Email Delivery Statuses and Resolutions

Overview

When emails are sent using a Veracross distribution list (e.g. all_parents@email.veracross.com), Veracross will automatically record each individual email that is sent to the people on the distribution list along with the individual email delivery status.

Schools are able to view the percentage of recipients who received the email along with the percentage of recipients who opened the email on the General tab of the Email record.

To access the email records, schools can use the Email Log query on the Communication homepage.

The current email status along with the local delivery time, elapsed time and mailbox response for each individual can be found on the Individual Recipients tab.

Email Address at the Time the Message Was Sent

The email displayed for each individual recipient is the address the original email was sent to, not the user’s current address. This can be helpful in troubleshooting email issues if a user’s address has changed since the time of the original email.

Using the “Resend to Failed Recipients” option attempts delivery to the same address that the email was originally sent to. It will not fetch the person’s current email_1 value.

The “Bounced Emails” query on the system homepage and “Individual Recipients” tab on the Email detail screen will also display the original email address. To view a full history of the individual’s email statuses for the email that was sent, schools can click on the magnify glass to view the Person Email detail screen.

Email Deliverability Dashboard

The Email Delivery Dashboard shows delivery statistics on emails from the past seven days visually. Navigate to the Communications homepage and click the Email Deliverability Dashboard link (located under the Emails section at the bottom). This dashboard focuses on overall delivery stats (successful deliveries vs. failed deliveries) and the various processing times in the life of an email.

In a situation where email delivery is delayed, the dashboard tries to reveal which step along the way had the delay.

Delivery Statuses and Resolutions

Here are the list of possible statuses an email can have and what they mean.

Delivered

Veracross received confirmation from the recipient’s email server that the email was delivered. If the recipient cannot find the email, it may have been delivered to a spam filter or junk folder.

Opened

Veracross received confirmation from the recipient’s email server that the email was opened by the recipient. Open tracking is enabled for all schools so that they will know whether an email has been opened or not. See more information about open tracking.

Bounced

Veracross tried to send the email to the recipient, but the recipient’s mail server (e.g. Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) was not able to accept the message. This could be because of an incorrect email address, or a full mailbox. Delivery will be attempted again several times in case this was a temporary problem. If Veracross is not able to send the email successfully the email will then have the Dropped status.

Resolution: Check with the recipient and confirm you have an active email address on file for them in their Email 1 field. Also, make sure the recipient has enough space in their inbox to receive new emails.

Spam Report

The recipient marked the email from a Veracross distribution list as spam. The recipient is now on the blocked recipient’s list which Veracross will not mail to. When a recipient marks an email as spam, Veracross will not send any more emails to this address and all subsequent emails will have a status of “Dropped”.

Resolution: Check the “Email Log” query on the System or Communications homepage and see if the recipient has a Email with the status of “Spam Report” and look for multi-day history of Dropped emails.

If the parent has dropped emails spanning many days, go to the Find Person query on the Communication homepage. Click on the magnifying glass in the Communications Detail column. This will open the Communication Detail record for the person. Schools should then check the Spam List Status. If the status says “On List (Not Receiving Emails)” schools will need to change the status to “Remove from List” and click Update Person- Communication.

Bounce/Spam List Statuses Query: To batch update multiple users’ spam or bounced statuses, navigate to the Communications homepage, click on the “Bounce/Spam List Statuses” link on the bottom right, and run the query. Use the Action menu to batch update one or both fields to “Remove From List” in the query results.

Schools can choose to resend the email to the individuals who did not receive it by going to the Action menu of the Email record and clicking Resend to Failed Recipients. Please note: Attachments will not be included in the email.

Deferred

Veracross is trying to send the email to the recipient, but the recipient’s email server is not accepting the email. Veracross will continue to try sending the email for up to 72 hours after which time the email will be marked as “Bounced” if still undelivered.

Resolution: Have the recipient white list all email from ‘@email.veracross.com’ AND ‘@mail.veracross.com’ so emails are delivered promptly and are not bounced.

Dropped

The “Dropped” status can mean one of two things:

1.  Veracross has already tried to deliver an email to the recipient in the last day or two that bounced and is not able to send another email to them at this time. This email will not be resent. However, after a day or two Veracross will continue attempting to send any new emails that come in for the recipient.

Resolution: Check the “Email Log” query on the Communication homepage and see if the recipient has a multi-day history of Dropped emails. If this was a one time incident, check with the recipient and confirm you have an active email address for them on file in Email 1.

2. The recipient marked a previous email from a Veracross distribution list as spam and is now on the blocked recipient’s list which Veracross will not mail to. When a recipient marks an email as spam, Veracross will not send any more emails to this address and all subsequent emails will have a status of “Dropped”.

Resolution: Check the “Email Log” or “Bounced Email” query on the Communication homepage and see if the recipient has a multi-day history of Dropped emails.

If the parent has dropped emails spanning many days, go to the Find Person query on the Communication homepage. Click on the magnify glass in the Communications Detail column. This will open the Communication Detail record for the person. Schools should then check the Bounced List Status. If the status says “On List (Not Receiving Emails)” schools will need to change the status to “Remove from List” and click Update Person- Communication. The system will then remove the person’s email address from the Bounced Report list.

Schools can chose to resend the email to the individuals who did not receive it by going to the Action menu on the Email record and click Resend to Failed Recipients. Please note: Attachments will not be included in the email.

None

Veracross does not have any information about the email delivery status, likely because the parent does not have an email address on file. If the parent has an email address, “None” means the email may or may not have been delivered – we do not have information one way or the other.

Resolution: Contact the recipient and see if they have an active email address you can put on file for them in their Email 1 field.

*Note: Statuses other than “Opened” and “Bounced” may not be accurate before February 10th, 2011.

Email Error Log

the Email Error Log query on the System homepage.

If an email does not send properly, you can find information about why it didn't send properly using the Email Error Log query on the System homepage. This query is configured to display any emails that have been sent in the past two weeks where the status is set to be one of four error statuses, which are detailed below:

• Error: Permission Denied is set when the email sending the distribution list email does not meet the security requirements to send to the distribution list.
• Error: No Recipients Found is set when there are no valid recipients in the distribution list.
• Error: Too Large is set when there are too many recipients through all the distribution lists included, causing the process to time out.
• Error: Invalid Distribution List is set when the email attempting to be sent does not actually use a valid distribution list address.