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Handling errors when emailing candidate
Handling errors when emailing candidate

Understand what the message state tells you about your email

Asta avatar
Written by Asta
Updated this week

How do I know if a message could not be delivered?

If there is a problem with delivering an email to a candidate, you will be notified.

You'll see the error Could not deliver message under the message in the candidate's profile:


This will also be indicated in the Activity feed:

How will I be notified?

If a message can't be delivered to a candidate, the sender of the message will receive notifications via email and within the platform under the bell notifications. The notifications contain a link to the candidate profile:


My message could not be delivered, what to do?

The first thing you should check is if the email address has been misspelled. If this is the case, you need to update the email address before it's possible to email the candidate again:



If the email looks correct but the message(s) still can't be delivered, reach out to us in the support team and we will help check the message(s) state.

Message states

Flowmailer is our service provider for emails sent via Teamtailor. The support team can help check the message(s) state and advise which action could be taken.

  • Complaint / Rejected
    A large number of email providers (such as Yahoo and Microsoft) offer their users the option of marking a sender (not a message!) as unwanted or spam. From that moment on, messages from that sender will be classified as spam. This means they may not even reach the inbox (the messages sent to candidates via Teamtailor, are not sent from your personal email, but from conversations@message.teamtailor.com).


    Thanks to what is called a Feedback loop, Flowmailer is notified whenever a recipient marks a sender as unwanted. Any future messages to that recipient will be considered spammy behavior. To avoid this, a Complaint is always added to something called a Recipient Filter.


    The Complaint mechanism is not always used as intended. We often see that candidates are unaware of the consequences of marking a sender as unwanted. If the sender and the candidate both agree that emails sent via Teamtailor are no longer unwanted, both parties should act. The support can help you remove the recipients’ address from the Recipient Filter. Once that's been done, you can try sending the message again. The candidate should also drag an ‘unwanted’ message to their inbox (signaling that the Complaint can be lifted).

    As a candidate, you can make sure you always receive important emails sent via Teamtailor, by adding contacts to your safe senders list. This will ensure they don’t accidentally get dropped into the junk folder. More info about that can be found here: Add Teamtailor to an approved senders list

  • Soft bounce
    The message was not delivered for temporary reasons, or reasons unique to the message. For example, the receiving server was unavailable for an extended period of time, or if the recipient's mailbox was full. Subsequent messages to the same address could still arrive.

  • Hard Bounce
    An address with a hardbounce is also added to the Recipient Filter, which we can remove. However, a hard bounce indicates that not only did the message not arrive – it is also very likely that subsequent messages to the same address will also not arrive. This usually means that the email address or even the domain itself is non-existent.

How do I know that my message was successfully delivered?

A message has been successful when you can't see any errors underneath it. If you hover over the time, you'll see the exact date and time the message was sent.

💡 For more information about your message state, have a look at Flowmailer Academy - What Flowmailer's message state tells you about your email

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