XF 2.2 Yahoo Email Bounce, Hard vs Soft

[philmckrackon]

I have two yahoo email bounces logged at the same time. One was a hard bounce and one soft. One is mailbox not found and one is mailbox disabled. Is this action hard coded? They should both hard bounce. Is this something that can be changed?

Soft Bounce:

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

  xxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
    host http://mta6.am0.yahoodns.net/'mta6.am0.yahoodns.net [xx.xxx.xxx.xx]
    SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
    554 30 Sorry, your message to xxxxxxx@yahoo.com cannot be delivered. This mailbox is disabled (554.30).

Hard Bounce:

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

  xxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
    host mta7.am0.yahoodns.net [xx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
    SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
    552 1 Requested mail action aborted, mailbox not found

 

[Alpha1]

Xenforo core bounce processing does not take the smtp bounce message into account. Only the smtp error code. 554 means that the server did not accept the message. Many email providers use smtp codes for different types of errors.

For xenforo to handle email bounce processing better, it would be needed to take bounce messages into account. I doubt that xenforo will implement it, so you would need an addon for it. @DragonByte Tech once implemented this for me for xf1 in his mail addon.

 

[philmckrackon]

Xenforo core bounce processing does not take the smtp bounce message into account. Only the smtp error code. 554 means that the server did not accept the message. Many email providers use smtp codes for different types of errors.

For xenforo to handle email bounce processing better, it would be needed to take bounce messages into account. I doubt that xenforo will implement it, so you would need an addon for it. @DragonByte Tech once implemented this for me for xf1 in his mail addon.

That's what I thought, wonder if @DragonByte Tech would move the addon from x1 to x2. It would be great to create a bounce addon on for non recognized email bounce error codes or messages.

 

[Sim]

Is a disabled mailbox cause for a hard bounce though? I think it's a matter of interpretation.

A disabled mailbox could be re-enabled and thus would start receiving emails again. I wouldn't be surprised if XenForo treats it the same way as a full mailbox - we can't send emails now, but we may be able to again at some point in the future unless the failure is unresolved.

If you continue to get these soft bounces, they will eventually turn into hard bounces, based on the XF settings:

 

[philmckrackon]

Agree, disabled is not necessarily a hard bounce. This was from an inactive member and a happy birthday email. Most likely will not get another email for a year.

 

[Alpha1]

Is a disabled mailbox cause for a hard bounce though? I think it's a matter of interpretation

This depends on the email provider. What is the criteria for the provider to disable the account and how does the provider expect you to handle this bounce type ? IIRC Yahoo expects us to handle this as a hard bounce. It makes sense for providers that don't disable accounts quickly and make it hard to re-enable accounts. An account that was disabled after years of inactivity and several calls to action is unlikely to be reactivated.

If you setup an email for dmarc reports then yahoo will let you know.

I went through tens of thousands of bounces and reports and classified all the bounce messages from providers and had this implemented into dragonbyte techs addon.

 

[Sim]

This depends on the email provider. What is the criteria for the provider to disable the account and how does the provider expect you to handle this bounce type ? IIRC Yahoo expects us to handle this as a hard bounce. It makes sense for providers that don't disable accounts quickly and make it hard to re-enable accounts. An account that was disabled after years of inactivity and several calls to action is unlikely to be reactivated.

If you setup an email for dmarc reports then yahoo will let you know.

I went through tens of thousands of bounces and reports and classified all the bounce messages from providers and had this implemented into dragonbyte techs addon.

Ahh - I was assuming that it was a user action - the user disabled the account.

If it's a provider action, then I'd be more inclined to consider it a permanent (hard) failure.