{"id":1253,"date":"2017-05-03T16:47:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T16:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/?p=1253"},"modified":"2026-08-18T06:41:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:41:38","slug":"advanced-bounce-handling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/advanced-bounce-handling\/","title":{"rendered":"Advanced Bounce and Block Handling"},"content":{"rendered":"

You now have more control over your account’s bounce list and how bounces are handled for your account.<\/p>\n

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know to manage your bounce list.<\/p>\n

One important thing to know going in: GMass’s reply management system<\/a> automatically processes all incoming email after you send an email campaign, and categorizes bounces<\/strong>, unsubscribes<\/strong>, real replies<\/strong>, and even block notifications<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

By default, addresses that bounce, where the bounce message indicates a legitimately bad email address, are placed on an internal “bounce list”<\/strong> for your account. And future GMass campaigns are suppressed against your account’s bounce list<\/strong> to prevent you from sending future emails to addresses that have bounced in the past.<\/p>\n

How to Ignore or Override Your Bounce List<\/h2>\n

There may be cases, however, when\u00a0you want to continue to send to bounced addresses<\/strong>. For example, if you’re a low volume mailer sending to just personal contacts, and an email address continues to be placed on your bounce list that you\u00a0know to be legitimate, you may want to have your campaigns ignore bounces<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If you don’t want to have your campaigns ignore bounces, meaning you DO want your campaigns to suppress the addresses on your bounce list, you may want to delete one or more addresses from your bounce list.<\/p>\n

Sometimes email addresses can inadvertently end up on\u00a0your bounce list<\/strong> even though they are legitimate. For example, if an address blocks you, but GMass detects it as a legitimate bounce instead of a block, then you will want to remove it from your bounce list<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If you’ve configured your Gmail account to send via an alias address through an external SMTP server, and your SMTP server is misconfigured and bounces all of your addresses<\/strong>, you may want to clear out your entire bounce list.<\/p>\n

These are just examples, but there are lots of reasons you may want to delete some or all of your bounced email addresses.<\/p>\n

Now you can do all of these things from the GMass dashboard<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Click on Settings<\/strong> (the gear icon) in the top right. Then click into the Bounces<\/strong> section in the left fly-out panel.<\/p>\n

To have your campaigns ignore your bounce list<\/h3>\n

\"Ignore<\/a><\/p>\n

Check the box next to\u00a0Ignore bounces<\/strong>. Then click the\u00a0Save bounces<\/strong> button.<\/p>\n

Your campaigns will now ignore your bounce list (at your own risk, of course).<\/p>\n

To clear out your bounce list of all addresses<\/h3>\n

The easiest way? Click the\u00a0Delete ALL<\/strong> button at the bottom.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or… you can also select all the bounces on the screen with the checkbox in the top left corner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Click on Managed bounced addresses<\/strong>. Click on the checkbox in the header row. That will select all the bounced addresses on the screen. Then click\u00a0Delete these emails<\/strong> to remove those addresses from your bounce list.<\/p>\n

To clear out your bounce list of just certain addresses<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the\u00a0Manage bounced addresses<\/strong> section, click the checkboxes next to only the addresses you want to remove. Then click the\u00a0Delete these emails<\/strong> button.<\/p>\n

Bounce management for team leaders<\/h3>\n

If you have a GMass team<\/a> plan, and you’re the team leader, you can manage bounces for everyone on your account. In the dashboard, you’ll have the option to view (and manage) your bounces, everyone’s bounces, or any individual team member’s bounces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Which option should you choose?<\/h3>\n

If you set your account to ignore bounces, then you don’t need to worry about ever deleting addresses from your bounce list<\/strong>, because your bounce list will now be irrelevant. Your future campaigns won’t use your bounce list to exclude recipients, so you don’t need to care what addresses end up on your bounce list.<\/p>\n

You would only need to ever remove an address from your bounce list if your campaign is using the default setting of NOT ignoring your bounce list.<\/p>\n

Bounce Notifications in GMass<\/h2>\n

By default, GMass will leave bounce notifications in your inbox for a short period so you can see them, then we’ll archive them away to declutter your inbox. However, if you want instant bounce removal, you can do so by selecting the Make bounces disappear instantly<\/strong> option in the GMass dashboard’s Bounces section.<\/p>\n

\"Make<\/a><\/p>\n

Regardless of whether or not you use instant bounce removal, GMass filters all bounces under the GMass Reports –> Bounces<\/strong> Label<\/span>. Here you can see the actual bounce notification received by Gmail.<\/p>\n

As for what happens to the Note that simply deleting a message from the “Bounces” Label has no effect on your account’s bounce list. Deleting a message from the “Bounces” Label will NOT delete the corresponding bounced address from your account’s bounce list.<\/p>\n

Aggressive Bounce Handling<\/h2>\n

Normally, GMass identifies bounces by connecting the incoming bounce notification to the email that was originally sent. For most campaigns, this works automatically and is the preferred way to process bounces.<\/p>\n

However, there are situations where a bounce notification can arrive in Gmail without being threaded to the original sent message<\/strong>. This is more likely when you’re sending through an external or GMass SMTP server, particularly when the original message is not saved in your Gmail Sent<\/strong> folder.<\/p>\n

If you want GMass to look for these additional bounce notifications, turn on Aggressive Bounce Handling<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the GMass dashboard, go to Settings > Bounces<\/strong> and enable Aggressive Bounce Handling<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

With this setting enabled, GMass performs an additional scan of your Gmail account for recognizable bounce notifications that might otherwise be missed because they aren’t connected to the original campaign message.<\/p>\n

For bounce notifications generated by GMass’s internal SMTP servers, GMass can identify the notification based on the sending address itself. These notifications frequently retain your campaign’s original subject line<\/strong>, rather than having a subject like “Undeliverable” or “Delivery Status Notification.”<\/p>\n

For other mail-system bounce notifications, such as those generated by Google’s mailer-daemon, GMass also examines the subject line to make sure the message really appears to be a bounce.<\/p>\n

When GMass finds one of these previously unrecognized bounces, the bounced address is added to your account’s normal bounce list. That means future campaigns will suppress the address just like any other bounced address.<\/p>\n

Aggressive Bounce Handling also looks back at older bounce notifications<\/strong>, so when you turn it on, GMass may find and process bounces that were missed previously.<\/p>\n

This setting is especially useful if you send through an SMTP server and want the most comprehensive possible bounce detection.<\/p>\n

Bounces vs. Blocks \u2014 And How to Handle Them<\/h2>\n

There’s a significant (but not widely-known) difference between bounces<\/strong> and\u00a0blocks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In this section I’ll cover the difference \u2014 and also how you can have GMass handle what to do with blocked emails.<\/p>\n

What’s the difference between a bounced email and a blocked email?<\/h3>\n

Bounces<\/strong> are emails that go undelivered and “bounce” back, largely, because of something invalid with the recipient’s email address. You can see many of the most common bounce codes<\/a> here, but in short, they often result from incorrect or invalid addresses (maybe even due to a typo on your end), mailboxes that no longer exist, mailboxes over their quota, or technical issues along the mail sending journey.<\/p>\n

Blocks<\/strong>, on the other hand, are rejections that tend to result from a problem on\u00a0your<\/em> end as the sender. For instance, you could have an email blocked because it’s flagged for a content violation or an invalid SPF record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How GMass handles bounces versus blocks by default<\/h3>\n

By default, GMass handles bounces different than blocks.<\/p>\n

When you sent an email that bounces<\/strong>, GMass automatically adds it to your bounce list<\/strong> (as discussed throughout this article) and suppresses any future emails you attempt to send to that address.<\/p>\n

When you sent an email that’s\u00a0blocked<\/strong>, GMass sends you a notification about the block and the reason why it was blocked. However,\u00a0by default, GMass does not add addresses that returned blocks to your bounce list<\/strong>. The reason: Since you’re getting the block notification with the reason, you could theoretically fix the problem on your end. And once you’ve fixed the issue, you’d be able to send successfully to that address in the future.<\/p>\n

How to have GMass add blocks to your bounce list<\/h3>\n

But… maybe you don’t want the above scenario.<\/p>\n

Maybe you want blocked addresses to go onto your bounce list because you don’t plan to\/know how to\/want to fix the problems causing the blocks. Or maybe you’re afraid blocks are hurting your domain’s reputation and you don’t want to risk getting them over and over.<\/p>\n

In those cases, there’s an account-wide setting you can use to have GMass automatically add your blocks to your bounce list<\/strong> \u2014 meaning any future emails you try to send to that address would automatically be suppressed and not sent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the GMass dashboard, go to Settings > Bounces<\/strong>. Then check the box next to\u00a0Treat blocks as bounces<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once that’s on, GMass will treat your blocks like bounces and add them to your bounce list.<\/p>\n

That means\u00a0all other behaviors associated with bounces will now apply to blocks<\/strong>. Including:<\/p>\n