# Emails are bouncing or being rejected

> Read the bounce reason on the broadcast activity table, then check suppressions, your provider, and authentication. Hard and soft bounces need different responses.

Source: https://sendbroadcast.net/how-to/bounces-and-delivery-failures

## 1. Find the actual reason

Open the broadcast and look at **Recent Activity**. There is one row per recipient,
and the Status column shows the most significant outcome, with the bounce or
complaint reason underneath. That reason is the diagnosis. Everything below is about
what to do with it.

[The broadcasts documentation](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/broadcast-emails) covers the
activity table, and [Email Metrics](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/email-metrics) covers where
delivery data comes from.

![The Recent Activity table with per-recipient outcomes including Bounced with a mailbox does not exist reason, Spam and Unsubscribed](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/broadcasts/broadcast-activity-filters-54ab6b26.png)

Recent Activity on a sent broadcast. The reason printed under a bounce is the diagnosis. Read it before changing anything.

## 2. Confirm you are receiving bounce data at all

Broadcast learns about bounces from **ESP webhooks**. If they are not configured, the
activity table will look optimistic and you will keep mailing dead addresses, which
damages your reputation over time.

Check [your ESP integration](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/esp-integrations) and, if events
are not arriving, see [webhooks not firing](/how-to/webhooks-not-firing).

## 3. Respond by bounce type

**Hard bounces** mean the address does not exist. (For the general difference, see [hard bounce vs soft bounce](/hard-bounce-vs-soft-bounce).) These should stop being mailed
permanently. Auto-suppression handles this when webhooks are working. Verify the
address landed in [suppressions](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/suppression-lists).

**Soft bounces** are temporary: a full mailbox, a server that is briefly down, or
throttling by the receiving provider. These usually resolve on their own. A soft
bounce that repeats across sends should be treated as hard.

**Complaints** are someone marking the message as spam. These matter more than
bounces. A rising complaint rate needs a list and consent review, not a technical
fix.

**Blocks and rejections** by the receiving provider are a reputation or
authentication signal. Start at
[fixing DNS authentication](/how-to/fix-dns-authentication), then
[emails going to spam](/how-to/emails-going-to-spam).

![The Suppression List page with its Channel and Global tabs and a suppressed address](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/suppressions/suppressions-with-data-fd9aefb3.png)

Suppressions under Channel Settings. Hard bounces land here on their own once ESP webhooks are configured.

## 4. Check it is not your provider rejecting you

Some providers, Postmark in particular, are strict about what content and what list
practices they will accept. If rejections come from your provider rather than the
recipient, the message is in their dashboard. Some also enforce their own sending
limits on top of the
[rate limit configured in Broadcast](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/email-server-rate-limits).

## Suppressions are the safety net

Global suppressions apply across every channel; per-channel suppressions are
narrower. Suppressions are checked automatically before sending, and the
documentation covers the priority order and bulk upload, which is how you bring a
suppression list over from a previous platform.

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[Send us a bounce reason](mailto:simon@sendbroadcast.net?subject=Bounce%20question)
if it is not clear what it means.