Troubleshooting errors when sending Dotdigital emails

In this article you’ll find information on how to troubleshoot errors when sending emails with Dotdigital.

Before you read this article you should subscribe to the following status pages:

Subscribing to these status pages means you’ll receive email notifications of any interruptions to service.

If you experience issues sending emails please contact the Spektrix Support Team, even if you believe the issue is with Dotdigital. We build and maintain our integration with Dotdigital which means we offer full support and manage any Dotdigital issues on your behalf.

How will I know if a Dotdigital email hasn’t been sent?

If an email fails to be sent through Dotdigital, an email notification will be sent to:

The user who tried to send the Integrated Email or last edited the Customer List Schedule
Our Support Team

The email will contain the name of the Email Campaign and the error message.

When will I be notified of any errors?

The email notification sent depends on whether you’ve sent an individual integrated email, or multiple emails through a Customer List Schedule.

The Customer List for an individual Integrated Email runs as soon as you click Send or Schedule the Integrated Email. If there are any errors, you should receive an email within a few minutes.

For example, if you click Send the Integrated Email at 11.30am, you should receive an email notification at around 11.35am.
A Customer List Schedule runs at the exact time the Customer List Schedule is due to send. If there are any errors, you should receive an email around the time the Customer List Schedule is due to send.

For example, if your Customer List is scheduled to send at 8am, you should receive an email notification at around 8.05am.

TIP: Customer Lists are synced at 6am in your local timezone. No error messages will be generated if the sync job fails to run.

How to troubleshoot Dotdigital email errors

The following sections should help you troubleshoot any errors when sending Dotdigital emails. Go to the relevant section depending on the reason for the failed email:

Customers haven’t received an email
Failed to upload customers to Dotdigital
Customers were uploaded to Dotdigital but the mailing failed to send
Something has gone wrong sending this mailing
Customer List failed to run
Email template referred to in your scheduled integrated email job has been deleted
Pre and Post Show Emails
Your list was rejected by the Dotdigital Watchdog and has been quarantined

Customers haven’t received an email

If a Customer advises they haven’t received an email, check the following:

Email address: Is the Customer’s email address correct in their Customer Record?
Customer List Segmentation: Review the Segments you’ve used in the Customer List for that email. Compare this to information held in the Customer Record.
Customer Audit: Did the customer sign up, or were any Tags applied to the Customer Record after the Customer List was uploaded to Dotdigital? You can find this information in the Customer Audit.

If the answer is yes, the customer would not be included in the mailing as they did not meet the criteria when the Customer List was run.
Email delivered to Spam/Junk folder: Ask the customer to add the sending email address to their safe senders list.
Email delivered to another folder: Ask the customer to check any sub-folders. For example, the promotions or updates folder in Gmail.

For more information, read Emails delivered to Spam/Junk/Promotions folder.
Dotdigital Suppression list: If the customer has previously made an ISP complaint, or unsubscribed they will not receive the email. Check your Dotdigital Suppression list.

For more information, read Managing Unsubscribes and Suppressions.
Bounced email: Check the Email Campaign report and view soft bounces. If the email has soft bounced, this is usually due to a temporarily unavailable, or full mailbox.

For more information on improving deliverability of emails, read Dotdigital Email Deliverability.

Failed to upload customers to Dotdigital

This error indicates an issue uploading your Customer List to Dotdigital. This might be due to a break in connection between the two systems or a system outage.

To resolve this, first check the following pages for any system interruptions:

Try to send the same Email Campaign again.

One off Integrated Email: Run the Customer List again and use it in an Integrated Email.
Multiple emails through a Customer List Schedule: Build a Customer List to find customers who should have received that email. Copy the campaign in Dotdigital and send an email using the copy.

For more information, jump to How to resend an Integrated Email.

If you resend the Email Campaign and still receive the same error, contact Support.

Customers were uploaded to Dotdigital but the mailing failed to send

This error indicates an issue after the Customer List has been uploaded to Dotdigital.

To resolve this error, log into Dotdigital and manually resend the failed Email Campaign. Follow these steps:

Log into Dotdigital
Go to Campaigns > Email:
Select the Email Campaign:
In the Contacts screen, choose the address book you want to send to. You should be able to identify this using the Last Modified column:
Review and send your campaign.

If you experience this error message after manually resending the Email Campaign, contact Support.

Something has gone wrong sending this mailing

If you receive this error message, check the following:

A connection issue between Spektrix and Dotdigital.

Connection issues are usually temporary. Check the Spektrix System Status and Dotdigital Status page for any interruptions to service.

If there are no interruptions, allow a couple of hours and then go to your Dotdigital account to check if the Email Campaign has been sent.

If the Email Campaign hasn’t been sent, try sending the campaign manually. For more information, read How to resend an Integrated Email.
An empty or deleted Dotdigital Tag Group

If an empty or deleted Dotdigital Tag group is selected, no Tags will be sent to Dotdigital. You’ll need to add Tags or create a new Tag Group.

For more information read How to sync Tags in Dotdigital.
Tags over 16 characters in length

All Tags in your Dotdigital Tag group must be 16 characters or fewer (including spaces). Tag Groups containing Tags over 16 characters will not sync with Dotdigital and the Integrated Email will fail.

Make sure your Tags are 16 characters or fewer (including spaces). For more information, read How to sync Tags in Dotdigital.

Customer List Failed to Run

This error can occur if a Segment used in the Customer List contains a Tag or Attribute which has been deleted or renamed.

When a Customer List runs, the criteria used in the Segment is validated. If the criteria is invalid, the Customer List will not be uploaded to Dotdigital, and your email will not be sent.

TIP: When building a Customer List, always remember to click Update Count. Clicking Update Count can help you identify any errors before you send an Integrated Email.

To resolve this error, follow these steps:

Go to Insights & Mailings. Open the Customer List used with the mailing
TIP: You can search for the Mailing to see which Customer List was used
Look for the Segment used in the Pre Filter or Main Filter. Click the pencil icon to edit the Segment.
You’ll see the Edit Segment screen:
Click the red circle to remove the deleted Tags or Attributes from the Segment.
Select new Tag(s) or Attributes from the dropdown list. Click Add after each Tag or Attribute.

TIP: You can also edit Segments from the Segment Explorer. For more information, read How to Edit Segments.

To resend the email, follow the steps in How to resend an Integrated Email.

Email template referred to in your scheduled integrated email job has been deleted

This error occurs when a template or copy of an Email Campaign has been deleted. To resend the email, you’ll need to either:

Recover the deleted template from the recycle bin in Dotdigital.
TIP: Items in the recycle bin will be deleted after 30 days.
Or
Edit the Customer List Schedule and select a new Email Campaign

To resend the Email Campaign follow the steps in How to resend an Integrated Email.

Considerations when sending Pre and Post Show Emails

When sending Pre and Post Show Emails, the following apply:

Pre and Post Show emails use a copy of the campaign in the Unsent folder.
The original Pre and Post Show Email Campaigns must remain in the Unsent folder in Dotdigital.
Pre or Post Show Email Campaigns moved out of Unsent will be flagged as a deleted template. This is because Dotdigital can’t find the template in the Unsent folder to create a copy from.

For more information, read Pre and Post Show Emails.

Your list was rejected by the dotdigital Watchdog and has been quarantined

The Dotdigital watchdog is an analysis tool which blocks any data it flags as suspicious. When your Customer List is uploaded to Dotdigital, all email addresses in the Customer List are checked by the Dotdigital watchdog.

The Watchdog uses data from all Dotdigital users to check for bots, spam traps and customers who regularly submit ISP complaints.

If you receive an email with this error, this means your email was rejected by the Dotdigital watchdog due to:

Email addresses that contain the words ‘spam’, ‘abuse’, or profanities in the email username
Email addresses that look like spam or bot accounts. You can identify bot or spam accounts by following the steps in Potential Bot Accounts.

To resolve this error, run the Customer List using in the Integrated Email as a [CSV]. Identify any spam/bot accounts and deactivate their Customer Records in Spektrix.

To resend the Email Campaign follow the steps in How to resend an Integrated Email.

If you still experience this error once you’ve followed the steps above, contact Support.

Which email addresses cause an email to be rejected?

When a list is quarantined, the watchdog may spot a spam trap. The watchdog is not a data verification tool and there may be other unidentified spam traps in your data.

These spam traps could originate from the same source such as a data import or a sign up form without additional security to verify whether a customer is human.

You should review the source of the data before sending further emails. Read Avoid email spam traps for more information.

Removing any identified email addresses from Customer Records would enable the email to send, however there may be other spam traps in your Customer List which will damage your Sender Reputation and/or be blocked.

For more information on Sender Reputation, read Dotdigital Email Deliverability.

How to resend an Integrated Email

To learn how to resend an email, jump to the appropriate section:

One-off Integrated Emails
Pre and Post Show Emails or Customer List Schedules

One-off Integrated Emails

If you’re sending a one-off Integrated Email, run the Customer List again and use it in an Integrated Email.

Pre and Post Show Emails or Customer List Schedules

To resend an individual Email Campaign, first you’ll need to find the customers who should have received the Email Campaign.

TIP: You can use your existing Customer List if the mailing list is static. For example, emailing all Members.

To resend a scheduled Integrated Email today without affecting future emails which use the same campaign, you’ll need to make a copy of the existing campaign in Dotdigital.

When setting up the Integrated Email in Spektrix, select the copy of the existing campaign in the steps below. This means that your existing campaign will be ready to use for the next Integrated Email.

Follow these steps:

Build a Customer List
Click New Local Segment:
Enter a Segment name and select the Marketing Segment type:
Drag the Individual Mailing metric into the drop to add to criteria box:
Under Mailings to choose from, select the Mailing. Click the right arrow to move to Selected Mailings:
The Mailing will appear in the selected criteria. Click Next:
Click Save:
Drag the Local Segment you’ve just created into the drop criteria here box. Click Update count:
Click the dropdown arrow next to Choose an action:
Select Use in Integrated Email:
You’ll see the New Mailing screen:

Complete the following:

Name: Enter a descriptive name. This can help when searching for and reporting on the Mailing.
Mailing Category: Select a Mailing Category from the dropdown.
Send: Immediately is checked by default. To send the email at a future date, uncheck Immediately and enter a date and time.
Send to: All is selected by default.
Customer List: This is preselected with the Customer List you’ve built in the previous steps.
Email Campaign: For individual Mailings, select the existing Campaign. For scheduled Mailings, select a copy of the campaign.
Target events: If the Mailing is for marketing purposes, and you want to report on the cost effectiveness of this Mailing using a ROI report, set Target Events.

Select any Events which are promoted in the mailing by clicking Edit. Choose the Events from the left list. Click the right arrow to move to Selected Events:
Once you’re ready to send or schedule the email, click Send.