Why aren't my emails sent using Amazon SES reaching their destination?
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I sent an email using Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) but I can't find the message in my inbox. Or, I tried sending an email using Amazon SES, but I got an error.
Resolution
Check for sending issues within your Amazon SES account
Check if your sending account is in the Amazon SES sandbox. Then, check if the recipient that you're trying to send the email to is a verified email address or domain. If your sending account is in the sandbox, then you can send emails only to email addresses or domains verified for use with Amazon SES. You can open a request to move your account into production mode. If Amazon SES approves your request, then you can send emails to any recipient.
If Amazon SES is returning "Maximum sending rate exceeded" or "Daily sending quota exceeded" error messages, then you must review your account's sending rate.
Review and debug your email-sending application for any client-side errors that might cause the sending issues. To identify if you might have client-side issues, test your connection to the Amazon SES SMTP endpoint. If your email client can't reach the endpoint, then troubleshoot your network.
Check for sending issues from Amazon SES to the recipient domain
Check the bounce notification for an SMTP response with the status code 554 and a message that says the sending IP address is blocked. This means that your email was rejected because the sender IP address is part of an IP blocklist that the recipient email provider uses. Be sure to review the policies for removing Amazon SES IP addresses from IP blocklists. To avoid using a sending IP address that's on an IP blocklist, use dedicated IP addresses so that you have control over the sender reputation.
Important: Bounces from issues on the recipient end can still impact your sending account's deliverability rate. As the sender, it's important that you monitor your bounce rate and prevent further bounces. If your account's bounce rate is 5% or greater, then Amazon SES can place your account under review. If your bounce rate is 10% or greater, then Amazon SES might pause your account's ability to send emails.
Check for sending issues from the recipient domain to the user's inbox
Check the recipient's spam folder for the email that you sent using Amazon SES. Several factors can lead to a recipient's mail server flagging an email as spam, such as content filters or the lack of email authentication. For more information, see Why are the emails that I send using Amazon SES getting marked as spam?