Gmail is the most popular email service in the world, and for a good reason. The service has a clean design and easy-to-use interface, but it can have problems like any other email program. One of the most common issues with Gmail is emails being blocked by Gmail.
You may see this error when trying to send or receive messages from another person’s account; it’s usually because their account has been blocked due to spammy behavior, and they need to take steps to fix their account settings. However, there are some ways you can troubleshoot your Gmail account so that you can resume sending and receiving emails without seeing this error message again.
1. Ensure Your Domain Has a Valid Spf Record
Spam filters can block email messages from your domain if they do not have a valid SPF record. SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework, a standard that allows receiving mail servers to check if the sender’s IP address is allowed to send an email on behalf of your domain. To ensure that your environment has a valid SPF record:
- Go to Google Domains and sign in with your Google account credentials.
- Click the Domain Settings tab at the top of the page, then click Security on the left side panel menu. If you don’t see this option, it may be hidden under Advanced Settings or Credentials Management from your Dashboard.
- Under Mail Flow – SPF Records section, click Edit next to Sender Policy Framework record for mail coming from .your domain name (e.g., mail from @examplecompanyname.com). You may need to scroll down the page to find this option if you’re not seeing it in view mode already.
2. Make Sure Your Domain Has a Valid DKIM Record
If Gmail is blocking your emails, you may want to check your Domain Keys Identified Mail record. This is because Gmail uses the DKIM record to verify that the sender of an email is legitimate. If your domain does not have a valid DKIM record, then Gmail will block your emails. This article will explain how you can troubleshoot this issue and fix it.
The purpose of DKIM is to verify that the sender of an email is legitimate by having them digitally sign the message’s header with a private key. When a recipient receives an email with a valid signature, they can use the public key stored in the DNS record to verify that the signature is authentic. If they don’t find an appropriate public key in their DNS records, they know something isn’t right with the message, and they can reject it without even reading it.
3. Identify the IPs That are Sending Your Email
If you see a lot of emails blocked by Gmail, it could be that your IP address is listed as a sender of suspicious or spammy emails. To determine which IPs are sending your emails, you can use Google’s Email Logs.
Google’s Email Logs are available from the Google Apps Admin Console and provide information about the status of your messages across all of your domains. You can find this information under the “Email Logs” tab in the “Sending Diagnostics” section.
Click on “Show email logs for this domain,” and then click on the “View more options” link in the top right corner to access more information about your message delivery.
Once you select an individual message delivery log, you will see detailed information about what happens when an email is sent from your account. This includes information about both successful and unsuccessful deliveries, as well as any issues that may have occurred during delivery.
In this example, we can see that our IP address has been blocked by Gmail after multiple attempts to deliver an email failed due to an SMTP error. The reason for these errors was that the IP address was listed as a sender for suspicious or spam.
4. Request Removal of Gmail’s Blacklist
Gmail is one of the most widely used email services around the world. It has been around for years and has always been one of the best email services. However, like any other service, Gmail has its limitations.
One of these limitations is that sending bulk emails through Gmail is impossible. For example, if you want to send an email newsletter to your subscribers, then you can’t do it through Gmail. You will have to use another service such as MailChimp or SendGrid.
Another limitation of Gmail is that it blocks certain types of emails from being sent or received on its platform. This prevents spam from entering your inbox and annoying you with unwanted messages. However, sometimes this can also affect legitimate emails that may have been sent accidentally or were mistakenly flagged by Google as spam due to some technical error on their part or yours (if you don’t know how to set up your filters properly).
5. Check Your Spam Folder in Gmail
Gmail is a powerful email client that allows you to access your messages anywhere. However, no email service is perfect, and sometimes, messages get blocked by Gmail. If you are trying to send an email and keep getting an error message, it may be because the sender’s email address is associated with spam or because your message contains something that Gmail doesn’t like. The good news is that there are ways you can troubleshoot these issues and get your emails delivered again.
It can be frustrating if you receive a message from someone who uses Gmail, but it ends up in the spam folder instead of your inbox. Luckily, this problem is easy to fix. First, check your spam folder to make sure that it isn’t there by mistake; if it isn’t, then you’ll need to add their email address as a contact so their messages will go directly into your inbox instead of being marked as a spam automatically by Gmail’s filters.
6. Check Your Security Settings
Gmail has a built-in spam filter to protect your inbox from unwanted emails. However, sometimes it may block an email that you want to receive. The good news is that Gmail’s spam filter can be adjusted to allow emails from specific senders.
When trying to troubleshoot emails blocked by Gmail, the first thing you need to do is check your security settings. If you have set up two-factor authentication, this could be the reason why Gmail is blocking some emails. To prevent your security settings:
- Go to My Account and click Sign-in & Security on the left side of the page.
- Look for 2-Step Verification, which is under Account Security. Click it.
- Click Get Started and follow the prompts to turn off 2-Step Verification if it is on or learn more about setting it up if it’s off already.
7. Notify the Sender of the Issue on Their End
If someone is sending you emails that Gmail is blocking, the first thing to do is notify them of the issue on their end. The sender’s email could be compromised, or their account might have been hacked. Either way, it’s essential to let them know so they can take action and fix the problem.
If you use Gmail, you can forward an email that has been blocked to Report phishing attachments. This action will notify Google and inform them about suspicious activity in your account.
Wrapping Up
As with any business, the success of your email marketing campaign depends on all systems operating correctly. In this case, there are several things you can do that may alleviate Gmail’s spam filter. Start by ensuring that your messages meet their size and formatting requirements. Then, look at these tips to ensure that your content is not sending up any red flags for Gmail.
