Why am I not receiving "Out of the office" notifications?

Question

I use SES to send emails via Mautic to a variety of recipients. This also works without any problems. The bounce management also works.

My problem is that I don't get any out of office notifications. When I try it with the test address ooto@simulator.amazonses.com it works. I get the out of office note delivered to the sender address.

But when I test it with other email addresses that have an out of office notification set up, I don't get the out of office notification. But why?

Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

Answer

I tried it myself with several email addresses from different providers. With none of them I get an out of office notification when I send via SES.
However, all emails are delivered without any problems.

Yesterday I sent a mailing to about 1600 contacts and did not receive a single out of office notice.

For test purposes I let SNS send me notifications via email. When I send to ooto@simulator.amazonses.com, I get two notifications: One notification with the type delivery and one with the type bounce. If I send to another email address with an out of office note, I only get one notification with the type delivery:

```
{
   "notificationType":"Delivery",
   "mail":{
      "timestamp":"2023-01-24T12:14:33.924Z",
       "source":"lorem@example.de",
      "sourceArn":"arn:aws:ses:eu-central-1:166357261950:identity/xxx@xxxxxx.de",
      "sourceIp":"94.134.xxx.xxx",
      "callerIdentity":"root",
      "sendingAccountId":"166357xxxxxx",
      "messageId":"01070185e3b38fc4-8598e404-a827-4e99-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "destination":[
         "ooto@simulator.amazonses.com"
      ]
   },
   "delivery":{
      "timestamp":"2023-01-24T12:14:34.636Z",
      "processingTimeMillis":712,
      "recipients":[
         "ooto@simulator.amazonses.com"
      ],
      "smtpResponse":"250 2.6.0 Message received",
      "remoteMtaIp":"63.32.xxxx.xxx",
      "reportingMTA":"xxxxxxx.smtp-out.eu-central-1.amazonses.com"
   }
}

{
   "notificationType":"Bounce",
   "bounce":{
      "feedbackId":"01070185e3b39393-1160e5e3-633e-4c6e-9b09-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "bounceType":"Transient",
      "bounceSubType":"General",
      "bouncedRecipients":[
         {
            "emailAddress":"ooto@simulator.amazonses.com"
         }
      ],
      "timestamp":"2023-01-24T12:14:34.000Z"
   },
   "mail":{
      "timestamp":"2023-01-24T12:14:33.924Z",
       "source":"lorem@example.de",
      "sourceArn":"arn:aws:ses:eu-central-1:166xxxxxxx50:identity/xxxx@xxxx-xxxxx.de",
      "sourceIp":"94.134.128.230",
      "callerIdentity":"root",
      "sendingAccountId":"166357261950",
      "messageId":"01070185e3b38fc4-8598e404-a827-4e99-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "destination":[
         "ooto@simulator.amazonses.com"
      ]
   }
}
```

Example of the other adress:

```
{
   "notificationType":"Delivery",
   "mail":{
      "timestamp":"2023-01-24T12:10:01.825Z",
      "source":"lorem@example.de",
      "sourceArn":"arn:aws:ses:eu-central-1:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "sourceIp":"78.47.xxx.xxx",
      "callerIdentity":"mautic-ses-smtp-user.20201218-xxxxxxx",
      "sendingAccountId":"166357xxxxxxxxxx",
      "messageId":"01070185e3af68e1-412b30b7-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "destination":[
         "oofo@example.de"
      ]
   },
   "delivery":{
      "timestamp":"2023-01-24T12:10:03.247Z",
      "processingTimeMillis":1422,
      "recipients":[
         "oofo@example.de"
      ],
      "smtpResponse":"250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as E4911B320535",
      "remoteMtaIp":"85.13.xxx.xxx",
      "reportingMTA":"xxxxx-13.smtp-out.eu-central-1.amazonses.com"
   }
}
```

Answer

It's possible that the email addresses you are testing with have their out of office notifications set to only send to specific email addresses or domains. Additionally, some email servers may not send out of office notifications to addresses that it considers to be automated messages, such as those sent by Mautic. It's also possible that the out of office notifications are being filtered to a spam or junk folder.

You can try reaching out to the email addresses you are testing with to confirm their out of office settings, or contact the administrator of the email server to ensure that your messages are not being blocked or marked as spam.

Why am I not receiving "Out of the office" notifications?

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