Blocked Recipients: Why Email Stops Reaching Someone
Check whether an address is blocked, see why, and switch sending back on once their mailbox is working again.
Sometimes an email you send never arrives, and every send after it fails too. Usually that means the address has been blocked. TrustPager keeps a list of addresses it can't currently reach, and the Blocked recipients tool lets you check any address and switch sending back on once the problem is fixed.
Where to find it
Go to https://app.trustpager.com/settings/email and find the Blocked recipients card. Type the address you want to check and press Search. You only see addresses your own workspace has emailed or holds as a contact.
Why an address gets blocked
- Bounced. The mail server rejected the message because the mailbox does not exist. This is the most common cause. It happens when someone leaves a company, a mailbox is deleted, or a domain lapses or expires.
- Reported as spam. The recipient marked one of your emails as spam.
- Manually blocked. Someone switched sending off for that address deliberately.
Blocking is automatic and it is there to protect you. Mail providers judge a sender by how often their mail bounces, so continuing to send to a dead mailbox would damage delivery for every other email your business sends.
How to switch an address back on
Only do this once the underlying problem is actually fixed, for example the person has their mailbox working again, or the expired domain has been renewed. Reactivating an address that is still dead just recreates the same failures.
- Go to https://app.trustpager.com/settings/email.
- Search for the address in the Blocked recipients card.
- Check the reason shown beside it.
- Click Reactivate and confirm.
Sending resumes straight away. Reactivating clears the block everywhere it applies, so automations, forms, signing requests, campaigns and one-off sends all start reaching the address again, and the contact goes back into your marketing audiences if the block was the only thing keeping them out.
Reactivating never overrides a genuine unsubscribe. If the contact asked to stop receiving marketing email, that choice is kept. See https://trustpager.com/help-center/email-opt-out-handling.
When an address cannot be reactivated
If the recipient reported one of your emails as spam, the block cannot be lifted from here. That is a deliberate protection: sending again to someone who reported you as spam puts your whole sending reputation at risk. The card tells you when this is the case. If they want your email again, ask them to contact you first and get in touch with support.
Confirm it worked
Send one real email to the address, then open https://app.trustpager.com/data/emails and check that the send shows as Delivered rather than Failed. Do that before you point anything important back at the address, such as form notifications or a signing recipient.
Who can do this
Workspace admins. If you can open https://app.trustpager.com/settings/email, you can check and reactivate addresses for that workspace.