What the status of an email letter means

Every email letter has a status. You find it in the Status column of Manage Letters, on the Email tab. Point at a status for a short explanation. Click a row to open Email Details with the recipients, the times and, when delivery did not work, the reason under Delivery problem.

The statuses at a glance

Scheduled

The letter is stored and waits. FuturePostman looks for due letters every minute and sends each one when its time has come. The Scheduled column shows the delivery time you chose.

You can delete a scheduled letter on every plan. Changing it needs a plan that includes it: Postmaster. See Edit, reschedule or delete an email letter.

A letter is counted in your month when you schedule it and is not checked again at delivery. A month that is used up later, or a change of plan, does not stop it.

Pending and Waiting to be sent

Pending is a scheduled letter whose time is less than a minute away or has just passed. A letter you send right away has no date: its Scheduled column says Immediate, and it shows Pending until the next run picks it up.

A letter that still waits some minutes after its time shows Waiting to be sent. Nothing is lost and no automatic try is used up. One of these is the reason:

• Many letters are due at the same moment. They are taken in batches, one batch a minute, and letters of plans with priority delivery go first. The plan comparison shows which plans have it
• Sending is paused on our side. Due letters wait and go out when sending resumes
• The account is blocked. See Letters of a blocked account

Sending

The letter has been taken and the notices are being mailed: one separate email to every address in To, Cc and Bcc. This status usually passes quickly. Until it does, the letter cannot be changed or deleted: its menu has no Edit, and Delete is switched off.

If sending is interrupted on our side, the letter goes back in line after 30 minutes without progress. Recipients who already got their notice are skipped, so nobody receives it twice.

Sent

The mail system accepted the notice for every recipient. The Scheduled column now shows Sent and the time. From this moment the link time you chose is running, and each recipient can open the letter with the link and the access code from their own notice. What your recipient sees describes their side.

A sent letter can no longer be changed. You can still delete it. The recipients then can no longer read it, and it stays counted in your month.

Viewed

A recipient followed the link, entered the email address and the access code, and the letter opened. Opening the notice email alone does not change the status.

• With several recipients, Viewed appears as soon as the first one has opened the letter. It does not say who, or how often
• A letter stays Viewed. It does not go back to Sent
• Only a letter that is Sent becomes Viewed. A letter that failed for some recipients keeps its status when one of the others opens it
• For a letter with files, Email Details shows the number of downloads under File Download Status

After delivery: notices and the link

Email Details of a letter that is Sent or Viewed has two tools for a recipient who has not opened the letter yet.

Send the notice again

1. 01

   Open the letter

   Click its row in Manage Letters.

2. 02

   Pick the recipient

   Under Notices every recipient is listed. Press Send the notice again next to the address.

3. 03

   Confirm

   Press Send notice in the dialog Send the notice again?.

• The recipient gets a new notice email with a new link and a new access code. The earlier notice keeps working
• The letter, its status and your monthly count do not change
• The notice goes only to an address the letter was written to. For another address, write a new letter
• The link keeps its end date. If it has expired, the notice cannot be sent again: extend the link first
• Notices of one letter can be sent again 3 times within 24 hours, counted over all its recipients. After that you read Notices of this letter were already sent again three times today. Try again tomorrow.

Extend the link

The details show Link open until, or Link expired on, with the button Extend link. It gives the link of the letter and all its files more time, also after the link has expired. The periods and the rules are in Extend the time.

Failed, Trying again and Not delivered

A try fails when the notice could not be handed over for at least one recipient. A letter can be partly delivered: recipients who were reached keep a working link and can open the letter, and only the others are tried again. While the tries go on, Email Details says how many recipients got the letter.

Right after a failed try the letter shows Failed. Within a few minutes it is put back in line and shows Trying again. When nothing more is tried on its own, it shows Not delivered.

FuturePostman tries again by itself

• Unless the address itself is the problem, a failed letter is tried again up to 5 times
• The pauses grow from a couple of minutes to a full day, so the tries together cover more than a day
• A retry has its own time. The Scheduled column keeps the time you chose. Under it a note that starts with Sending failed. gives the number of the retry and the time of the next try
• Only recipients who have not received their notice are mailed again
• A retry does not count against your monthly letters
• There is no retry when the mail system does not accept an address, when the letter has no usable address, or when every address refused the notice after it was sent. Another try cannot help then

Not delivered: the email and the reasons

At the moment a letter fails for good, you get an email with the subject "Your letter could not be delivered". It names the letter by its subject, says what happened and links to Manage Letters. It never contains the text of the letter, and it is written in English. A letter can fail years after you wrote it, so keep the email address of your account up to date.

Email Details gives one of these reasons under Delivery problem:

The address refused the email.

The notice was sent, and every address returned it afterwards. Check the addresses with Edit.

The mail server did not accept an address.

An address is misspelled, or its mail service does not exist. Correct it with Edit.

This letter has no usable email address.

Add an address with Edit.

We tried several times and the letter could not be sent.

Every automatic try was used up. The cause is often temporary, so choose Try again.

Fix a failed letter

To send the letter again exactly as it is:

1. 01

   Choose Try again

   Open the menu at the end of the row and choose Try again. The same button is in Email Details, under the reason.

2. 02

   Confirm

   The dialog Send this letter again? asks once more. The letter then goes back in the queue and is sent within a few minutes.

To correct it first:

1. 01

   Open the letter for editing

   Open the menu at the end of the row and choose Edit.

2. 02

   Correct it

   Fix the address, or pick a new time under Arrives. The save button only becomes active after you change something.

3. 03

   Save

   Press Save changes. The letter goes back in line with a fresh set of automatic tries. If its time has already passed, it is sent within a few minutes.

• Both ways work on every plan, and neither counts the letter again in your month
• Recipients who already got the letter are not mailed a second time
• If a notice already went out to some recipients, the subject and the text can no longer be changed, only the addresses and the time. This also applies when every address refused the notice afterwards
• A letter that shows Trying again can be corrected with Edit in the same way. Try again is offered once the letter shows Failed or Not delivered
• You can press Try again 5 times within 10 minutes, counted over all your letters. After that you read Too many tries in a short time. Wait a few minutes and try again.
• A failed letter that reached nobody gives its place in the monthly count back when you delete it in the month you wrote it. See What happens to your monthly count

More causes and checks are in An email letter shows Not delivered or Trying again.

Draft

A letter in the list shows Draft only when FuturePostman support has set it aside. It is not sent, and editing it does not put it back in line. Contact support to have it scheduled again, or delete it.

The draft the composer keeps in your browser is something else. It is not stored in your account and never appears in Manage Letters.

Letters of a blocked account

When FuturePostman blocks an account, its letters are held, not failed. They stay in line past their delivery time, show Waiting to be sent, and go out once the account is unblocked. No automatic try is used up while they wait.

A blocked account cannot schedule new letters. The composer says Your account cannot send letters right now. Contact support. You cannot lift the block yourself. See The account is blocked.

The file marker under the subject

A letter with files shows a paperclip and a few words under its subject. They describe the files, not the letter.

Files attached

The letter is not delivered yet. The files become available with it.

Not downloaded yet

The letter is delivered and nobody has downloaded a file.

Downloaded

At least one file has been downloaded.

Files Expired

The time to open the files has run out. You can extend the link.

The marker does not say whether a recipient has reached the download limit. The Files page shows that for each file.

• Edit, reschedule or delete an email letterWhat you can still change after an email letter is scheduled, which plan it takes, and what deleting a letter removes and gives back.
• What your recipient sees and how they open the letterThe notice email, the unlock page, reading the letter and getting its files, step by step. You can pass this page on to a recipient who is stuck.
• Fix a problem with a letter, a payment or your accountFind what you see on screen, then read what it means and what to do: failed letters, links that do not open, refused files, credits, payments and sign-in.
• In the appOpen Manage LettersSee the status of your email letters.