When an email message is returned to you as undelivered, there is usually an accompanying error message which gives the reason. It also lets you know whether the problem is with your account or the account of the person you’re sending the message to.
- Double-checked the address? If you’ve accidentally mistyped the address, that could be why the email has bounced back. Check both the recipient’s name, and the domain part of the email address (for example, @hotmial.com instead of @hotmail.com).
- Used a spam trap address? That’s an email address that diverts spam away from an email user’s primary mailbox to an unseen location. Make sure you use the recipient’s primary email address.
An example of a spam trap address might be:
joebloggs@dontspamme.myisp.co.uk - Email too big? Check the size of the email. It may be too large to send. As a general guide, it a file is larger than 10MB, it is probably too big to send by email. Also, if you are trying to send an attachment, this makes the email bigger still. To find out more, click on Sending an attachment.
- Problem with the other person’s account? It could be that your email account is working fine, but the account of the person you’re emailing isn’t working as it should do. Normally, you’ll get what’s called a “bounce-back” email if your message can’t be delivered. Check to see if the bounce-back email came from the recipient’s Internet Service Provider; this suggests that our server couldn't contact the recipient’s server. You can run something called a traceroute, which lets you pinpoint where the issue is, then post the result to our Support Team and they'll be able to assist you. To find out more about traceroutes, click on this Microsoft article
- Problem with our service? If the bounce back message came from Virgin Media, there could be a problem with our email server. If there is, our Support Team will need to have this investigated by our systems administrators. Contact technical support.
