The general consensus from experts, marketers, and documentation suggests that resending emails that hard bounced during a Gmail outage is reasonable. This is largely due to the possibility that bounces during the outage were false positives. Google themselves recommended resending emails. However, it's critical to monitor bounce rates, segment resends, and remove addresses that hard bounce again. Suppressing recipients should be temporary, and close attention should be paid to engagement metrics after resending.
8 marketer opinions
The consensus is that resending emails that hard bounced during a Gmail outage is generally acceptable. Since the bounces may be false positives due to the outage, resending allows delivery to valid addresses. However, it is crucial to closely monitor bounce rates and engagement after resending. Segmenting the resend and removing addresses that hard bounce again is also recommended. If the outage was on Gmail's side, resending might be effective as mailboxes are likely back online.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks refers to the Google post on the issue which states, "For users who experienced email delivery issues when sending emails to valid email addresses ending in “@gmail.com”, please re-send your emails." They revalidated all gmail bounces for that period (as per Steve Atkins' advice), not just the specific "does not exist" message and hasn't seen any issues since.
1 Oct 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email On Acid Blog suggests if the outage was on Gmail's side, resending might be effective, but segments the resend and monitors results. Otherwise, the addresses may have moved on.
13 Dec 2022 - Email On Acid Blog
4 expert opinions
Experts generally agree that resending emails that hard bounced during a Gmail outage is reasonable. Bounces during the outage may not be genuine, and Google itself recommended resending. Monitoring results and removing addresses that bounce again is crucial. Suppressing recipients should be temporary, as the outage is a short-term problem.
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource explains that, if Gmail had an outage, it's reasonable to retry sending the bounced messages, but to monitor the results and remove any addresses that hard bounce again.
1 Nov 2023 - Spam Resource
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that bounces during the Gmail outage weren't real and the few that were, will bounce out again.
3 Dec 2024 - Email Geeks
4 technical articles
Official documentation sources generally recommend resending emails that bounced during a Gmail outage. Google explicitly advises resending, while Mailjet suggests it's safe, especially if the outage was on the recipient's end. RFC standards indicate temporary failures may resolve, making resending viable. AWS documentation, while generally against resending hard bounces, implies it's acceptable in the context of a service outage. Segmentation and monitoring engagement are common considerations.
Technical article
Documentation from Google Workspace Updates Blog recommends resending emails that bounced due to a recent Gmail issue. They state that users who experienced email delivery issues sending to valid Gmail addresses should resend their emails.
11 Jul 2022 - Google Workspace Updates Blog
Technical article
Documentation from RFC Editor, defining SMTP standards, specifies that temporary failure codes (e.g., 4xx errors) indicate that the message *might* be deliverable in the future. In the event of infrastructure failure, resending may be successful.
1 Jul 2024 - RFC Editor
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