Email can occasionally present issues with message delivery, including duplicate messages, unreceived messages, and message delays. This article addresses common email issues and how to resolve them.

Check Your Email Provider Settings

If you are not receiving email notifications as expected, you may have configured inbox settings that affect message delivery. Check the following settings in your email provider.

POP3

Protocols like POP3 can lead to duplicate messages if they are configured to leave a copy on the server. POP3 can also be configured to delete or archive messages when they are accessed within another email client. If POP3 is enabled, check your configuration to see if this is causing any issues.

Syncing Across Devices and Accounts

Your email provider may have settings to configure how messages are synced across multiple devices or accounts, which can inadvertently lead to duplicate messages.

Email Filters and Folders

Overly aggressive email filters — either set by you or your email administrator — can inadvertently discard or redirect desired messages. Your email provider may also have rules that cause an email to bypass the primary inbox. If you are missing an email notification, check the following locations:

• Spam
• Trash
• Folders or labels
• Other inboxes or tabs, such as "Promotions" or "Social"

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Searching Tips

Try searching your emails for details relevant to the notification you are looking for. Refer to Email Notifications to see email notification content.

Forwarding Loops

A forwarding loop occurs when an email is forwarded to an address that forwards the message back to the original address, creating an infinite loop. Check your email provider's Settings for any forwarding configurations, as well as any Filters that are configured to forward emails.

Group Emails

If you are sending email notifications to a group list, you may receive duplicate messages if the same email address has been added multiple times as a recipient. Check your group lists for duplicate email addresses.

Auto-Delete Messages

You may have settings or rules that automatically delete messages based on content or time frames. If you are missing messages, check your email's Trash as well as any settings that can automatically delete messages.

Check With Your Company

Your company may have policies in place that affect email delivery. If you experience issues with receiving email notifications, reach out to the team that manages your email platform for assistance.

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Email Server Logs

Your email administrator may be able to review email server logs to check for any records related to the issue you are experiencing.

Blocked Emails

Some company policies can cause email delivery issues. You can ask your IT team or email administrator about the following:

• Firewall Security Rules: While essential for security, firewall rules can sometimes block incoming emails, particularly from unfamiliar senders.
• Domain Restrictions: Some email systems can be configured to only allow incoming messages from specific domains. You may need to ask your email administrator to add PagerDuty as a trusted domain.
• Anti-Virus/Spam Filters: Email messages may be delayed while anti-malware software scans the message for threats.

System Issues

Email delivery from PagerDuty to your email platform can occasionally be disrupted due to system issues. Your email administrator may be able to help you determine if a system-wide issue caused message delivery failures. Some of these scenarios are listed below.

• Overloaded Server: The email server may be busy or overloaded, or there may not be enough system resources to process incoming emails. Server outages and disruptions can also cause email delays.
• Network Issues: When there is a network connectivity issue, many email delivery protocols take a cautious approach — if the system sending the message is unsure whether the email was successfully delivered, it will re-attempt delivery. If the initial delivery attempt was successful, the second attempt will produce a duplicate message.
• Send/Receive Cycle: Some email platforms can be configured to check the email server at specific intervals. If your email platform is not set to check the email server regularly for new messages, there may be a delay in receiving incoming messages.