How to Know If Someone Blocked Your Email and What to Do
Have you ever sent an important email only to be met with silence? This awkward situation can leave you wondering — how to know if someone blocked your email.
While there’s no guaranteed way to tell if someone has blocked you, several telltale signs can show your messages aren’t getting through. Unlike social media platforms, email systems are more discreet in blocking visibility.
Whether you’re trying to reach a work contact or to ensure your marketing emails are received, email blocking is an issue you must learn to tackle. Below, you will find indicators of email blocking and the steps you can take to remedy them.
Here is the complete guide on email blocking for both regular email users and email marketers.
What is Email Blocking?
For regular email users, email blocking happens when a recipient manually blocks a sender’s email address, preventing any future messages from reaching their inbox.
When an email is rejected by the recipient’s email platform, it is also called email blocking.
Such blocking occurs due to:
- Spam filters,
- Invalid email addresses,
- Security measures preventing harmful content.
For email marketers, email blocking means their bulk or marketing emails are rejected by recipient email servers. This is often caused by poor email sender reputation, lack of email authentication protocols, or spam triggers in the content.
Recipients also block marketing emails by unsubscribing or marking them as email spam.
What Happens to Blocked Emails?
In certain email-blocking scenarios, messages can disappear without a trace, whereas in other situations, you get notified of what the issue is.
This table shares possible explanations for these gaps in email communication:
| Category | Reason for email blocking | What happens to the email? | Feedback for the sender |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Email | The recipient has blocked the email | The email is not delivered. | The sender gets a notification like “Email undeliverable” or no feedback at all. |
| Blocked by the spam filter | The email is moved to the junk folder or rejected outright. | The sender may receive a bounce-back with an error code. | |
| Server-level block | The email is rejected due to the sender’s domain/IP reputation or flagged content. | A Non-Delivery Report (NDR) is sent explaining the cause of rejection. | |
| Email marketing | Soft bounces | The email is temporarily blocked and stored for reattempts. | The platform logs the incident and retries sending. |
| Hard bounces | The message is blocked and deleted. | Mailbox providers suppress future emails from the sender. | |
| Spam filter blocks | The email gets flagged as spam and lands in the spam folder. | The incident is logged in analytics as “spam complaint” or “policy violation.” | |
| ISP or domain-level blocking | The email is blocked by the ISP or domain. | A block reason is sent; the message often includes suggestions for resolution. |
8 Signs Your Email Address is Blocked
If a recipient or an email server has blocked an email address, the sender may experience specific symptoms signaling this issue.
Here are the top 8 signs to look out for:
- Hard bounce messages: A “hard bounce” occurs when an email is permanently rejected, often accompanied by an error message. Study why emails bounce and what you can do to prevent them.
- Increased spam reports: If your emails go to spam frequently, your email provider may issue a warning. Monitoring spam complaints in email campaign reports can reveal this trend.
- Sent emails don’t return bounce notifications: Emails appear to be sent successfully but do not arrive in the recipient’s inbox, spam folder, or promotions tab.
- Low open rates: A sudden drop in open rates across campaigns could suggest your emails are being blocked or filtered out before reaching recipients.
- Blocked notifications from ESPs: Email Service Providers (ESPs) may notify you if certain addresses are blocked due to high bounce rates or spam complaints.
- Blacklist notifications: If your email domain or IP address appears on a blacklist, most of your emails are probably getting blocked.
- Recipient complaints: Direct feedback from recipients stating they are not receiving your emails, despite no errors on your side, can point to a block.
- Emails going to spam: While not a direct block, consistently landing in spam folders increases the likelihood of future blocks, as recipients may disengage or report your emails.
If you’re not sure whether you’ve been blocked and want to confirm it, the next section shows you how to do it.
How to Check if Someone Has Blocked Your Email
If there are no overt signs your email has been blocked — bounce messages or errors — you can use indirect methods to determine if someone has blocked your email address.
- Check delivery confirmation if available: Some email services provide delivery or read receipts. Enable these features if possible and check if the recipient is receiving or opening your email.
- Try emailing from another address: Send an email to the recipient using a different email address. If the new email goes through, your primary email may have been blocked.
- Send a text-only email: Spam filters may block emails containing links, images, or attachments. Test by sending a simple, plain-text email; between HTML and plain-text emails, the latter typically reach the inbox.
- Check your email logs: If you use an ESP, examine delivery reports or logs.
- Ask a friend to email them: If possible, ask someone you trust to send an email to the recipient.
- Look for other ways to connect: Try contacting the recipient via alternative means. Gently investigate if you’ve been blocked or whether it’s a technical issue.
- Check your reputation: If you’re an email marketer, use an email domain checker to assess your domain reputation. If it’s low, it explains why emails are blocked.
- Reach out to the IT administrator: Get in touch with the IT or mail administrator of your recipient’s email provider. Request for information on your block status.
- Experiment with timing and content: Email during different times of the day to see if the issue persists.
If you want more specific instructions for Gmail and Outlook email recipients, check the instructions in the following sections.
How to Tell if Somebody Blocked You on Gmail
If you’re wondering whether a Gmail recipient has blocked you, here are the top 5 indicators:
- No replies: A recipient who previously responded to your emails suddenly stops replying.
- Emails bouncing: You receive bounce-back notifications or delivery failure messages after sending emails.
- Others can send emails: You find other contacts can send emails to the same recipient without issues.
- Changes in Google Chat visibility: You used to see the person’s profile picture in Google Chat, but it’s missing now (refer to the image above).
- Contact list changes: Check your Google Contacts; the person’s name is missing from your list, and you can’t find any previous email exchanges with them.
How to Check if Someone Blocked You on Gmail
Try these 3 methods to test whether a recipient has blocked you on Gmail:
- Send a test email: If you get no delivery failure notification but the email is never “read,” it might indicate blocking. Try sending with “read receipt” activated; if the receipt never comes back, it’s another potential sign.
- Look up their profile: Try to find them in Google Chats. If you previously chatted but now can’t see their status or photo, they may have blocked you.
- Check Google Drive sharing: Try to share a document with their email. If you get an error or can’t find their email to share, it could indicate blocking.
How to Know if Someone Blocked You on Outlook
The top 3 indicators someone may have blocked you on Outlook are:
- No read receipts: Your emails show as “delivered” but are never “read.” You can’t see their availability status anymore, and their profile picture disappears from conversations.
- Email behavior: Messages sit perpetually in your outbox. You get automated responses about delivery failures. Your emails are delivered but you never receive replies.
- Calendar/Meeting invites: You’re unable to see their free/busy status. You’re also unable to schedule meetings with them as meeting requests go unanswered.
How to Test if Someone Blocked You on Outlook
You can try the three steps below to check if your emails are blocked on Outlook:
- Send a test email with Read Receipts turned on: If the receipt never returns but the email doesn’t bounce, it might indicate blocking
- Look for their profile: Search in the Outlook address book. If previously visible but now unavailable, they may have blocked you
- Check Teams or Skype for Business: Check if you can see their presence status. Try to start a new conversation. If you can’t, it indicates you’ve been blocked.
6 Reasons Your Emails Aren’t Reaching Recipients
Email blocking is typically associated with a person manually blocking your emails, but there are many reasons your email didn’t reach your recipient’s inbox. We shared them below so you can resolve the issue and resume email communication.
1. Your Emails May Be Going to Spam
These days, the journey from your outbox to your recipient’s inbox is more complex than ever. When your emails go to spam folders, it’s often due to how email providers evaluate the trustworthiness of your messages.
Mailbox providers analyze everything from your word choice to your sending patterns. Using phrases like “FREE” or “Limited Time Offer” in email subject lines, especially with excessive punctuation or all-caps, can trigger red flags. Similarly, loading your emails with images while skimping on text content looks suspicious to email services.
Failing to include a proper unsubscribe mechanism or sending from domains with poor reputations almost guarantees a trip to the spam folder.
2. You Could Be Getting Blocked by Spam Filters
Spam filters act as vigilant gatekeepers, making split-second decisions about whether your email deserves inbox placement.
These sophisticated systems don’t just scan for obvious spam triggers — they evaluate complex patterns and signals.
These include:
- Your sending history,
- The reputation of your IP address,
- How recipients interact with your previous emails.
For instance, if recipients consistently delete your emails without reading them or mark them as spam, filters learn to treat your future messages with increased suspicion. These filters also analyze email engagement metrics such as open rates and click-through rates, using this data to determine whether your emails provide value to recipients.
3. You May Be on a Blacklist
Finding yourself on an email blacklist is like receiving a digital scarlet letter.
Email blacklists are databases of IP addresses and domains flagged for suspicious or malicious email practices. Once blacklisted, your emails may be blocked entirely by receiving servers, causing immediate and severe delivery problems.
The impact extends beyond individual emails; your entire domain’s reputation can suffer, affecting communications with all recipients.
Common triggers for blacklisting include:
- Sending to too many invalid addresses,
- Generating high spam complaints,
- Being compromised by malware sending spam from your domain.
- Flawed or incorrect authentication setup.
Recovery requires identifying which blacklist you’re on, understanding why you were listed, and taking concrete steps to address the underlying issues.
4. Your Domain May Have Email Authentication Issues
Authentication problems can lead to a spike in email delivery issues.
Modern email systems primarily rely on these three email security protocols:
| Email authentication protocols | What does it do? |
|---|---|
| SPF (Sender Policy Framework) | It prevents spammers from sending emails on your behalf. |
| DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) | DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails, verifying they were sent from your domain. |
| DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) | This helps protect your domain from being used in email spoofing attacks. |
Such email security protocols help verify emails genuinely come from their claimed source. When these authentication measures aren’t properly configured, legitimate emails can be rejected or marked as suspicious.
Think of SPF as a guest list specifying which servers are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain. DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails, while DMARC tells receiving servers how to handle emails that fail authentication checks.
Proper configuration of these protocols is crucial for maintaining email deliverability.
5. Your ESP May Have Sending Issues
Sometimes, the problem lies not with your emails but with your ESP’s email infrastructure. Email providers maintain complex networks of servers and must manage their own reputations.
When these providers experience technical difficulties or reputation problems, it can affect all their users’ email deliverability. This is particularly relevant for shared IP addresses, where one user’s poor sending practices can impact others sharing the same IP.
The end result is queued emails or deferred emails; if you check the email outbox of your ESP, you will see a backlog of unsent emails.
6. You May Be Emailing Invalid Email Addresses
Sending emails to invalid addresses is a strict no-no; it’s harmful to your sender reputation, and your own ESP may boot you off the platform. This is why you must ensure you have a valid email address list.
Each bounced email from an invalid address adds a strike against your sending reputation.
This problem often stems from:
- Outdated email lists,
- Typos in email addresses,
- Using purchased lists with low-quality data.
If you’d like to tackle all of the above issues, the next section has expert advice on doing just that.
How to Reduce Bounces in Email Marketing
Reducing email bounces is essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and ensuring your messages reach their intended recipients.
Below is a list of 12 strategies to fix and improve your bounce rate in email marketing.
- Use email verification tools: Build your list organically through opt-in forms to ensure all addresses are accurate and verify addresses at the signup source.
- Implement email validation: Remove invalid and inactive addresses; periodically prune bounced and unengaged contacts from your database.
- Adopt the double opt-in method: Require users to confirm their email address through a verification link before being added to your list.
- Set up email authentication: Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to authenticate your emails.
- Monitor email bounce rates: For hard bounces, permanently remove addresses. For soft bounces, retry a few times and remove if the issue persists.
- Avoid being a spam email sender: Avoid excessive use of promotional language in the email subject lines and in the body.
- Use email A/B testing: Test your email across different providers and devices. Send a test email to yourself or a colleague to check for issues before sending to the full list.
- Send relevant email content: Ensure your content matches what your subscribers signed up for.
- Apply an email segmentation strategy: Divide your email list into segments; send targeted, personalized emails and it will bring down the risk of spam complaints and unsubscribes.
- Use a proper email format: Ensure all links in your email are functional and point to secure (HTTPS) websites.
- Adhere to CAN-SPAM and GDPR: Follow regulations to ensure your practices are ethical and legal.
- Share a one-click unsubscribe: Provide an easy-to-find unsubscribe link in every email.
Additional Topics of Interest
The more you know about email marketing, the better your results will be.
Here are select technical articles from our blog you will enjoy reading:
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Campaign Refinery is the best place to experience true email performance.
