Troubleshooting Email Deliverability Issues (FAQ)

Overview

This article addresses common email deliverability issues when sending communications from Housing.Cloud. Use this guide to troubleshoot bounced emails, delivery errors, read tracking problems, and formatting issues.

Error 550 5.7.606: Access Denied

What does this error mean?

This error is returned by Microsoft 365/Outlook mail servers and indicates that Housing.Cloud's sending IP address has been blocked by Microsoft. This is not a configuration issue on your end—it's a block at the recipient's mail server level.

How to fix it

1. Contact your IT department and request they whitelist Housing.Cloud's email domain and sending IPs

2. Share this article with your IT team: Whitelist Housing.Cloud Email IPs

3. Your IT team should add the IPs and domains to their Microsoft 365 allowed sender list

"I'm Not in CC" or Missing Recipients

What causes this?

If you've typed an email address into the CC or BCC field but the recipient didn't receive the message, you may not have actually selected the email from the dropdown.

How to fix it

1. When adding recipients to CC or BCC fields, type the email address
2. Wait for the dropdown menu to appear with the matching email
3. Click to select the email from the dropdown—don't just press Enter or Tab
4. Verify the email appears as a selected tag/chip in the field before sending

All Emails Showing as "Read" (Green Status)

What's happening?

If all your sent emails show as "read" (green status with checkmarks) immediately after sending—but you know students haven't opened them yet—your campus likely has an email security tool that scans incoming messages. These tools preload images and links as part of their scan, which triggers Housing.Cloud's tracking pixel and marks the message as "read."

Why doesn't this happen with Gmail addresses?

Gmail and other consumer email providers don't typically apply the same automated scanning behavior, so messages sent to those addresses show accurate read status.

How to fix it

Email Formatting Not Preserved

What causes this?

If recipients report that your email formatting looks different than what you created, it's likely caused by the same campus-level security tools that scan and process incoming emails. These tools can strip or modify HTML formatting as part of their security checks. Namely, they work by stripping out the <style> tag from the email, which removes many of the critical styling properties inside of the email’s HTML code.

How to fix it

1. Contact your IT department and describe the formatting issues

2. Request they investigate email security settings that might be modifying message content

3. Ask them to allowlist Housing.Cloud's domain or sending IPs to prevent content modification

4. Share this article: Whitelist Housing.Cloud Email IPs

Images Not Displaying or Appearing Distorted

What causes this?

If images in your emails aren't showing up correctly or appear stretched, pixelated, or improperly sized, this can happen for a few reasons:

• The recipient's email client is blocking images by default
• Image files are too large and not loading properly
• Campus email security tools are stripping or modifying image content

How to fix it

1. For missing images: Ask recipients to enable image display in their email client (most email providers block images by default until the user clicks "Show images")
2. For distorted images: Resize images before uploading to the email editor to ensure they display at the correct dimensions
3. For persistent issues across all recipients: Contact your IT department to check if email security tools are interfering with image delivery, and request they allowlist Housing.Cloud's domain

Template Variables Showing as Empty or Blank

What does this mean?

If you've used template variables in your email (like {{first_name}} or {{room_number}}) and some recipients see blank spaces instead of their information, it means that specific template variable is not available or not populated for that student's profile.

Why does this happen?

• The student profile is missing that specific data field
• The template variable name doesn't match an available profile field
• The data hasn't been synced from your SIS yet

How to fix it

1. Review the affected student profiles to verify the data field exists and is populated
2. Check that your template variable syntax exactly matches available profile fields
3. If using custom fields, ensure they're properly configured and synced
4. Consider adding fallback text for optional fields (e.g., "Hello {{first_name}}" instead of just "{{first_name}}")

Cannot Send to External Email Addresses

What's the issue?

If you're trying to send an email to someone who doesn't have a profile in Housing.Cloud (like a parent, external vendor, or colleague outside the residence life system), you cannot use the Communications tool to reach them.

Why is this?

Housing.Cloud's email system is designed to send communications only to profiles that exist within the platform (students, staff, and administrators with active accounts). This ensures proper tracking, compliance, and data security for your housing operations.

How to send to external contacts

Use your regular email client (Outlook, Gmail, etc.) to communicate with anyone outside of Housing.Cloud. Housing.Cloud is not intended to replace your email client—it's a specialized tool for managing communications with your housing community.

General Troubleshooting Steps

Check email status

1. Go to Admin > Communications > Sent
2. Use the filter to show emails with "Error" status (displayed in red)
3. Click on a message to view details about which recipients failed and why

Review common error messages

• Invalid recipient / Mailbox unavailable: The email address doesn't exist or is no longer active
• 550 errors: Typically indicate blocks or policy rejections at the recipient's mail server—requires IT whitelisting
• Pending status: SendGrid is processing the message due to rate limits—emails will retry automatically

Test with a small group first

Before sending to large groups, send a test message to yourself and a few colleagues with different email providers (institutional email, Gmail, Outlook, etc.) to identify deliverability issues early.

Related Articles

• Whitelist Housing.Cloud Email IPs - IP addresses and domain information for your IT department

Still Having Issues?

If you've tried these troubleshooting steps and are still experiencing problems:

1. Document the specific error messages or behaviors you're seeing
2. Take screenshots of any error messages in Admin > Communications > Sent
3. Contact Housing.Cloud support with details about your issue, including error codes, affected recipients, and what you've already tried