Bounced email status

Reasons why an email was not delivered.

A bounced email is one that was confirmed as not delivered by an external, receiving mail system. There are two types of bounced emails:

Permanent or hard bounce is an email that has been returned because the email cannot be delivered, such as when the recipient's address is invalid.
Transient or soft bounce is usually temporary, possibly due to a network error on the recipient's end, or a full inbox.

Important: A bounce is any successful delivery that later caused an automatic response. Out-of-office emails aren't a true bounce because the recipient gets the message when they next check their mail. However, Experience Cloud still counts this situation as a bounce.

Note: Invitation emails sent with a HIGH or VERY HIGH priority (as per Priority and Distribution rules) can be less accurate because the Reminder email may be sent out before the bounce tracking is received. For best accuracy, use NORMAL priority.

Broadcaster does not re-send bounced emails, unlike non-confirmed deliveries where it retries re-send them, such as when the target server is temporarily busy or not accepting messages.

When a bounce happens, the status of the bounce is appended to the value of the a_invitation_status field, which is a description of the invitation status. For example, the field value might say Delivery bounced (Soft bounce dns failure). Later, if the survey status changes, such as to Completed, the bounce state is not included.

Bounce categories and codes

When a invitation email bounces the Survey status (e_status) field is set to DELIVERY_BOUNCED (see exceptions below), and the e_bounce_category field is set to one of the following values based on the confirmation reason provided by the target system.

When a bounce happens during an invitation re-send event, the bounce code for that event is recorded in the e_bounce_category_resend_status field. The field is empty when the invitation was delivered either initially or as the result of a re-send.


Code	Description
0: NON_BOUNCE	No bounce (delivered) — This could be a recipient reply, or a bounce response that is not recognized. Sets the Survey status (e_status) field to DELIVERED.
1: HARD_BOUNCE	Hard bounce — The email server could not deliver the email. For example, 550 User Unknown.
2: SOFT_BOUNCE_GENERAL	Soft bounce - General — The email server is temporarily unable to deliver the message to the recipient email address. For example, Connection timed out.
3: SOFT_BOUNCE_DNS_FAILURE	Soft bounce - DNS failure — The email server is temporarily unable to deliver the message to the recipient email address because of a DNS problem. For example, Host is unreachable.
4: SOFT_BOUNCE_MAILBOX_FULL	Soft bounce - Mailbox full — The email server is temporarily unable to deliver the message to the recipient email address because the recipient's email box is full. For example, Mailbox over quota.
5: SOFT_BOUNCE_TOO_LARGE	Soft bounce - Message size too large — The email server could not deliver the message to the recipient because the message size is too large. For example, Exceeded maximum inbound message size.
6: BOUNCE_WITH_NO_EMAIL_ADDRESS	Bounce - But no Email address returned — The message was a bounce, but it could not resolve the original email recipient email address. Rare.
7: GENERAL_BOUNCE	General bounce — The email server could not deliver the email message, but the bounce message was unclear as to what kind of bounce it was. Most systems treat these as soft bounces. For example, Subject: Undeliverable mail.
8: MAIL_BLOCK_GENERAL	Mail block - General — The recipient's email server is blocking email from Medallia email server. For example, 550 Message REFUSED by peer.
9: MAIL_BLOCK_KNOWN_SPAMMER	Mail block - Known spammer — The recipient's email server is blocking email from the Medallia email server because it believes it to be a known spammer. For example, REJECT Known SPAM source.
10: MAIL_BLOCK_SPAM_DETECTED	Mail block - Spam detected — The recipient's email server is blocking email from the Medallia email server because the message appears to have content that looks like spam. For example, 550 Possible spam detected.
11: MAIL_BLOCK_ATTACHMENT_DETECTED	Mail block - Attachment detected — The recipient's email server is blocking email from the Medallia email server because the email message contained an attachment. For example, 552 Disapproved attachment.
12: MAIL_BLOCK_RELAY_DENIED	Mail block - Relay denied — The recipient's email server is blocking email from the Medallia email server. For example, 551 relaying denied.
13: AUTO_REPLY	Auto reply — An automatic response from the recipient. For example, Out Of Office, and Vacation Message. Important: A bounce is any successful delivery that later caused an automatic response. Out-of-office emails aren't a true bounce because recipients receive a message when they next check their mail. However, Experience Cloud still counts this situation as a bounce.
14: TRANSIENT_BOUNCE	Transient bounce — The email server cannot temporarily deliver the message, but it is still trying. Example: "Warning: message still undelivered after 4 hours. Will keep trying until message is 2 days old."
15: SUBSCRIBE_REQUEST	Subscribe request — Someone is requesting to be added to the opt-in email list. Sets the Survey status (e_status) field to DELIVERED.
16: UNSUBSCRIBE_REQUEST	Unsubscribe request — Recipient is requesting to be removed from future email from the Company. Sets the Survey status (e_status) field to DELIVERED.
17: CHALLENGE_RESPONSE	Challenge-response — The message is not delivered until a human responds to the response message. Challenge-Response email systems were created as a reaction to the increasing circulation of spam. Dubbed as a 100% effective solution to stopping spam from ever reaching users' inboxes. Challenge-Response systems like EarthLink SpamBlocker and SpamArrest, among others, require human intervention for an email message to reach its intended recipient. In short, a Challenge-Response message is an automatic response from the recipient, requesting that the sender confirm a real person is sending the message. Generally, confirmation is completed manually by clicking on a hyperlink within the Challenge-Response message itself.
18: BROADCASTER_BOUNCE	Broadcaster bounce — Email bounced as it is not compliant with internal validations and therefore may potentially be considered as spam.