Suppressions: why an address can't be re-added
The record of who must not be emailed: what puts an address on it, which entries you can remove, and why re-importing never works.
Your suppression list is the record of addresses this account will never email, and why. It’s what makes an opt-out permanent: an address on it is skipped on every send, and re-importing it, re-adding it by hand or signing it up again won’t change that. Find it at Contacts → Suppressions.
If someone is missing from a send and their contact page looks fine, this is where the answer is. Type the exact address into Check an exact address and search.
What puts an address here
| Reason | Set by | Scope | Can it be lifted? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hard bounce | A permanent delivery failure: the mailbox doesn’t exist | All of EmailFig | Not by you |
| Soft bounce | Repeated temporary failures for the same person across separate sends | This account | Not by you |
| Complaint | The recipient marked an email as spam | This account | Not by you |
| Unsubscribe | The recipient used your unsubscribe link or preference centre | This account | Only by the recipient |
| Manual | You suppressed the address yourself | This account | Yes, if you created it |
The contact’s status moves in step: bounces make them cleaned, complaints and unsubscribes make them unsubscribed.
Hard bounces are suppressed across the whole platform
A permanent bounce means the mailbox doesn’t exist, and continuing to send to it damages the shared infrastructure every EmailFig account uses. So a hard bounce blocks that address for every account on EmailFig, not just yours. Rows like this are marked Platform-wide, have no Remove button, and can come from someone else’s sending, which is why an address you’ve never mailed can already be blocked.
If you’re certain a platform-wide block is wrong (a mailbox that was down and is now back), email support@emailfig.com with the address and what changed. Lifting one un-blocks it for everybody, so we review it.
There is no way for a sender to lift a bounce or complaint suppression. Not by removing the contact, not by erasing them, not by re-importing, not by asking us for the account. The only bounce suppression that ever comes off is a platform-wide one we review and remove.
Why re-importing doesn’t work
The suppression list is the one thing a re-import re-checks. When an import meets a suppressed address it creates the contact as cleaned and leaves it off your list. The same applies to signup forms: an address with a bounce or complaint suppression is silently ignored, and one carrying the recipient’s own unsubscribe is sent a confirmation email rather than resubscribed. A form post is never enough to undo an opt-out.
And it survives erasure. Erasing a contact removes their details but keeps the suppression row, because that row is the only thing left stopping the next CSV from mailing them.
Suppressing an address yourself
Type it into Manually suppress an address and click Suppress. Use this when someone asks to be removed outside your emails: a reply, a phone call, a support ticket. If a contact with that address exists, they’re unsubscribed at the same time.
Removing a suppression
Remove appears only on rows you created yourself. Rows written by a bounce, a complaint or a recipient’s own unsubscribe have no button, even where the reason reads Manual.
Removing a row stops the send-time block. It does not resubscribe the contact: they stay unsubscribed until they opt back in themselves.
Reading the page
- The browse list shows your account’s own suppressions. Platform-wide rows aren’t listed.
- The search box is an exact-address check that does cover platform-wide rows, so it answers “is this address blocked?” honestly. “Not suppressed” means not blocked for your account and not blocked platform-wide.