Why a message didn't send: suppression, unsubscribe, and SMS opt-in

Use message and household history to find out why an email or text was not delivered.

An address may be unconfirmed, unsubscribed, blocked after a bounce or a spam complaint, or blocked because the club is not live. An email may also be stopped because the person already got too many emails, or because the club's email is paused (both below). A phone number may not have opted in to club texts. The household's Activity tab lists each email that was not sent as "email not sent", with the reason in brackets when there is a plain one, for example "email not sent: Your receipt (the club's email was paused)". A text that was not sent is listed the same way, as "sms not sent", for example "(the club reached its daily text limit)".

Correct the household information when it is wrong. Do not lift a block unless it is safe to resume delivery. Members can update their own communication preferences in the portal. See Email confirmation.

Not every bounce blocks future email. A permanent bounce means the address does not exist, so it is blocked until someone lifts it. A temporary bounce means the message could not be delivered right now — a full mailbox, or the member's email provider holding new senders back for a while. A temporary bounce is recorded on the message and nothing else. The club keeps emailing that address, and the next message usually gets through.

If a member keeps getting temporary bounces, the fix is on their side: a full mailbox has to be cleared. Nothing needs lifting here.

Sometimes the email provider refuses a message before trying to deliver it, and the message's line in the household's history says why:

• "suppressed by the email provider": the address is on the provider's own blocked list, usually because it bounced or reported spam on an earlier email. The provider never tried it. The message is marked bounced, and the same automatic email is not tried again for that person. This does not add the address to your club's blocked list, so other emails can still be tried.

• "the email provider could not send it": something went wrong on the provider's side, and the message never left. It is marked failed, so a scheduled email may try again on its next run.

Swim Ops sets up which provider events the platform hears about. If these reasons never appear, the provider is not yet sending them; contact Swim Ops support.

When a household member asks for copies of household email, such as receipts or replies to their questions, each copy goes out as its own email and shows up in the household's message history as its own line, marked "copy to" and the address it went to. So if a line says a copy failed, it was that adult's copy, not the member's own email. If a copy bounces or is reported as spam, only that copy's address is blocked. The member the email was written to keeps getting their invoices, receipts and sign-in emails. When members open the email in their portal, the copies listed beside it are the ones that actually went out.

Some older emails went to the member and the copies as a single email. If one of those is reported as spam or bounces, nothing is blocked, because there is no way to tell whose mailbox it came from. The household's message history still shows the bounce or complaint.

Each copy is limited like any other email to that adult. A copy the limits below stop shows as not sent, with the reason, and the member's own email still goes. While the club's email is paused no copies go, even of the emails that still reach the member, such as security notices.

To keep a mistake, such as a workflow stuck in a loop, from filling someone's inbox, every club has the same fixed limits on email to one person. An email is stopped when that person has already had:

• the same email 3 times that day. A few emails that can honestly repeat in a day, such as payment receipts and booking reminders, are allowed more.

• 10 emails from the club in an hour, or

• 25 emails from the club in a day.

The household's Activity tab then shows the email as not sent, with the reason, for example "email not sent: Late fee added (this person already got this email 3 times today)". Messages → Sent → Not sent lists the last 30 days of these too. Messages you write and send from Messages count toward a person's total but are never stopped by these limits. Sign-in links, address confirmations and security notices don't count toward the 10 or the 25, though the same one is still limited to a few a day.

Emails from a workflow have no limit on the same email. A workflow that sends an email each time a camp week is booked reaches a parent once for every week they book. These emails still count toward the 10 an hour and the 25 a day, so a parent who books more than 10 weeks at once gets the first 10, and the rest are not sent. The same limits stop a workflow that keeps emailing the same people.

There is also a limit of 20,000 emails a day for the whole club, messages included, far above any normal day.

These limits are not settings, and the club can't change them. An email they stop is not sent later, so follow up with the person if it mattered. If you think the limits are stopping emails that should go out, contact Swim Ops support: they can suspend the limits for every club while it's looked into. That also stops email from pausing itself; a club whose email is already paused stays paused until a manager or admin resumes it.

While the club's email is paused, by a manager or admin or automatically, emails to members and staff are stopped. Sign-in links, address confirmations, household invitations and security notices such as "your sign-in email changed" still go. Each stopped email shows on the household's Activity tab as "email not sent: … (the club's email was paused)". The notice at the top of Home and Messages lists the latest 50, and Messages → Sent → Not sent keeps listing them after email is resumed. These emails are not sent later, even after email is resumed. Messages you send from Messages wait instead, and go out within about 20 minutes after the resume. See Pause the club's email in Messages.

During an incident Swim Ops can also pause member emails and texts for every club at once. Emails stopped that way show in Messages → Sent → Not sent too, as "Swim Ops had paused email for every club". A text stopped that way shows on the household's Activity tab as "Swim Ops had paused texts for every club".

Every club's texts come from the same phone number, so each text starts with your club's name. A text that already starts with it, like the ones the platform writes, does not get it twice. Each text also ends with "Reply STOP to unsubscribe." unless it already tells people how to stop.

Replying STOP turns off club texts for that member, and for any adult family member whose phone number is the same. If their reply never reached us, our text-message provider refuses the next text we try to send them, and their texts are turned off then, the same way. Family-member text copies are a household setting, so replying START turns the member's own texts back on but does not switch those copies back on. Turn them back on from the household's people list if the family asks for them.

Replying START only undoes a STOP. If texts were turned off in the member portal or by staff, replying START or YES does not turn them back on. This matters when someone belongs to more than one club with the same phone: turning texts off for your club stays off even if they reply YES to another club's text. To turn texts back on after a portal or staff opt-out, the member ticks the text-message box in their portal, or staff turn it on from the household. After a reply STOP, only the member can turn texts back on, by texting START to the number the texts came from: the phone carrier blocks texts to that number until they do. Ticking the box would not work, so staff and bulk updates refuse the change and say so, the member's own portal tells them to text START instead of saving the tick, and the renewal page stops asking them whether they want texts. If they give the portal a different mobile number, that number is not blocked, and they can tick the box for it.

Text messages are matched by the digits of the number, so a number typed as (925) 555-0100 and one typed as +19255550100 are treated as the same phone.

A portal notice can go to the member portal, to email, or to both. It cannot send a text message yet. The text-message option is marked "coming soon" and cannot be chosen.