License Is Not Active. What does a bounced email mean? - madRooster.com

  •   10/14/2025 12:51 PM
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A bounced email occurs when an email you send cannot be delivered to the recipient’s inbox and is returned to you. It’s similar to a postal package being sent back because it couldn’t be delivered. Email servers reject messages for various reasons, resulting in a bounce.

There are two main types of bounces:

  • Hard Bounce: This means the email address is invalid or permanently unavailable. For example, the address might not exist or has been closed. Hard bounces are permanent, and you should remove these addresses from your mailing list to avoid damaging your sender reputation.

  • Soft Bounce: This is a temporary issue, like a full mailbox, a temporary server outage, or the message size being too large. Soft bounces may be retried by your email provider, but if they persist, they can also become permanent.

Common reasons for email bounces include invalid email addresses, full recipient inboxes, server outages, spam filters blocking the email, or the sending domain being blacklisted.

When an email bounces, you usually receive a bounce message with a status code and diagnostic details explaining why it couldn’t be delivered. Understanding these messages can help you fix the issue and improve your email deliverability.


To help you decode and understand the exact meaning of bounce messages, visit our website’s email bounce checker for a simple explanation:
https://madrooster.com/email-bounce-check