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How Many Times Does LiveAgent Retry Sending a Failed Outbound Email?

This article explains the retry behavior of LiveAgent's mail outbox when an outbound email fails to be delivered on the first attempt. Understanding this process can help you diagnose delayed or permanently failed emails in your outbox.

Overview

If LiveAgent is unable to send an email on the first attempt, it will automatically retry sending it up to 19 additional times, for a total of 20 attempts. If all 20 attempts fail, the email is assigned a permanent error status and no further retries are made.

Retry Schedule

The retry attempts follow a specific schedule:

1. 1st attempt – Initial send attempt.
2. 2nd attempt – 30 minutes after the 1st attempt.
3. 3rd attempt – 30 minutes after the 2nd attempt.
4. 4th–20th attempts – Every 4 hours after the 3rd attempt (17 additional retries).

Total Duration

The entire retry process can span approximately 3 days:

• The first 2 retries happen quickly, 30 minutes apart.
• The remaining 17 retries are spaced 4 hours apart, covering roughly 68 hours (~2.8 days).

Permanent Error Status

If the email still cannot be sent after the 20th attempt, LiveAgent will stop retrying and mark the email with a permanent error status. At this point, no further automatic retries will occur.

If you encounter a permanently failed email, check the following:

• Verify your outgoing mail server (SMTP) settings are correct.
• Confirm that the recipient's email address is valid.
• Check whether your mail server or domain has any sending restrictions or blocks.
• Review any bounce or error messages associated with the failed email.

Summary Table

``` LiveAgent Outbound Email Retry Logic: Number of Attempts, Schedule, and Permanent Failure Handling