What are invalid addresses
Invalid addresses are divided into two types: global and account-level. If a recipient's server repeatedly rejects emails due to an "invalid address" semantic error, the recipient's address is automatically added to the global invalid address list. If an email delivery to a recipient fails even once due to an "invalid address" semantic error, the address is added to your account-level invalid address list. Account-level invalid address lists are private to each account, whereas the global invalid address list is shared by all users.
Direct Mail lets you manage your account-level invalid address list. In the console, you can add or remove addresses and set the effective scope of the list. The global invalid address list cannot be managed from the console.
Changes to the account-level invalid address list affect only your account.
If you attempt to send an email to an address on an invalid address list, the delivery fails and an error is returned. You can find more information about the error on the delivery details page.
How to manage your account-level invalid address list
The account-level invalid address list contains two types of invalid addresses:
Manual entry
System-determined invalid address (multiple bounces)
Emails sent to invalid addresses are not delivered. Addresses added by the system are automatically removed if they are not hit for one year.
Add an invalid address
1. On the Invalid Addresses page, click Add Address.
2. Enter an email address or domain name, and then click OK.
Set the effective scope
1. On the Invalid Addresses page, click Set Scope.
2. Select a scope based on your scenario. Note that these settings apply only to sender addresses for triggered emails. For marketing email addresses, only the "Apply both account-level and global invalid address lists" option is supported.
Remove an invalid address
1. On the Invalid Addresses page, select the address that you want to remove, and then click Remove.
2. To remove multiple addresses at once, select the checkboxes for the addresses, and then click Remove All.
Removing an address from the account-level invalid address list takes about 10 minutes to take effect. We recommend that you perform this operation in advance.
Query for invalid addresses
1. On the Invalid Addresses page, specify a date range for when the address was added or last hit, or enter a full email address or domain name. Then, click Query.
How to check for delivery failures from invalid address filtering
1. On the delivery details page, check the delivery status and details on the right.
2. The delivery status is Invalid Address. The details section provides a specific error description and reason. The description indicates which invalid address list was hit and provides a recommended action.
Summary of billing, quota, and invalid address rate calculations for existing and new accounts (The logic for existing accounts will be aligned with new accounts in the future)
Existing accounts (created before 00:00 on April 15, 2024) | New accounts | |
Billed and counted against quota if it hits the global invalid address list | 1. Broadcast scenarios (sending to multiple recipients, sending from the console): Yes 2. Single-send scenarios: No | Yes |
Billed and counted against quota if it hits the account-level invalid address list | Yes | Yes |
Included in the invalid address rate calculation if it hits the global invalid address list | 1. Broadcast scenarios (sending to multiple recipients, sending from the console): Yes 2. Single-send scenarios: No | Yes |
Included in the invalid address rate calculation if it hits the account-level invalid address list | No | No |
Default levels and the effective scope of user configurations
By default, the trigger and marketing addresses are global. The marketing address is also account-level.
User configurations: You can adjust this setting only for triggered emails. Marketing emails always use both the global and account-level lists.
Scenario: To unsubscribe a batch of users by adding them to your account-level list without affecting your triggered emails, you can use the default settings. This is because, by default, triggered emails check only the global list.
Triggered address | Marketing address | |
Default | Global | Global + Account-level |
When set to Global | Global | Global + Account-level |
When set to Account-level | Account-level | Global + Account-level |
When set to Global + Account-level | Global + Account-level | Global + Account-level |
When turned off | Off | Global + Account-level |