. DKIM protects the organization's brand reputation and prevents email fraud. 
     
    3. Custom MAIL FROM Domain: Messages that are sent through SES use a subdomain of amazonses.com as the default MAIL FROM domain. Setting the MAIL FROM to a domain you own, enables the email to comply with Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC).

    For more information on the custom MAIL FROM domain, please refer to this Amazon documentation.

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