Why an address was suppressed
Trace a suppression entry back to the bounce, complaint, or manual add that created it, and decide whether removing it is safe.
An entry exists on your suppression list because of a hard bounce, a spam complaint, or a manual add, and the reason field on that entry says which.
Read the reason
| Reason | What created it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
hard_bounce | A permanent bounce reported by the recipient's mail server | The mailbox doesn't exist, or the domain won't accept mail |
complaint | The recipient marked the message as spam | The recipient doesn't want mail from you, whatever reason they clicked the button for |
manual | POST /v1/suppressions from the dashboard | Someone chose to block this address by hand |
Only permanent bounces and complaints suppress automatically; a soft (transient) bounce adds no entry. See Suppressions.
What a suppressed address does to a send
Sends to a suppressed address still return 202; see Delivered but not received for what happens to the message.
Should you remove it
| Reason | Remove it? |
|---|---|
complaint | No. The recipient told a receiving network they don't want your mail, and removing the entry doesn't change that. |
hard_bounce | Only once you've fixed the underlying problem, such as a typo correction or a re-created mailbox. Otherwise the same address hard-bounces again and re-suppresses itself. |
manual | Once the reason it was added by hand no longer holds. |
Simulator addresses in the list
Test-mode bounce and complaint drills create entries too, keyed on a @simulator.amazonses.com address rather than the address you actually sent to, so they never block a live send. The suppression list is org-global, so these entries show up even when you list suppressions with a live key. See Test mode.
Removing an entry
Delete suppression requires the session-only manage:suppressions scope, so an mf_ key gets 403 insufficient_scope. Remove entries on the Blocklist page in the dashboard. See Suppressions.