“550 Invalid address” email error

When working with emails, there are times when you run into different errors and receive your email back instead of it going forward to the intended recipient. Email servers will give you what is known as bounceback information alongside the original message you attempted to deliver. This information is very useful in discovering why your email was not delivered. There can be several different types of errors.

Below we cover:

• An example bounceback message
• The “550 invalid address” error
• Other common variations of the 550 email error
• Possible solutions

Example Bounceback Message

Delivery-date: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:49:59 -0700
Received: from mailnull by biz24.inmotionhosting.com with local (Exim 4.77)
id 1TRVJP-0006jL-Qq
for [email protected]; Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:49:59 -0700
X-Failed-Recipients: [email protected]
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
From: Mail Delivery System <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:49:59 -0700 This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed: [email protected] SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO: [email protected]>:
host RemoteDomain.com [123.123.123]: 550 Requested action was not taken because this server doesn’t handle mail for that user   —— This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. —— Return-path: [email protected]>
Received: from comcast.net ([123.123.123]:63548 helo=Admin)
by biz24.inmotionhosting.com with esmtp (Exim 4.77)
(envelope-from [email protected]>)
id 1TRVJK-0006g1-VL
for [email protected]; Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:49:55 -0700
From: “Sender” [email protected]>
To: [email protected]>

In this example bounce-back, the reason the message has failed is because the server for RemoteDomains.com doesn’t handle mail for the user [email protected] so it’s unable to deliver the message for you.

What is the “550 invalid address” error?

This message is basically broken into two parts. The first part is the error number, and the second is the message. The 550 error number means that this is a permanent error, so resending it later will have the same effect. Error numbers that are in the 400’s are temporary errors and can usually be tried again at a later time.

The message itself indicates that the email address that the message was sent to does not exist. Typically, this means that the receiving server does not have an account registered to that email address. This can be from a recent change in DNS records, or the email address was deleted.

Common Variations of the 550 Email Error

• 550 No such person at this address
• 550 No such recipient here
• 550 No Such User Here
• 550 No such user – psmtp
• 550 No such user ([email protected])
• 550 permanent failure for one or more recipients
• 550 Recipient does not exist here
• 550 Recipient Rejected: No account by that name here
• 550 <[email protected]>: invalid address
• 550 <[email protected]> No such user here
• 550 [email protected]…User unknown
• 550 Rejected
• 550 relaying denied
• 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable
• 550 Requested action was not taken because this server doesn’t handle mail for that user
• 550 sorry, no mailbox here by that name (#5.1.1)
• 550 sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.7.17)
• 550 This user’s mailbox is full ([email protected]) – Try again later
• 550 Unknown user
• 550 unrouteable address
• 550 User [[email protected]] does not exist
• 550 User unknown

How do I fix bouncebacks?

If you are the one that sent the original message and received this as a bounceback, there are many reasons the email could’ve bounced. you will first want to check and ensure there is nothing misspelled in the recipient address. This is a common issue and quickly fixed by entering the correct spelling of the email address. If you have checked and are certain it is correct, you will want to contact the intended recipient via alternate means and tell them that you received this error. This error is coming from the destination server, so there is nothing you or your hosting provider as a sender can do.

If you have received a notice from someone trying to send you email that they have received this error, you will want to check a couple of things:

• Did the sender misspell your email address?
• Did you recently change mail records to point to another remote server?
• Did you recently move your domain name to our servers or to another host or point it to new nameservers?
• Does the email address actually exist or does it need to be created?

If you have gone over all the steps above and the issue is persisting, you will want to contact our Live Support team so they can troubleshoot the issue further.