A contact is marked as bounced when their receiving email server rejects an email campaign or automation email. This rejection can mean that the email address is invalid or their inbox is inaccessible when sending.
Email bounce types
There are two types of bounces that we track: hard bounces and soft bounces.
Hard bounce
A hard bounce is a permanent failure or rejection. Once we receive a hard bounce, we mark the contact immediately as “Bounced.” We will no longer send any direct or automated campaigns to that contact.
Soft bounce
A soft bounce is a temporary failure or rejection. Some reasons may include:
- The recipient's server is unavailable or down
- The recipient's server is overloaded
- The recipient’s mailbox is full
- The message size is too big
- Failing email authentication
When a contact soft bounces, we don't mark the contact as bounced until this happens three times in a row (3 separate campaigns). If we receive three soft bounces for your contact, they are marked as “Bounced” and we will no longer send them any campaigns or automation emails.
How to locate campaign bounce data
When a contact bounces, we will list the date of the bounce, the bounce code, the type of bounce (hard or soft), and the bounce description in your direct and automated campaign reports:
Direct campaign reports
To locate bounce data for direct campaigns:
- Click Reports on the left menu.
- Click the email you want to review.
You will find "Bounces" in the "Summary" box. This shows you the percentage of bounces your campaign received.
If you hover your mouse over "Bounces," a modal will appear and show you the number of bounced contacts.
If you click "Bounces" in the "Summary" box, we'll direct you to the Bounce Reports page for your campaign. Here you can see a list of all contacts who bounced, the date they bounced, the bounce code, bounce type, and bounce description
Automated campaign reports
To locate bounce data for automated campaigns:
- Click Reports on the left menu.
- Hover your mouse next to the ActiveCampaign logo on the top left, then click "Show navigation."
- Click the "Automations" option, then click the "All Automations" report.
- Locate the automation containing the campaign for which you wish to review the bounce report.
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Click the "Contains X campaign ..." option under the automation name.
- A modal containing links to additional reports will appear. Click the "Automation Overview" option.
- A new tab or window will open and display a high-level overview of all campaigns in your automation. From here, locate and click the campaign in the table at the bottom of the report.
- A modal containing a link to the Campaign Overview report will appear. Click this link to view data for your automated campaign.
You will find "Bounces" in the "Summary" box. This shows you the percentage of bounces your campaign received.
If you hover your mouse over "Bounces," a modal will appear and show you the number of bounced contacts.
If you click "Bounces" in the "Summary" box, we'll direct you to the Bounce Reports page for your campaign. Here you can see a list of all contacts who bounced, the date they bounced, the bounce code, bounce type, and bounce description.
Bounce codes
The bounce codes displayed on the Bounce Reports page come from recipients' email servers. Please note that these receiving mail servers may provide codes that do not accurately reflect the true nature of the bounce.
Below is a list bounce codes that we use and support:
| Bounce Code | Bounce Type | Description |
| 4.2.2 | Soft | The email account is over quota |
| 5.0.0 | Hard | Address does not exist |
| 5.1.0 | Hard | Other address status |
| 5.1.1 | Hard | Bad destination mailbox address |
| 5.1.2 | Hard | Bad destination system address |
| 5.1.3 | Hard | Bad destination mailbox address syntax |
| 5.1.4 | Hard | Destination mailbox address ambiguous |
| 5.1.5 | Hard | Destination mailbox address valid |
| 5.1.6 | Hard | Mailbox has moved |
| 5.1.7 | Hard | Bad sender\'s mailbox address syntax |
| 5.1.8 | Hard | Bad sender's system address |
| 5.2.0 | Soft | Other or undefined mailbox status |
| 5.2.1 | Soft | Mailbox disabled, not accepting messages |
| 5.2.2 | Soft | Mailbox full |
| 5.2.3 | Hard | Message length exceeds administrative limit. |
| 5.2.4 | Hard | Mailing list expansion problem |
| 5.3.0 | Hard | Other or undefined mail system status |
| 5.3.1 | Soft | Mail system full |
| 5.3.2 | Hard | System not accepting network messages |
| 5.3.3 | Hard | System not capable of selected features |
| 5.3.4 | Hard | Message too big for system |
| 5.4.0 | Hard | Other or undefined network or routing status |
| 5.4.1 | Hard | No answer from host |
| 5.4.2 | Hard | Bad connection |
| 5.4.3 | Hard | Routing server failure |
| 5.4.4 | Hard | Unable to route |
| 5.4.5 | Soft | Network congestion |
| 5.4.6 | Hard | Routing loop detected |
| 5.4.7 | Hard | Delivery time expired |
| 5.5.0 | Hard | Other or undefined protocol status |
| 5.5.1 | Hard | Invalid command |
| 5.5.2 | Hard | Syntax error |
| 5.5.3 | Soft | Too many recipients |
| 5.5.4 | Hard | Invalid command arguments |
| 5.5.5 | Hard | Wrong protocol version |
| 5.6.0 | Hard | Other or undefined media error |
| 5.6.1 | Hard | Media not supported |
| 5.6.2 | Hard | Conversion required and prohibited |
| 5.6.3 | Hard | Conversion required but not supported |
| 5.6.4 | Hard | Conversion with loss performed |
| 5.6.5 | Hard | Conversion failed |
| 5.7.0 | Hard | Other or undefined security status |
| 5.7.1 | Hard | Delivery not authorized, message refused |
| 5.7.2 | Hard | Mailing list expansion prohibited |
| 5.7.3 | Hard | Security conversion required but not possible |
| 5.7.4 | Hard | Security features not supported |
| 5.7.5 | Hard | Cryptographic failure |
| 5.7.6 | Hard | Cryptographic algorithm not supported |
| 5.7.7 | Hard | Message integrity failure |
| 9.1.1 | Hard | Hard bounce with no bounce code found. It could be an invalid email or rejected email from your mail server (such as from a sending limit). |
I have a valid contact that bounced. Why did that happen?
Usually, this happens because the recipient’s inbox provider decided to block the message you sent for one reason or another. This temporary error should resolve itself, assuming the contact is valid.
However, in some rare cases, the inbox provider will make a mistake and give us a misleading bounce code saying the address is invalid when it was bounced for another reason. If this happens, we’ll take the inbox provider’s word and treat the account as invalid (hard bounce), even if this isn’t true. If you know a specific bounced address is valid, contact our Customer Experience Team, and we can help you.
Please note that a hard bounce can only be adjusted by contacting our Customer Experience Team. Resubscribing a hard bounced contact to a list manually within your account will not successfully update the address as valid. This can only be achieved by contacting our Customer Experience Team.