What is a Hard Bounce?
A hard bounce, also known as a permanent bounce, is an email message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient’s address is invalid or no longer in use. This type of bounce occurs when the domain name of the recipient’s email address is incorrect or the email server can’t be found. Once an email has bounced, it will continue to do so each time it is retried by the sender and will likely have to be removed from any future mailings.
Hard bounces are most often compared to soft bounces, which occur when an email message is temporarily rejected by a recipient’s server due to issues such as full inboxes or server downtime. Soft bounces may be re-sent at a later time and accepted by the intended recipient while hard bounces are considered permanent and can only be corrected if the user updates their account information.
Example of a Hard Bounce
A hard bounce could be an email sent to an address that does not exist or has been deactivated. For instance, if a company sends an email to a customer who has closed their account, the email will bounce back as undeliverable, indicating a hard bounce.
Hard bounces can also occur if the email address is misspelled or contains errors, causing the email to be undeliverable. In both cases, the email is returned to the sender, and the sender is notified that the email was not delivered.
