Did it arrive?
Once you've sent a message, you'll sometimes want to know whether it got there. Every message your team sends carries a label saying what happened to it after it left, and when something went wrong, Jelly tells you what happened and what to do about it.
Where to look
The label is in the message's top line, beside the time it was sent.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Sent | It left, and nothing has come back to say otherwise |
| Delivered | The mail server of everyone you sent it to accepted it |
| Delivered to 2 of 3 | Some recipients' servers have accepted it, and the rest haven't reported yet. The count includes Cc and Bcc |
| Delayed | The receiving server refused it for now. It may still arrive |
| Bounced | The receiving server refused it for good, usually because the address doesn't exist |
| Marked as spam | The person you wrote to reported it as spam |
| Blocked | The receiving server refused the message itself, not the address |
| Unsubscribed | The person asked to stop receiving mail from this address |
| Not sent | It never left |
| Delivery problem | Something went wrong that doesn't fit any of the above |
When there's a problem, a box under the message names the recipient, says what happened and suggests what to do. It also quotes the mail server's own words, which are worth having if you need to ask for help. If a message went to several people, each one with a problem gets a box, and the label shows the most serious.
Why most messages say Sent
For most teams, Sent is the label you'll see nearly all the time, and it's good news: the message has been delivered as far as anyone can tell.
How much more Jelly can tell you depends on how your team sends its mail. A Google account or your own SMTP server accepts a message and then reports nothing further, so it stays Sent. Only Postmark reports what happened next, and only once its delivery webhook is set up. With that in place, a message shows Sent at first, then Delivered or a problem.
Delivered doesn't mean the person has read it. Jelly doesn't track whether mail is opened.
Who is told about a problem
When a problem is reported after a message has gone, Jelly notifies everyone following the conversation, including whoever sent it. Nobody is told about Delayed, since the message may still arrive, or about a conversation in Spam.
What to do about each problem
Bounced. Check the address for a typo and send again to the right one, or ask the person for another address. Sending to the same address again will bounce again.
Delayed. Nothing yet. This is usually a full mailbox, or a server that was busy for a while. If the message can't be delivered in the end, its label changes to Bounced, and that's the time to act.
Marked as spam. Don't write to that address again. Your mail provider has added it to its do-not-send list, and trying again makes it less likely that the rest of your team's mail arrives. If they asked you something, answer another way.
Blocked. The receiving server's filter refused the message. This is usually about the address you sent from, not the words you wrote. Ask whoever looks after your domain to check its settings: see deliverability.
Unsubscribed. Nothing more will reach them from this address. To write to them again, somebody has to take them off the list in Postmark's own dashboard.
Delivery problem. Read the mail server's own words in the box. If they don't help, quote them when you ask for help.
Not sent
Not sent means the message never left. Nothing is lost: your reply is still there as a draft, with everything you wrote, and a box above it says why it didn't go. These are the reasons, and what to do about each:
- The address is on your provider's do-not-send list, after an earlier bounce, spam report or unsubscribe. Ask the person for a different address.
- Jelly isn't allowed to send as that address any more. Ask an Admin to reconnect the Google account, or to check the Postmark server token or the SMTP server's username and password. Then send again.
- Too many messages too quickly. Wait a few minutes and send again.
- The account's sending allowance is used up. Wait for it to reset, or send from a different address.
- The provider's servers had a problem. Send again in a few minutes.
- The provider refused the message. Its own words, in the box, say why. It's usually one recipient's address, an attachment too large to send, or the address you sent from.
- The person who scheduled it has left the team. A scheduled reply doesn't go out in the name of somebody who has left. Read it over, then send or schedule it yourself.
If the provider refuses as soon as you press Send, Jelly tells you on screen. If the message fails later, because it was scheduled or was waiting out the undo-send window, Jelly sends a notification to the person who sent it.
For the technically minded, the Postmark page lists which of Postmark's reports gives each label.