Slow, Delayed, and Undeliverable Email
Slowness
If the destination domain (ie osu.edu, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc) is very busy, email can be slow getting there. There is nothing we can do about it on our end as it is their systems causing the slowdowns.
Delays
If a message cannot be delivered to a recipient after 24 hours, you will receive a message that the message has been delayed. This is not a failure and the message will tell you that. This can be for any number of reasons, including slowness, their systems being down, etc. Just be patient and see if the message goes through.
Failures
If, after 48 hours, a message cannot be sent, you will receive an error message stating that the message could not be sent. If you sent a message to a list of people, check to see which ones actually could not receive the message. Often times this is caused for the following reasons.
- Wrong email address - often due to typos (examples of this include osuedu instead of osu.edu, ehe.osu-state.edu instead of ehe.ohio-state.edu, etc). Double check your typing and your lists to ensure it is being sent to the right place.
- Email accounts that are full. If you send an email message to a mailbox that is full, you MAY receive an error message, depending on the mail system that you are sending to.
- Email Accounts that have not been activated. This is common for new students and Faculty/Staff at OSU. Just because someone has a name.n for OSU, does not mean that they have activated their account through OIT for email. They must do this through OIT. Check with them in person or via phone to see if they have actually done this.
We hope this helps everyone a little in trying to deal with and understand any error messages that you may get while sending email. If you have any further questions, please contact the Service Desk.