What is a Soft Bounce?
A soft bounce is an email message that fails to be delivered to its intended recipient due to a temporary issue with the receiving server or mailbox. It is different from a hard bounce, which occurs when an email fails to be delivered permanently due to a long-term issue or incorrect email address. Additionally, a soft bounce may still be successful if it is retried at a later time, while a hard bounce will not have any luck in eventual delivery.
Soft bounces are usually caused by factors such as an overloaded mailbox, an unavailable server, or an inbox with too many messages. Long-term issues such as invalid addresses or blocked domains can cause hard bounces. When the receiving server detects a soft bounce, it can send email back on the “delayed” status, so that senders know that the message has failed and can try again later.
Soft bounces and hard bounces both lead to unsuccessful deliveries of emails; however, they present different solutions for senders. Soft bounces often require retrying the delivery at another time whereas hard bounces require updating customer data or removing contact information completely from the list of recipients.
Example of a Soft Bounce
Soft bounce is when an email fails to deliver to a recipient due to a temporary issue that is usually easy to fix, such as an email server timeout or a full mailbox. Soft bounces are temporary email delivery errors that may eventually succeed, and certain email providers allow for you to attempt to deliver the email up to 72 hours after the initial issue.
