Make sure your emails get delivered

If we’ve notified you that your email bounced, it means that it wasn’t delivered successfully to your email address – it ‘bounced’ back to us. There could be several reasons for this.

Below we’ll explain the different types of email bounces and how to avoid them in the future.

What is a bounced email?

Email messages are sent between mail servers. If there's an error during transmission, a delivery status notification, known as a ‘bounce message’, is returned to the sending server (in this case, that’s us) to explain why the message wasn't delivered.

There are many reasons why the email may not have been delivered. They’re usually classified as either a ‘soft’ bounce or a ‘hard’ bounce.

Soft bounce vs hard bounce

A soft bounce means the email couldn’t be delivered for temporary reasons. For example:

  • Your inbox could be full
  • The email file might be too large
  • Your server was offline when we emailed
  • You no longer use this email address, but it’s still active
  • Your anti-spam software rejected our email, as it only accepts email from previously authorised safe senders

A soft bounce generally means the email address is valid, but it still didn’t get through.

A hard bounce means the email is permanently undeliverable. For example, the address we have on file for you is incorrect, or perhaps you deleted your mailbox.

How to stop your emails bouncing

The good news is that there are simple ways to prevent emails from bouncing.

Prevent a soft bounce

If we notified you that we received a ‘soft’ bounce notification for your email address, you can:

  • Clear your inbox
    Make sure your inbox isn’t full. Your email provider (such as Outlook or Gmail) will usually notify you if this is the case with a message in your inbox. To reduce inbox size, you could delete some unwanted emails, or empty your deleted folder or sent items.
  • Add GESB to the safe senders list
    The safe senders list is a list of authorised domains and email addresses that you trust and want to receive emails from. Adding our emails to your safe senders list will allow our emails to get through, so they won’t bounce or go to your junk mail.

Find out how to add our emails to your relevant safe sender list

Adding an email address or contact to your safe senders list is also known as ‘whitelisting’. How it’s done will depend on the email provider you use. Some of the most popular servers include Outlook, Apple mail, Samsung mail and Gmail.

Microsoft Outlook

Find out how

Add GESB to the safe senders list in Microsoft Outlook for desktop or app

Apple Mail

Find out how

Mark our emails as ‘Not junk’ in Apple mail

Gmail

Find out how

Mark our emails as ‘Not spam’ in Gmail desktop or app

We’ve provided instructions for the main email providers above. If you use a different email provider, please contact them for assistance.

Prevent a hard bounce

If your email wasn’t delivered due to a hard bounce notification, you should check and update your email address with us.

It’s important to make sure your email address is correct. You can update your email address by:

  • Logging in to Member Online and selecting the person icon on the top right-hand side of your screen to go to the Personal details page
  • Contacting us online via Live Chat or submitting an online form
  • Calling us on 13 43 72 between 7.30am and 5.30pm (AWST), Monday to Friday

You can update your communication preferences at any time - but any changes you make around the end of the financial year may not take effect immediately.

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Page last updated 27 November 2025

Thank you for printing this page. Remember to come back to gesb.wa.gov.au for the latest information as our content is updated regularly. This information is correct as at 18 June 2026.