Doxpop - Tools for Attorneys and Public Information Researchers: June 2020

Monday, June 15, 2020

How to respond if you just received an "Electronic Service Undeliverable" message.


If you filed a document and soon thereafter, get an email that has "Electronic Service Undeliverable" in the subject line, that means there is a problem with the recipient's e-service contact or mail system. You didn't cause the problem, but you will have to resolve it for this filing. Here's how to do it:
  1. Start by contacting the intended recipient to see if they had a temporary problem with their email server. If that was the case, you can do a “Service Only” filing to retry e-service & avoid having to resort to paper.
  2. If you are a Doxpop customer, and the first suggestion didn't help, contact us right away for help determining what the problem was.
  3. The last resort is to print & mail or fax a copy… but that’s time consuming because, in addition to the time required to mail, you now have to file an amended certificate of service
SMTP Logs

When the recipient can't figure out what the problem is, you can help them by providing their IT support staff with a copy of your SMTP Log.
To access that log in Doxpop, do this:
  1. Click on the E-Filing tab and select “My Electronic Filings”
  2. Locate the affected filing, and click on the arrow to the left of the envelope number to expand details.
  3. Click on the green “Service Info” button next to the document that was undeliverable.
  4. A list of service contacts will appear. Next to the recipient that didn’t receive service, click on the green “View SMTP Log” Button.
  5. Click anywhere within the log listing and press [CTRL]-[A] then [CTRL]-[C] to select all text and copy it to your clipboard.
  6. Paste the copied text into your message to the intended recipient’s IT support staff.
Note: Should the question ever arise, this log is also proof that timely service was attempted, and was undeliverable due to a problem with the recipient’s email server.

Monday, June 1, 2020

How to respond if someone notifies you that they got an "Electronic Service Undeliverable" message when trying to e-serve you.


What to do if a filer tells you they tried to e-serve a document to you and got an "Electronic Service Undeliverable" message.

The problem is nearly always due to a problem on the recipient's system, so it is your responsibility to fix it. (When you signed up for an E-Filing account, you agreed to facilitate e-service.) There are three common problems to check. From simplest to most complex, they are:
  1. The email address in your service contact is wrong.
  2. Your email server or client is rejecting the message as spam or suspicious email.
  3. Your email service is imposing a limit on the volume of incoming messages.
If you are a Doxpop customer, just call us when this happens, and we'll help you figure it out. Solving problems is our job.


If your are not a Doxpop customer, or you just like figuring things out on your own, here's how to diagnose the problem:

Ask the filer to provide a copy of the SMTP log for the failed delivery. Their EFSP can help them locate this.
  • At first glance, an SMTP log will look like technical jargon, but it contains many clues that are easy to decipher. Scan the log looking for a phrase indicating failure or rejection of the message. Near that phrase, you'll find an error message:
  • Error messages such as "User not found" "Address not found" "No such user" all indicate the email address in your e-service contact is wrong. 
  • Error messages containing words like as "Rejected" "Spam" "Filtered" indicate that your spam filter or firewall is filtering these messages. Click here to view our previous post on fixing spam filtering problems.
  • Error messages containing words like 'Limit", "Volume", "Exceeded", "Too Many" indicate that your mail server rejected the email either because you have a total limit for the account, or there is a limit placed on the number of emails that can be received from a particular sender. You'll need to contact your IT department or email administrator to solve this problem. (Give her or him the SMTP log.)
If none of the ideas above help, just give us a call! We'll help you figure it out.