What is a hard bounce?
A hard bounce occurs when an email server permanently rejects your document delivery because the recipient's email address is invalid, no longer exists, or is otherwise undeliverable. When a hard bounce happens, the document cannot reach the recipient, and they will not receive access to sign or view it. GetAccept flags hard bounces in your document activity log so you can take corrective action.
Hard bounces are different from soft bounces. A soft bounce is a temporary delivery failure,for example, the recipient's inbox is full, or their email server is temporarily unavailable. Soft bounces may resolve on their own or on retry, whereas hard bounces indicate a permanent problem with the email address itself.
Common causes of hard bounces
Hard bounces typically result from one of these issues:
Typo in the email address: A misspelled domain or recipient name (e.g., "john.smith@gmial.com" instead of "gmail.com")
Recipient changed companies: The person no longer works at the company, and their email address is no longer valid
Email account closed or suspended: The email address has been deactivated or deleted by the email provider
Domain no longer exists: The company's email domain has shut down or been transferred
Email server rejection: The recipient's email server blocks incoming messages from GetAccept's infrastructure (rare, but can occur with aggressive spam filters)
The most common cause is a simple typo or outdated contact information. Always verify email addresses before sending, especially if the contact information is old or sourced from a third-party list.
Identify which recipient hard bounced
When a hard bounce occurs, GetAccept records it in the document's activity log. To find which recipient bounced:
Open the document from your Documents tab (left sidebar)
Click on the document to view its details
Navigate to the Timeline tab (or Activity tab, depending on your view)
Look for a notification entry that says "Hard bounce" or "Delivery failed" next to the recipient's email address
The entry will include the recipient's name and email, plus a timestamp of when the bounce occurred
You can also hover over or click the recipient's name in the Recipients section to see their delivery status. Bounced recipients will show a status indicator (often a red X or "Failed" label) next to their name.
Fix a hard bounce and resend
You have two options to fix a hard bounce: edit the recipient's email address in the existing document, or recall the document and create a fresh send-out.
Option 1: Edit the email address and resend (fastest)
Open the bounced document
Click the Recipients tab or panel on the right side
Find the recipient with the hard bounce
Click the edit icon (pencil) next to their name or email address
Correct the email address and confirm the change
Click Resend or Send again to deliver the document to the corrected email
The document will be resent from the same link; the recipient will receive a fresh invitation email with the correct address.
Option 2: Recall and create a new send-out
If you prefer a cleaner slate, you can recall the original document and create a new send-out:
Open the bounced document
Click the More actions menu (three dots) and select Recall
The document reverts to draft status, and all recipients lose access to the previous link
Correct the recipient's email address in the Recipients tab
Click Prepare for sending and review all details
Click Sign and send to deliver the new version
This approach is useful if you need to make other changes to the document at the same time, or if you want a completely fresh sending record for your audit trail.
Best practices to prevent hard bounces
The easiest way to handle hard bounces is to prevent them in the first place:
Verify email addresses in your CRM: Before creating a document, confirm that the recipient's email in your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc.) is current and correctly spelled
Double-check spelling: Manually review the email address for common typos (e.g., .com vs .co, or .uk misplaced)
Ask the recipient directly: If you have any doubt about whether an email address is still active, send a quick message to the contact via another channel (phone call, LinkedIn, text) to confirm
Update contact information regularly: If you know a contact has changed companies or roles, update their email in your CRM before creating a new document
Test with internal recipients first: For important or high-value documents, consider sending a test version to an internal team member to verify the workflow before sending to external recipients
What happens after a hard bounce
When a hard bounce occurs, the document remains in Sent status, but the bounced recipient cannot receive or access it. The document will not progress to Reviewed or Signed status for that recipient because they never received it in the first place.
Hard bounces block delivery entirely,there is no automatic retry or recovery. You must manually correct the email address and resend. If you do not resend to the correct address, the recipient will have no way to access the document.
Note: Hard bounces are different from soft bounces. A soft bounce may resolve on its own (e.g., if the recipient's inbox becomes available again), but a hard bounce is permanent and requires you to fix the email address.
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