Understanding Email Bounces: Soft Bounce vs. Hard Bounce
When iMonnit attempts to send an alert or system notification via email, the message can sometimes fail to reach the recipient. When a receiving mail server rejects a message, it generates a "bounce."
To help you manage your notification lists and maintain a healthy delivery rate, iMonnit categorizes these delivery failures into two types: Soft Bounces and Hard Bounces.
What is a Soft Bounce?
A Soft Bounce is a temporary email delivery failure. It means the recipient's email address is valid and active, but an issue on the receiving end is preventing the message from getting through at that exact moment.
When a notification soft bounces, iMonnit will typically log the event.
Common causes of a Soft Bounce:
- Full Mailbox: The recipient's email inbox has exceeded its storage quota and cannot accept new messages.
What is a Hard Bounce?
A Hard Bounce is a permanent email delivery failure. This occurs when a message is strictly rejected because the destination address is completely invalid, dead, or completely blocked.
Common causes of a Hard Bounce:
- Invalid or Non-Existent Address: The email address was mistyped (e.g.,
user@gnail.cominstead ofgmail.com) or the employee account has been permanently deleted. - Inbound Blocking: The recipient's corporate mail server, spam filter, or firewall has explicitly blocked the iMonnit sending domain or mail server IP address.
Quick Comparison
| Feature / Scenario | Soft Bounce | Hard Bounce |
| Nature of Failure | Temporary | Permanent |
| Address Validity | The email address is valid. | The email address is invalid or dead. |
| iMonnit System Action | Retries delivery; logs the temporary error. | Retries delivery; logs the error. |
| Typical Fix | Wait for the recipient to clear space or for their server to recover. | Correct the typo, use a new address, or safelist Monnit IPs. |
Troubleshooting and Best Practices
If you notice that your account administrators or technicians are not receiving critical sensor alerts due to email bounces, follow these steps:
-
Verify Email Spelling: Open the Users or Notifications tab in iMonnit. Check for obvious typos, incorrect domain extensions, or trailing spaces in the email field.
Safelist Monnit Sending Domains: If your corporate IT firewall is hard-bouncing iMonnit alerts, request your network administrator to safelist our core notification domains:
imonnit.com
- Check User Inbox Status: Ensure the recipient's mailbox isn't full and that their internal spam filters haven't miscategorized the automated alerts.