# What does the Attempted status mean?

> Attempted means the receiving server temporarily refused your email. Emailit retries for about 21 hours before it gives up and marks it bounced.

This article explains the **Attempted** status, why receiving servers defer mail, and what you can do while Emailit keeps retrying.

## Symptoms

- An email shows **Attempted** in **Email API → Emails**, with the tooltip "Delivery attempted but resulted in a temporary failure".
- The **Deliveries** tab lists one or more attempts with a `4xx` reply, such as `421 4.7.0 Try again later` or `451 4.7.1 Greylisted`.
- Your webhook receives `email.attempted` events with `smtp_code`, `smtp_enhanced_code` and `smtp_response`.

## Cause

The recipient's mail server answered with a **temporary** error, or didn't answer at all. Common reasons:

- **Greylisting.** Some servers reject the first attempt from an unknown sender on purpose and accept the retry.
- **Rate limiting by the provider.** Large mailbox providers defer mail when a sender's volume jumps or its reputation is new. This is common while you [warm up](/docs/deliverability/warm-up/).
- **Temporary problems on their side**, such as maintenance, a full queue or a DNS timeout.
- **Connection errors or timeouts** reaching the recipient's server.

Emailit retries automatically, up to 7 attempts with growing gaps: 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320 and 640 minutes, about 21 hours in total. The status stays **Attempted** until one of these happens:

- An attempt succeeds and the status changes to **Delivered**.
- The server gives a permanent `5xx` refusal and the status changes to **Bounced**.
- All 7 attempts fail. The email is marked **Bounced** with `Maximum number of delivery attempts (7) has been reached`, and the address is added to your suppression list.

Some replies that look temporary, such as "mailbox full" or "account disabled", are treated as permanent because retrying won't help.

## Fix

1. **Read the reply.** Open the email and check the **Deliveries** tab. The receiving server's reply usually names the reason. Look up the code in [SMTP reply codes](/docs/dictionary/smtp-reply-codes/) and [enhanced status codes](/docs/dictionary/enhanced-status-codes/).

2. **Wait for the retries.** Most greylisting and throttling clears on the first or second retry. You don't need to resend, and resending creates a duplicate.

3. **Look for a pattern.** If many emails to one provider are **Attempted**, slow down your sending to that provider and check your authentication and [sending health](/docs/deliverability/sending-health/). Throttling is often a reputation signal.

4. **Cancel if you no longer want it sent.** Select **Cancel delivery** on the email page to stop the remaining retries. An attempt that's already in progress may still complete.

5. **After a final bounce, decide whether to resend.** Fix the cause, remove the address from [suppressions](/docs/suppressions/manage/) if it's valid, and then use **Retry** to send a new copy.

For the difference between temporary and permanent failures, see [What's the difference between a hard and a soft bounce?](/docs/kb/hard-bounce-vs-soft-bounce/).

## Still stuck?

If one provider defers all your mail for hours, [contact support](/contact/) or ask in [Discord](https://discord.emailit.com) with a few email IDs and the replies from the Deliveries tab.

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Source: https://emailit.com/docs/kb/email-status-attempted/