What causes full mailbox bounces and what is the recovery rate?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from HubSpot says that to improve email deliverability, it's important to clean up your email list by removing invalid or inactive addresses. While 'mailbox full' is a soft bounce, continuously sending to these addresses can hurt your sender reputation.
Email marketer from WebHostingTalk Forum explains that handling bouncebacks is important. While 'mailbox full' is temporary, persistently sending to these addresses can get you blacklisted. They recommend implementing a system to automatically remove addresses after a certain number of soft bounces.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that a 'mailbox full' bounce is a soft bounce indicating the recipient's mailbox has exceeded its storage limit. This doesn't necessarily mean the email address is invalid, and delivery may succeed later.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that mailbox full is a common soft bounce reason, meaning the recipient's inbox is at capacity. This is a temporary issue, and future sending attempts might succeed. Monitor bounce rates to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
Email marketer from Email on Acid describes 'Mailbox full' as a soft bounce. This indicates the recipient’s inbox is over its storage quota, and while future delivery is possible, continuously sending to a full inbox can hurt your sender reputation.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares bounce research indicating that almost 20% of mailboxes that trigger a "mailbox full" bounce engage with another email within a week.
Email marketer from Sendinblue answers that a 'mailbox full' error indicates a soft bounce, meaning the recipient's inbox is over capacity and can't accept new emails. It's a temporary issue, and future delivery attempts might succeed.
Email marketer from Reddit shares a personal experience, recommending that after a 'mailbox full' bounce, it's best to wait a week before trying again. They've found that many users clean up their inboxes within that timeframe.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign details that 'mailbox full' errors are soft bounces. These occur when a recipient’s inbox has reached its limit. Future delivery attempts are possible, but it can negatively impact your sender reputation if you repeatedly send to full inboxes.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that Gmail shares storage with photos and other files, which means accounts can reach their quota limit and be cleaned up more frequently than expected for a standard email account.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that a mailbox full bounce is not a permanent failure, and resending emails after a short cooldown period is a viable strategy, with data suggesting that over 50% of such mailboxes become active again within a few months.
Expert from Word to the Wise suggests managing suppressed addresses carefully. While 'mailbox full' is a soft bounce and not a permanent block, continually sending to addresses that bounce can harm sender reputation, ultimately increasing the likelihood of emails being sent to the spam folder. Suppressed addresses should be handled strategically to avoid deliverability issues.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains the importance of proper bounce processing and recommends implementing feedback loops (FBLs) as a better alternative to relying solely on bounce messages for managing delivery issues. This approach helps in identifying and addressing deliverability problems more effectively.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from SparkPost shares that 'mailbox full' is considered a soft bounce because the email address is valid and accepting mail, but the recipient needs to free up space. Messages to full mailboxes can be retried.
Documentation from Microsoft Learn explains that Exchange Server quotas limit mailbox size to prevent excessive database growth. When a user exceeds their quota, the server rejects new messages, resulting in a bounce back to the sender, commonly a 'mailbox full' error.
Documentation from RFC Editor (Request for Comments) explains 'mailbox full' as a transient failure. Retrying delivery after some time is acceptable.
Documentation from Amazon Web Services explains that a 'mailbox full' bounce in Amazon SES is classified as a soft bounce. This is a temporary delivery issue, and retries may be attempted.