Troubleshoot email sending in Engage

Who can use this: Any team member

Available on: Gong Engage

Ideal for: Sales rep, Sales manager

Email problems in Engage usually come down to a handful of common causes. Find your symptom below, whether it's an email with a Failed, Bounced or Pending status, an email that went to the wrong address, an auto email that turned into a manual one, or an email that isn't showing in Gong.

My email shows as Failed

Failed means Gong couldn't get the email out. Before you send it again, check whether it actually arrived, because a Failed status in Messages doesn't always mean the recipient never got it.

Note:

If the contact's activity shows the email, it may have arrived despite the status, so don't send it again.

To look into a failed email and send it again:

1. From the left sidebar, click Engagement, and select Messages.

2. Click the Failed tab, and find the email. Check the status on the row, because this tab holds bounced emails too, and a bounced email needs the next section.

3. Hover over the status label to see why it failed.

4. Check the contact's activity to see whether the email appears there.

5. If it didn't arrive, fix the cause. The usual causes are a placeholder with nothing to fill in, a disconnected email account, and your email provider rejecting the send. Learn more about causes and fixes.

6. Click the More actions icon on the row, and select Send now, or Schedule send to send it at a particular time.

My email shows as Bounced

Bounced means the email left Gong and the recipient's mail server rejected it. Sending the same email to the same address is likely to be rejected again, so fix the cause first. It's often the address.

To deal with a bounced email:

1. Hover over the contact's name anywhere in Engage, click View contact, and check the email address the email went to.

2. If the address is wrong, hover over it in the Contact details section and click the icon that appears to mark it invalid. Gong moves it to the bottom of the contact's saved addresses, so the next one is used.

3. Do one of the following:

   • Add a working address to the contact.

   • Correct the address in your CRM, and wait for the CRM sync to bring it through.

4. Send the email again to the corrected address.

Note:

A bounce isn't always the address. A mail server can reject a perfectly good address because a mailbox is full, or because it didn't like the content. If the address is definitely right, try again later before writing it off.

My email is Pending

Pending means Gong has delayed a flow email. This is normal, and no action is required. It happens for one of two reasons: normal email throttling, where Gong spaces out sends by up to about two hours, or a sending limit, where an auto email is held until 8:00 AM your local time on the next available business day. The status doesn't show which one applies, and if there's still no capacity at 8:00 AM, the email can be delayed again.

Learn more about email sending limits.

My flow email went to the wrong address

When you add a contact who has more than one email address to a flow, Gong sends the flow emails to the first address listed in the contact's panel. Change which address comes first.

To correct the address:

1. Hover over the contact's name anywhere in Engage, click View contact, and check the email addresses listed there.

2. Hover over the wrong address and click the icon that appears to mark it invalid. Gong moves it to the bottom of the list, so another address becomes first for future activity.

3. If the right address isn't there at all, add it in your CRM and wait for the CRM sync to bring it through.

To replace the address on an email Gong has already queued:

Marking an address invalid doesn't change an auto email that Gong has already queued. That email becomes a manual email.

1. Open the manual email.

2. In the To field, replace the address.

3. Click Send.

To put the contact back into the flow after an email went to the wrong address:

1. From the left sidebar, click Engagement, and select People.

2. Select the contact, and click Remove from flow.

3. Click Add to flow, choose the flow, and pick the step to start from. The first step is the default.

My auto email became a manual to-do

Auto emails convert to manual emails when they fail to send, and they appear under Flow errors.

To fix and send the email:

1. From the left sidebar, click To-dos, and open the Flow errors tab.

2. Find the email, and click Edit email.

3. Fix the cause, using the list below.

4. Click Send.

Common causes and fixes:

• Missing field placeholder: The email body contains an unresolved placeholder. Fill in the placeholder, and send the email manually.

• No email address, or an invalid one: The contact has no usable address. Add one in your CRM, wait for the CRM sync, then send the email.

• Missing reply thread: A step that replies to an earlier email can't send because there is no sent email thread to reply to. Send this one as a new thread. The original can't be recovered.

• Disconnected email account: The connection to your email provider expired or was revoked. Reconnect it, then send the emails. You have to send them one at a time, because there is no bulk retry.

• Provider rate limit reached: Your Gmail or Office 365 account hit its own sending cap. Wait for the cap to reset, then send. Learn more about email sending limits.

• The earlier email bounced: A step that replies to an email the recipient's mail server rejected has nothing to reply to. Fix the address on the contact first, as described in My email shows as Bounced.

Important:

Do not mark an auto email to-do as complete before the email has sent. Gong skips the scheduled send, records the step as completed, and creates no outbound email thread.

Note:

The flow moves on, and a later step that replies to that thread can fail, with an error such as "Couldn't send automatically: missing email thread". Gong can't recover the original auto send.

My email is not showing in Gong

If you sent an email but it isn't visible in Messages or the activity timeline, try the following steps before contacting Gong Support.

To find a missing email:

1. From the left sidebar, click Engagement, and select Messages.

2. Refresh the page. Messages doesn't update automatically.

3. Click the All tab to see emails across all statuses, including Pending and Failed.

4. If the email is still missing and you believe it was sent from your email provider, download the original email file from your provider (not a forwarded copy):

   • Gmail: Open the email, click the More actions icon, and select Download message.

   • Office 365 (web): Open the email, click the More actions icon, and select Download.

   • Outlook desktop: Right-click the email, select View source, and save the file as a .mime file.

5. Contact Gong Support and attach the file to your support ticket. Set Issue to "Product question/Issue/Error" and Category to "Emails > Missing email".

Frequently asked questions