Q: Occasionally, mail sent from an ISP to any AOL address never arrives, and no error is received by the sender. Why is this?
Discussion
All things being equal, mail sent from the Internet to AOL should arrive in minutes, hours at most. However, there are some cases where AOL will silently delete a message without delivering it or transmitting an error back to the sender.
Email is a complicated mechanism. It should never be assumed this is happening until a series of other possibilities have been eliminated. First, make sure that the person or mailing list sending the messages are unable to get through to any AOL members. If it's just one or two, but others are receiving mail fine; the culprit is elsewhere. Second, see if others using the same Internet Service Provider (ISP) as the sender have similar difficulties sending mail to other AOL members. If so, AOL could simply be blocking the entire ISP, vice-versa, or there could be some type of technical error preventing proper flow of mail. Finally, make absolutely sure that the sender is not receiving errors. Many AOL members make use of Mail Controls, which can be accidentally configured in such a manner so as to block mail. However, Mail Controls always transmit an error message back to the sender, explaining that the AOL member is not accepting mail. On the other hand, if the sender's mail is being diverted to a particular user's Spam Folder, no error message will be generated.
(More information about tracking down problems relating to AOL members' receipt of email can be found in the Unofficial AOL Email FAQ, Question One.)
AOL offers extensive (if intentionally oblique) information about why mail might not be delivered to an AOL user at its Postmaster.Info site, especially the AOL Mailer FAQ.
postmaster.info, AOL Mailer FAQ provides the following brief comment on the issue:
7. My e-mail doesn't appear to have gotten through, but I didn't get an error message back. What should I do?
Various factors may cause this. First, please try to send your e-mail again.
If the mail doesn't go through, please make sure that your mail adheres to our e-mail standards, and make any changes necessary for you to be following our best practices guidelines.
Your mail may be getting filtered into members' spam folders. Please have your recipient check to make sure that isn't happening. If it is, the recipient will need to add the sending address of the mail to their address book.
If you're complying with all our policies and your mail still isn't reaching its recipient, please try our troubleshooting area for more help.
This FAQ written by AdamKB. Permission to distribute this FAQ is granted, so long as its text and source URL remain intact.
Last updated: 03.02.2004.