Troubleshooting resources
Prior to submitting a support request, be sure you are following sending best practices and try to fix the cause of your deliverability problems. If you continually ask for support help without doing anything to improve your sending practices, Yahoo will be less likely to help you in the future.
Tips to troubleshoot spam placement
Here are some troubleshooting tips you should take if you are experiencing spam placement at Yahoo, AOL, and AT&T domains.
- Sending execution: Common causes for spam placement occur when the email campaign was unintentionally sent to a suppression list or an entire list file. If this happened, just resume normal sending behavior. In most cases, inbox placement rates will normalize over the next several days.
- Unauthorized access to your sending system: Ensure that all email sent from your system was authorized. If any unauthorized email was sent from your system by a spammer, take all necessary steps to secure your email system. Open a support ticket with Yahoo to let them know the situation and all the steps taken to fix the cause. Resume normal sending behavior (unless all your email is being blocked) and your inbox placement rates should normalize soon.
- Changes to your email program: Did you or someone on your team make any changes to your email program recently? Changes such as a new list source, higher volume, more frequency, or a branding change can cause more email to be marked as spam.
- New IP or domains: All new IPs AND domains must go through a warming process where email volume is increased over time. Mismanaging or rushing the warming process can lead to an increase in spam placement.
- Complaint feedback loop: Ensure you are signed up to the Yahoo complaint feedback loop and actively suppressing subscribers that complain. If you are not signed up you can do so on the Postmaster website. Sometimes the process can be broken and complainers are not suppressed, so be sure it is working properly.
- Inactive subscribers: Are you sending to subscribers that are engaged with your email? If a large portion of a list or list segment contains unengaged subscribers, then that can lead to an increase in spam placement.
- Sending frequency: Sending too many emails is a top reason for subscriber complaints. If you are sending multiple times a day or week, try sending fewer messages to see if there is any improvement to your complaint rate.
- Unsubscribe: Ensure you have a prominent unsubscribe link in your email. Some senders see a benefit by adding another unsubscribe link to the top of the email, this makes it easier for a subscriber to unsubscribe instead of mark the email as spam.
- Honor all unsubscribe requests within 24 hours, otherwise future emails sent to those subscribers may be marked as spam.
- Blocklists: Check if your IPs or domains are listed on the following blocklists. IPs or domains listed on these blocklists may result in some of your email being marked as spam.
- Domains and domain differences: There are some rare, but notable differences between some of the regional and hosted Yahoo domains. It is beneficial to understand the differences when determining steps for troubleshooting delivery issues at these domains.
- Mailboxes hosted by Yahoo (AT&T, Rogers, etc.): If senders receive a 4xx or 5xx error on mail to AT&T, these occur on AT&T's network. Once the mail makes it past AT&T's gateway filters, it is sent to Yahoo to be delivered to the subscriber's mailbox, where filtering occurs. The spam vs. inbox determination is made by Yahoo and Yahoo's reputation system applies.
- Yahoo Japan: Yahoo Japan operates like a separate entity. It runs its own mail platform, and while it leverages some of the same technology, it has a custom implementation and a separate code installation. While it has access to all of the filters that the rest of the Yahoo global network employs, there may be local configurations that support differences or that override standard filtering to enable it to meet Japanese government regulations. There are separate mediation and support escalation paths for Yahoo Japan, usually in Japanese.
- Blocked mail: It is important to determine if your email is being blocked prior to requesting a block removal. Continuing to send email to AOL and Yahoo subscribers when you receive certain error codes can harm your sending reputation and cause email to go to the spam folder.
- Check the SMTP error codes for more detail about why your email is being rejected. You may need to ask your ESP or email administrator for access to the proper files or reports. Some common error codes related to complaints are listed below.
- TS01: This error indicates there is unusual traffic from your IP address or that emails from your mail server are generating too many user complaints. Senders must investigate and resolve the causes of the complaints.
- TS02: TS01 errors can turn into TS02 errors if not addressed. Senders with TS02 errors should take immediate action to address complaints. These errors place senders closer to a permanent error. Once a permanent error occurs, the IP address will be blocked and mail will not be delivered to the end user.
- TS03: A TS03 error indicates a permanently deferred state. Messages receiving TS03 will not be delivered upon retry. Validity does not recommend attempting to resend the messages until you resolve the issue by addressing complaints and lowering volume.
- Submit a block removal request once you have confirmed a block is in place. Yahoo usually responds within a couple of days.
- Check the SMTP error codes for more detail about why your email is being rejected. You may need to ask your ESP or email administrator for access to the proper files or reports. Some common error codes related to complaints are listed below.
