Summary
When encountering temporary errors from Yahoo, a nuanced approach to retries is crucial. While RFC5321 suggests retrying for 3-5 days with a backoff, this can exacerbate issues during Yahoo's TSS errors. Implement a 4-hour delay, not exclusively for retries but for all delivery attempts. If Yahoo is deferring, slow down sending significantly or halt it altogether. Mail servers usually retry for about 5 days, although this varies. It's important to maintain a proper email deliverability strategy, segment lists, handle soft bounces, and avoid overwhelming the recipient server to protect sender reputation. Documentation indicates a 24-hour retry window for some providers. Ultimately, balancing persistence with caution and adapting to Yahoo's signals is essential.
Key findings
- RFC5321 Guidelines: RFC5321 recommends 3-5 day retries with a backoff algorithm.
- TSS Error Impact: Retries during Yahoo's TSS errors can worsen the situation.
- 4-Hour Delay: Implement a 4-hour delay for all delivery attempts, not just retries, to Yahoo.
- Deferral Handling: Slow down or stop sending if Yahoo is deferring messages.
- Mail Server Retries: Mail servers typically retry for approximately 5 days, but configurations vary.
- Email Strategy: A comprehensive email deliverability strategy is vital.
- 24-hour retry: PowerDMARC documents that email providers will retry for 24 hours before a hard bounce.
Key considerations
- Reputation Impact: Excessive retries can harm your sender reputation.
- Soft Bounce Handling: Properly manage soft bounces.
- Yahoo Signals: Pay attention to Yahoo's signals, such as deferrals.
- Provider Variations: Retry policies differ among providers; understand the specific provider's guidelines.
- List Segmentation: Improve email list segmentation.
- Adaptive Approach: Balance persistence with caution and adapt your strategy based on Yahoo's feedback.
What email marketers say
8 marketer opinions
When encountering temporary errors from Yahoo, it's generally recommended to retry sending emails, but with caution. Experts recommend implementing a retry mechanism with a delay (e.g., 4 hours for TSS messages) to avoid overwhelming the recipient server. While mail servers typically retry for a few days (e.g., 5 days), excessive retries can harm your sender reputation. Therefore, it's crucial to monitor for persistent soft bounces and suppress those addresses. A proper email deliverability strategy, including list segmentation and improved sending processes, is vital.
Key opinions
- Retry Mechanism: Implement a retry mechanism for temporary failures (soft bounces).
- Delay: Apply a delay (e.g., 4 hours for TSS messages from Yahoo) when retrying.
- Avoid Excessive Retries: Excessive retries can overwhelm the recipient server and harm sender reputation.
- Suppress Hard Bounces: Suppress email addresses with hard bounces to protect sender reputation.
- Postfix Retries: A typical Postfix configuration will retry sending the email for about 5 days.
Key considerations
- Monitor Errors: Monitor for temporary errors and adjust sending strategy accordingly.
- Sender Reputation: Prioritize maintaining a good sender reputation by handling bounces appropriately.
- List Segmentation: Implement proper email list segmentation.
- Improve Process: Consider improvement of the email sending process.
- Soft Bounces: Handle soft bounces to ensure deliverability success.
Marketer view
Email marketer from GlockApps shares to maintain a good sender reputation, it's essential to promptly handle soft bounces. Retry sending emails a few times, but avoid excessive retries if the issue persists. Remove the email if there are repeated soft bounces.
20 Aug 2022 - GlockApps
Marketer view
Email marketer from Reddit suggests checking the Postfix documentation for specifics, but mentions that the default is usually a few days for retries.
6 May 2022 - Reddit
What the experts say
4 expert opinions
When Yahoo returns temporary errors, it's crucial to adjust your sending strategy. RFC5321 suggests retrying for 3-5 days with a backoff algorithm, but each retry counts as a delivery attempt, potentially worsening issues if Yahoo is experiencing TSS errors. A 4-hour delay between all delivery attempts might improve deliverability. When deferrals occur, slow down your sending significantly or stop entirely until the problem clears. Mail servers typically queue messages for retries (around 5 days), but this depends on server configuration. Slowing down or stopping is best practice to stop a potential block.
Key opinions
- RFC5321 Retry: RFC5321 suggests retrying for 3-5 days with a backoff algorithm.
- TSS Errors: Retrying during TSS errors from Yahoo can worsen the situation.
- 4-Hour Delay: A 4-hour delay between all delivery attempts might improve deliverability.
- Deferral Handling: Slow down or stop sending when Yahoo is deferring messages.
- Mail Server Retries: Mail servers typically retry for around 5 days.
Key considerations
- Delivery Attempts: Each retry counts as a delivery attempt, impacting deliverability.
- Yahoo Deferrals: Monitor for deferrals from Yahoo and adjust sending accordingly.
- Server Configuration: Be aware that retry configurations vary between mail servers.
- Problem Solving: Stop the retry process when the problem doesn't clear.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that RFC5321 states trying for 3-5 days is ok, with a backoff algorithm that retries every few hours. However, every retry will count as a delivery attempt and can compound the length of time it will take for queues to empty, especially when receiving TSS style errors from Yahoo. States that reputation is already problematic when getting TSS errors, retries will only delay getting things fixed.
4 Mar 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Spamresource.com shares that messages get delayed for a variety of reasons, often due to some capacity issue somewhere in the network. Legitimate mail servers will queue messages for some time, trying to deliver them. Usually, mail servers retry for 5 days, but that also depends on how the admin of the mail server has configured it.
29 Jan 2022 - Spamresource.com
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Various documentation sources offer different perspectives on email retries. RFC Editor suggests retrying for 3-5 days with gradually increasing intervals. Microsoft Learn provides insights into Exchange Online's default retry policies. PowerDMARC notes that email providers generally retry for 24 hours before issuing a non-delivery report (NDR), warning that failed deliveries can harm sender reputation. VadeSecure explains that soft bounces, caused by temporary issues, trigger retries for an unspecified duration.
Key findings
- RFC Retry: RFC Editor recommends retrying for 3-5 days with increasing intervals.
- Exchange Online: Microsoft Learn provides information on Exchange Online's retry policies.
- 24 Hour Retries: Email providers typically retry for 24 hours before issuing an NDR (PowerDMARC).
- Soft Bounce Retry: Soft bounces trigger retries for an unspecified amount of time (VadeSecure).
Key considerations
- Retry Intervals: Gradually increase retry intervals.
- Sender Reputation: Failed deliveries can negatively impact sender reputation.
- Soft Bounce Causes: Soft bounces are usually due to temporary issues like full mailboxes or server problems.
- Email Provider Policies: Different email providers have different retry policies (Microsoft, PowerDMARC).
Technical article
Documentation from PowerDMARC shares that email providers generally keep attempting delivery over 24 hours. If delivery fails within this period, they generate a non-delivery report (NDR) or bounce message, but if they do then they can harm your sender reputation.
11 Jan 2025 - PowerDMARC
Technical article
Documentation from RFC Editor states that a message should be tried for 3-5 days. The retry intervals should increase gradually.
7 Jul 2024 - RFC Editor
