A bounce message is an automated notice telling you a message you sent wasn't delivered. Bounces can look alarming, but the error text they contain usually points to exactly what went wrong. This article walks you through reading that error, sorting it into one of the common causes below, and figuring out whether it's something you (or the recipient) can fix, or something Hover Support needs to look into.
Is This the Right Article?
Outbound delivery problems can look similar to a few other email issues. Make sure you're in the right place before you continue:
- Mail you send is bouncing or being rejected. You're in the right article — keep reading below.
- You're not receiving mail sent to you. See Troubleshoot Receiving Emails instead.
- Your address is being spoofed, or you're getting a flood of bounce-back notices for mail you didn't send. See Email Spoofing and Undeliverable Notices instead.
Before you begin
- The exact bounce message or error code from the email you tried to send, or from the notice you received. This text almost always identifies the cause.
- The recipient's email address you were sending to when the bounce occurred.
Common Bounce Causes
Most outbound delivery problems fall into one of two buckets: the recipient's mail server is rejecting the message, or Hover's sending IP has been temporarily flagged by a public blocklist. The table below maps common error text to the likely cause.
Bounce / error pattern | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
"Relaying denied," "550 5.7.1," or similar "5.7.x" policy errors | The recipient's mail server is rejecting the message outright — this is a policy decision made on their end, not a problem with your mailbox. | Contact the recipient (or their email provider) directly, since only they can adjust their own server's rejection rules. Hover isn't able to override another provider's filtering. |
"Blocked," "blacklisted," or a reference to an RBL / DNSBL in the bounce text | Hover's outbound sending IP is shared across many customers, so it can occasionally end up temporarily listed on a public blocklist because of unrelated spam activity from another sender on the same IP — not anything you did. | Contact Hover Support with the bounce text. This is self-resolving in most cases, and Hover's abuse team can usually get the IP cleared — it's not something you can check or clear yourself. |
Message flagged as spam, spoofed, or failing authentication at the recipient's end | Your domain may be missing SPF, DKIM, or DMARC, which receiving servers increasingly expect before they'll trust a message. | Set up SPF and DKIM for your domain. Together they reduce how often your legitimate mail gets flagged as spoofed or rejected. |
Note: Neither of the two most common causes above is something you can fix from your Hover control panel — a rejecting recipient server needs to be resolved with the recipient's provider, and a blocklisted sending IP needs to be checked and cleared by Hover's support and abuse teams.
When to Contact Support
If the table above doesn't resolve things, or you're not sure which cause applies, Hover Support can check the outbound mail logs for your domain. Have this ready before you reach out:
- The exact bounce message text, copied in full rather than summarized — the specific wording and error code matter.
- The recipient's email address you were sending to.
- Roughly when the bounce happened, so the agent can locate the right entries in the mail logs.
Next steps
- Set up SPF for your domain. See Creating an SPF Record.
- Request DKIM for your domain. See Setting Up DKIM for Your Hover Email Domain.
- Not receiving mail instead of sending it? See Troubleshoot Receiving Emails.
- Dealing with spoofing or a flood of bounce-back notices you didn't trigger? See Email Spoofing and Undeliverable Notices.
Questions? Contact Hover Support.
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