How to Know if an Email Has Been Sent Successfully

News flash! Simply hitting “Send” doesn’t guarantee your email is delivered successfully. The last thing you want is the embarrassment of realizing your client, subscriber, or potential partner not receiving a long-awaited email. It could potentially hurt your professional image. So, it’s good practice to always check and confirm your email (especially an important one) was actually sent.

But here’s the head-scratcher – how do you know your email was sent successfully?

In this guide, we’ll walk you through whether it is possible to confirm an email delivery status and tips to increase the chances of successful delivery. No more second-guessing your email delivery!

How do you check if an email has been sent or not?

Normally, after you click on send on an email message, mail servers will inform you if an email was sent through a small pop-up notification box. Depending on the mail server and whether you’re using a browser or an application, you will see the notification at the bottom left or right. However, the notification disappears after a few seconds, so you may miss it.

If that’s the case then check your sent folder. On Gmail, you can find the sent folder on the left side menu. If the email is under sent mail then it’s a good indication that your mail server delivered the email. If the email is not in the sent folder but is under “Outbox” that’s a sign that the email hasn’t yet been delivered. You can try sending it again if that’s the case.

It’s also worth noting that if you didn’t receive a non-delivery report or a bounce error message, it’s highly likely that your email has been successfully sent. According to a product expert on Google’s support forum, if Gmail doesn’t send you a bounce-back error message within 48 hours of sending, then Gmail did correctly hand over your mail. The problem could then be with the other party and their mail server.

You can also check the delivery status using delivery, return, or read receipts, but this only works for emails you have yet to send.

A delivery or return receipt is a message a mail server sends you to confirm the email was delivered to the recipient’s mailbox. A read receipt is a message sent to inform you the recipient opened your email.

This option, however, is not available for all mail servers like Yahoo Mail, for example. On the other hand, Gmail offers a read receipt option while Outlook offers both read and delivery receipts. You can request these receipts through the following steps:

Gmail Read Receipt Request

1. Open Gmail
2. Compose your email
3. At the bottom right of your composed email, click on More Options (three-doted icon)
4. From the drop-down menu select Request Read Receipt
5. Click Send

Note: This option isn’t available for personal Gmail accounts (@gmail.com), only for work and school accounts. The recipient may also have to approve your request first before you can get the receipt. For more information about how Gmail receipts work, check here.

Outlook Delivery and Read Receipts Request

1. Compose a message
2. From the open message click on Options or More Options
3. Under the Tracking group, check the box next to Request a Delivery Receipt or Request a Read Receipt

Note: You will only receive a receipt if the recipient agrees to send one or if their email program supports such receipts. For more information about Outlook’s receipts, check here.

Another way of checking your email delivery status is by using a third-party tool. These tools can help make email tracking easier especially if you’re working with large volumes or want to keep a record of previous emails as well. For example, by using a trusted email deliverability tool like Inboxally, you can track your emails to know exactly where they have landed for the last 30 days.

Stay Ahead with Real-Time Tracking from InboxAlly! Track the progress of your email campaigns as they happen and see where your emails have landed over the past 30 days. Don’t let your emails get lost in spam—use InboxAlly for proactive and informed email marketing.

Can an Email Be Sent but Not Received?

Yes, it is possible for a recipient not to receive an email even if it clearly shows it was delivered from your end. Usually, the receiving mail server takes your email through several checks and filters before deciding what to do with it.

So, it’s likely that the server delivered the email to your recipient’s spam folder instead of their inbox. There are several other possibilities like your recipient’s inbox being full or network disruptions.

To learn more about how this happens and how you can fix it, read our detailed guide on “Email Sent But Not Received By Recipient – What is Causing This and How to Fix?”

Tips To Ensure Your Emails Are Successfully Sent and Received

Although the problem may not always be from your end, it’s still advisable to do everything you can to improve your email delivery rate. The following are a few tips to help you improve your email delivery and ensure your emails are delivered to your recipients’ inboxes:

• Check the email address before sending – All it takes is a small typo to prevent your email from going through. So before hitting send make sure the email address is correct and valid.
• Have a good sender reputation – If mail servers can trust your email source, it will reduce any delays, email quarantine, or other email delivery issues you might experience.
• Authenticate your email – correctly setting up your SPF, DMARC, and DKIM is another way to improve the trust between you and email servers and speed up email delivery.
• Check your email attachments – ensure your attachments are the right size, in the right format, and do not contain any malware, to avoid triggering the email server’s filters.

You can also get more insight on how to fix email delivery issues by reading our detailed article, “Email Delivery Issues – What Are the Causes and How to Fix Them”

Never Worry About Email Delivery Again!

Checking your sent mail, looking out for bounce reports, or enabling delivery or reading receipts are all great ways to check if your email was delivered. But a more permanent solution would be to invest in a good email deliverability tool like Inboxally. Not only will our advanced features keep track of all your emails, but they’ll also help you improve your inbox placement, open rates, and overall deliverability rate.

See InboxAlly in Action – Schedule a Product Demo Today! Discover how InboxAlly can revolutionize your email deliverability. Schedule a demo with our experts to see the features and benefits of our platform in real-time.