Your message-send has failed; now what?

Messages might fail to send for any number of reasons. If a message fails to send on the initial attempt:

• the message is moved from the Messages: Sent list to the Messages: In-Progress list and
• the message name is prepended with "Processing," as shown below.

IMPORTANT: While the failed message is labeled as "Processing," the system will automatically attempt to resend it twice. These two resend attempts occur 15 minutes and 30 minutes after the original send time. Do not resend a message during this time, as this may result in duplicates of the same message being sent.

If the message does not successfully send on the second of the retries, the "status" in the message name automatically updates from "Processing" to "SEND FAILED" in red text, as shown:

A common reason for send failures is a timeout due to a large integration-data synchronization at send time. This might cause the message to be marked as "Processing" on the In-Progress list, but the sync continues in the background.

The system will retry the send job after 15 minutes and again, if necessary, after 30 minutes to see if the sync has completed. If the synchronization has completed:

• the system should successfully schedule the message for delivery, and
• the "Processing" annotation will be removed.

Higher Logic staff assistance

• Higher Logic staff can manually retry sending failed messages after the two automated attempts.
• Prior to retrying the send, Higher Logic staff checks to make sure that a copy of the failed message has not been created and resent. If one has, Higher Logic will not proceed with the retry (of the original message) in order to avoid duplicate email messages.

Troubleshooting

In some instances, the message simultaneously shows in the In-Progress list as Processing/Send Failed and in the Scheduled list. If, after 30 minutes and the two system re-tries, the message is still showing as failed, check the following.

Sent list

• Confirm that the message is not in the Sent list after 30 minutes of original send failure.

Personalization

If you're using personalization, verify that the placeholders have been properly entered and that the message is being sent to a group.

Delivery Method options

• Sending to a frequently used group
  • Recommended: Optimized Delivery because the system sends the message over a 24-hour period based on when each contact historically opens messages.
• Sending to >50,000 contacts
  • Recommended: Distributed Delivery because the system sends the message to subsets of the main group over the selected number of hours or days, rather than to the entire group simultaneously.

After checking all the above:

1. Copy the original message and give it a slightly different name.
2. Update the message, if necessary.
3. Update the Delivery Method, if necessary.
4. Re-send the message.

If the message fails again, create a case with Higher Logic Support and be sure to include:

• the name of each message you attempted to send and
• the deadline of when the message has to be sent.

A member of our Support team will make sure your message is sent.