Causes and solutions of the Recipient Address Rejected error

Some of the post services can issue the message “Recipient Address Rejected. Access Denied “, others -” The recipient’s address was denied. Access denied”. It also appears in Outlook. Almost immediately or after a short time, the “Message not delivered” event is displayed. This issue is often associated with errors 541 and 551.

Reasons for the error

This failure is very common, so there is enough information about it. From the available custom reports, it was possible to identify 4 main causes of the problem:

• The email address does not exist. The most common reason.
• An anti-spam filter has been installed that blocks the receipt of messages from your mailbox.
• DBEB blocks external emails. After setting up Exclaimer Cloud with Microsoft 365 and sending mail to shared folders, DBEB may be the cause.
• DNS problem. The solution might be to clear the cache.

How to fix the Recipient Address Rejected error?

Each of the listed reasons has its own way of solving. By correcting the root cause, it will be possible to get rid of the error as well.

1) Specify the correct recipient

This should be tried first. You should check several times that the recipient’s email address is correct. The user may have deleted their mailbox. Some postal services allow you to change addresses, so there is a chance that he just moved. Of course, no one canceled the human factor, perhaps the wrong email address was just specified.

Advice! The error is especially common when trying to create a bulk email. Among all users there are those who have already moved or deleted their mailbox. One of the fixes is to create a CatchAll bulk mailbox.

If you can determine that the mailbox exists, but the Recipient Address Rejected error continues to appear, you should try other methods.

2) Extract from spam

The error is often caused by an active spam filtering system installed on the recipient’s domain. Due to some past actions in the mail, you could have been added to the spam list, which is why an error is returned.

There are 3 main reasons in total:

• The spam filter owner has already flagged such messages as spam. All emails from this sender will automatically receive this mark.
• Email has been blacklisted. Domain policy can lead to the fact that every letter from such mail will be marked as spam.
• The message was received but was split by the system and was not delivered to the correct mailbox.

The only solution in all cases is to ask to add your mail to the whitelist. To do this, you need to contact the person in another way, perhaps just from another mail.

3) Clear temporary data

There is a high probability that sending problems are observed only when connected to a specific network. In this case, you have every reason to believe that the DNS was the cause. The message “Recipient’s address has been rejected. Access error ”will be the result of protocol or data transmission problems. If we discard the failure of the network adapter (you need to check the Internet connection), then the problem is in DNS. Most often, it’s all about temporary data.

How to reset the DNS, TCP / IP cache:

1. Press the key combination Win + R and in the dialog box (should appear immediately) you need to enter cmd.
2. Click on the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Enter – this will launch the console with administrator rights.
3. If a request for confirmation of access from UAC appears, in it you need to click on the “Allow” button.
4. Enter the commands, after each pressing Enter:

ipconfig / flushdns

nbtstat -R

nbtstat -RR

netsh int reset all

netsh int ip reset

netsh winsock reset

All that remains is to close the command line and try sending the email again.

4) Configure Exchange folders

Only applicable for those trying to send email after setting up Exclaimer Cloud through Microsoft 365. Most likely problem is blocking access to DBEB directories. The system is provided in Microsoft 365 by default and automatically rejects all emails with addresses not provided in Azure Active Directory. They may even be present, but they are considered external, because they are stored in the mailbox of public folders that are not synced to Azure.

What should be done:

• reassure that all public servers are hosted locally;
• make sure there are public servers in Exchange Online;
• disable DBEB lock.

The Recipient Address Rejected error can be corrected either by changing the recipient’s address, or by making adjustments to its filtering settings for incoming letters. The exception is Exclaimer Cloud Microsoft 365, but that’s another story.