1. Why does email sent to me not arrive?
In Brief (Common Answers to this Question)
Narrowing
There are a number of reasons why mail sent to you might not be arriving. Before we get to them, please narrow down your problem by answering the following questions:
Discussion
Let's start by getting the AOL question out of the way. Mail sent from one AOL member to another (question 1) will always get where it's going -- or the sender will definitely receive errors (question 2) in the form of an AOL dialog box. The two common errors from one AOL member to another are:
In the first case, that screen name probably doesn't exist. If it's your screen name, and you're absolutely sure the sender is spelling your screen name correctly, go to Keyword: Customer Service immediately and report that your mailbox is broken. In the second case, you've configured your Mail Controls in such a manner so as to block mail from the person trying to contact you. Reconfigure your Mail Controls so that they can reach you.
If an AOL member claims they sent mail to you and it never arrived, wait a short time. Sometimes the AOL mail system can be overloaded, and mail may take hours to be delivered. If, after 24 hours, you still have not received their message, check to make sure they are spelling your screen name correctly. AOL screen names are case-insensitive and spaces are irrelevant. But spelling is critical: it is easy to confuse some letter combinations, such as 1lI (1 L i).
If the sender is using an Internet provider, tracking down the problem becomes trickier. But again, your first step should be to see if they received some kind of error message, either from their local mail system or MAILER-DAEMON@aol.com. The above two errors, relating to an unknown user and not accepting email, can also appear (with slightly different wording) in an error message received by an Internet user, such as:
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<screenname@aol.com>
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to air-yg03.mail.aol.com.:
>>> RCPT To:<screenname@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <screenname@aol.com>... User unknown
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<screenname@aol.com>
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to air-yg03.mail.aol.com.:
>>> RCPT To:<screenname@aol.com>
<<< 550 screenname IS NOT ACCEPTING MAIL FROM THIS SENDER
550 <screenname@aol.com>... User unknown
Your mail to the following recipients could not be delivered because they are not accepting mail from address@example.com:
screenname
In the first example, AOL is claiming the screen name does not exist, which is probably true. In the second and third examples, the screen name has its Mail Controls configured in such a manner so as to block the sender (the first case is the result of a Return-Path block, the second is the result of a From block). To correct this, the same advice applies about verifying spelling and Mail Controls status.
Other errors look like:
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<screenname@aol.com>
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to air-yg03.mail.aol.com.:
>>> RCPT To:<screenname@aol.com>
<<< 550 DIRECT CONNECTION FROM DIAL-UP OR DYNAMIC-IP DENIED
550 <screenname@aol.com>... User unknown
===
554- (RTR:BB) The IP address you are using to connect to AOL is a dynamic
554- (residential) IP address. AOL will not accept future e-mail transactions
554- from this IP address until your ISP removes this IP address from its list
554- of dynamic (residential) IP addresses. For additional information,
554 please visit http://postmaster.info.aol.com.
===
In these cases, the mail is being rejected because AOL believes it is being sent directly from someone's computer, rather than through their ISP's legitimate mail server, a common sign of malicious or abusive email. This can be fixed by them using a stable, legitimate mail server.
Even if it's not one of these errors, there are other ways to track it down. One way to further evaluate an error is to see where it came from. If the error came all the way from MAILER-DAEMON@aol.com, then it means their message correctly made it to AOL, and was rejected for some reason. But if the error came from their own service, then it means the message was never handed off to AOL.
A list of many errors AOL is likely to generate via MAILER-DAEMON@aol.com can be found at Postmaster.Info: Mailer-Daemon Errors.
If the recipient is receiving errors, but you are unable to decipher them after reading this and the Postmaster FAQ, post a complete copy of the error in the Members Helping Members "E-Mail Discussions" message board (Windows/Macintosh). One of the other members may be able to tell you what the error means.
If the sender does not receive any errors, then it gets even trickier to track down the problem. First, check your Spam Folder and see if their recent messages are there. If their messages are being classified as being Junk Email, they will be silently diverted to this Spam Folder for a period of time and eventually deleted. To prevent further messages from going to the Spam Folder, try adding their email address to your Address Book or shutting off AOL's spam filtering via your Mail Controls (see Mail Controls for more information).
If this checks out, see if the sender is having trouble getting mail through to other AOL members. If they don't, then make sure they're spelling your address correctly (even if they're not getting errors, they could be sending email to an AOL screen name that exists -- and is just not yours). If they do have trouble getting mail through to other AOL members, then ask them to check with others also using their Internet service and see if they have trouble. If not, then you can be certain that it's something this particular person is doing wrong. If so, then you'll need to do further tracking.
If the sender and others using the same service can't get mail through to anyone on AOL, then it's possible AOL is blocking that service due to abuse. Likewise, the service may be preventing its users from contacting AOL for similar reasons. There could also be a technical problem, probably accidental, that is causing communications between the service and AOL to be lost (if this is the case, it may also be responsible for mail sent from AOL not getting to users at the service). In all these cases, the sender should contact their system administrator to see if anything is known.
If you are having trouble receiving mail from several services, again make sure that you are giving them the correct spelling of your email address, and that you have not configured your Mail Controls in such a manner so as to block the Internet, or large segments of it. While it's not totally unusual for one service to have trouble getting mail through to AOL, it would be highly unlikely that most or all of the people you correspond with to be having such problems. Regardless, if you're certain that it's not a spelling or Mail Controls issue, follow the above steps with each of them. The problems may not be related; it could just be coincidental.
More information about troubleshooting problems sending mail from the Internet to AOL can be found at Postmaster.Info: AOL Member FAQ.
If all of the above checks out: there are absolutely no errors being generated, and the sender's system administrator doesn't know of any problems communicating with AOL; see the separate AOL Dropped Mail Unofficial FAQ.
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