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You are here: Home>> Troubleshooting>>Error Messages
An error message from AOL's e-mail delivery subsystem (mailer-daemon@aol.com) indicates that there was a problem in delivering your message to its destination. When you receive an error from our mail system, your message will be returned to you along with an outline of the mail delivery problem. This document will help you become more familiar with the format and content of our mailer-daemon error messages so you can identify delivery problems and possibly correct the situation.See also: AOL Error Messages
Due to security reasons, some of the listed error messages may be sent in a bounce message and not during the mail transaction process.
There are 5 portions of the error report that you should be familiar with:
1. The first thing you will see is a line that tells you the date and time that your e-mail was received by AOL's mail system. It will look something like this:
Your.domain.org will be the domain from which you sent your mail and x.x.x.x will be the IP address from which your mail originated.
"The original message was received at Tue, 14 Jul 1998 20:48:05 -0400 (EDT) from your.domain.org [x.x.x.x]"
2. The next section will be a brief message from the AOL Postmaster. The text there will be updated on an as-needed basis. The current text contains an explanation of how to read the error report. This is the current text:
The line beginning with"<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could notbe delivered.
The next line contains a second error message that is a general translation for other e-mail servers.
Please direct further questions regarding this message to your e-mail administrator.
*** ATTENTION***
Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its delivery.
The AOL address that was undeliverable is listed in the section labeled:
"----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors-----".
The reason your mail is being returned to you is listed in the section labeled:
"-----Transcript of Session Follows-----".
3. The third section has the heading -----The following addresses had permanent fatal errors----.
Here you will find the AOL address(es) that had mail delivery problems.
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
9988MQZ@aol.com
4. The fourth section is the most important in terms of determining why your e-mail could not be delivered because it contains the specific error assigned to the delivery problem it experienced.
The section heading is ----- Transcript of session follows ----- and its contents will look something like this:
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to air18.mail.aol.com.: >>> RCPTTo:<9988MQZ@aol.com> <<<
550 Mailbox not found 550 <9988MQZ@aol.com>... User unknown
The line beginning with"<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could not be delivered. The next line contains a second error message which is a general translation for other e-mail servers. Each AOL address that could not be delivered will be listed in the Transcript of Session with an error code. For a list of some of the more common error codes keep reading....
5. The last section heading is ----- Original message follows -----
This contains your original e-mail that we are returning to you as undelivered.
Some common errors with brief explanations as they pertain to our mail system:
552 Mailbox full
This error indicates that the AOL Member's mailbox is full. The AOL member will need to free up additional space before they can receive email.
552 Message exceeds maximum fixed size
This indicates that the mail sent was larger than AOL currently allows. The largest piece of e-mail that an AOL member can accept from or sent to the Internet is 16 megabytes. This includes the message text, headers and the attachment combined. These sizes can not be changed.
550 "username" Is Not Accepting Mail From This Sender This error indicates that the AOL Member has configured his account, possibly inadvertently, to only accept mail from certain addresses and/or domains on the Internet. Using Mail Controls he will have to modify those settings to receive mail from you. AOL Postmaster can not override these Member defined settings. We respect Member's privacy and their ability to control their own mail. Postmaster cannot forward the mail for you.
550 Mailbox not found
This error indicates that the AOL Member no longer exists on AOL or the address is misspelled.
550 Access denied
These errors indicate that your site has been blocked from sending e-mail to AOL. Contact your e-mail administrator for assistance.
550 Sender domain not found in DNS
These errors indicate that there are DNS resolution problems somewhere between your domain and AOL. This usually means that AOL is unable to resolve your domain name in DNS before accepting that mail for delivery.
550 Requested action not taken: DNS FAILURE
These errors indicate that there are DNS resolution problems somewhere between your domain and AOL. This usually means that AOL is unable to resolve your domain name in DNS before accepting that mail for delivery. Contact your e-mail administrator for assistance. The network administrator for the site may have to modify their resource records in DNS.
550 Service unavailable or SMTP error from remote mailer after initial connection
The information presently available to AOL indicates this server is being used to transmit unsolicited e-mail to AOL. Based on AOL's Unsolicited Bulk E-mail policy at http://www.aol.com/info/bulkemail.html AOL cannot accept further e-mail transactions from this server or domain. Please have your ISP/ASP or server admin visit http://postmaster.info.aol.com for more information.
If you are receiving the above bounce message, please check our open relay search page, and our open proxy search page to determine which of the above scenarios is causing your e-mail issue.
452 Requested action not taken:
This error indicates your mail server or ISP's mail server has insufficient disk space . Please contact your ISP or system administrator.
500 Syntax error, command unrecognized:
This may include errors such as command line too long. Please contact your ISP or system administrator to help resolve this issue.
500 Syntax error, command unrecognized:
Our DNS and MX records change often. You will receive this error message if you are statically assigning one of our IP's.
250 Requested mail action okay completed:
This is not an error. This indicates your email has been accepted
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