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Pre-Checks

Please complete the Notification Troubleshooting Pre-Checks before proceeding with this article.

Email, a seemingly simple tool, can occasionally present issues with message delivery. This includes duplicate messages, unreceived messages, and message delays. This article addresses common email issues, and how to address 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. You can check the following settings in your email provider.

POP3

Protocols like POP3, while convenient, 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 the other email client. If POP3 is enabled, please 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 for 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, you should always check the following locations:

• Spam
• Trash
• Folders or labels
• Other inboxes or tabs (e.g., “Promotions” or “Social”)

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Searching Tips

Try searching your emails for details relevant to the notification you are looking for. You can refer to our article on 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. This creates an infinite email forwarding loop. You should 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. Please 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, consider reaching 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 the email server logs, to check if there are any records related to the email issue that you are experiencing.

Blocked Emails

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

• Firewall Security Rules: While they are essential for security, they 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 the anti-malware software scans the message for threats.

System Issues

There are times where email delivery from PagerDuty to your email platform can be disrupted due to system issues. Your email administrator may be able to help you determine if there was a system-wide issue causing message delivery failures. Some of these scenarios are listed below.

• Overloaded Server: The email server might 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, i.e., if the system sending the message is unsure whether the email was successfully delivered, it will re-attempt the delivery. If it turns out the initial delivery attempt was successful, the second attempt will produce a duplicate email message.
• Send/Receive Cycle: Some email platforms can be configured to check the email server at specific intervals (i.e., send and receive intervals). If your email platform isn't set to check the email server regularly for new messages, there may be a delay in receiving incoming messages.