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Bounce Decoder: 421 4.3.2

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421 4.3.2 — System Not Accepting Mail

The 421 4.3.2 soft bounce means the receiving mail server is temporarily unavailable. Learn what causes this and when to retry.

🟡
Temporary Failure (Soft Bounce)
SMTP Code
421
Enhanced Code
4.3.2
Category
System Not Accepting Mail
Frequency
Common

🔢 Enhanced Status Code Breakdown: 4.3.2

Component Value Meaning
Class 4 Persistent transient failure (temporary)
Subject 3 Mail system status
Detail 2 System Not Accepting Mail

Per RFC 3463 Enhanced Mail System Status Codes. Class (X) = severity, Subject (Y) = category, Detail (Z) = specific condition.

💬 What This Error Means

The receiving mail server is temporarily unavailable or not accepting connections. This is usually a brief outage or maintenance window.

Common Causes

  • Mail server is down for maintenance
  • Transient server overload
  • Network connectivity problem at the receiving end

How to Fix This

  • Your mail server will retry automatically — no action needed
  • If it persists beyond 12 hours, the issue is likely on the recipient side

📋 Real-World Example Messages

These are real bounce message formats you might receive. Paste yours into the Bounce Decoder for instant analysis.

421 4.3.2 Service temporarily unavailable
421 4.3.2 All server ports are busy

📚 Official Documentation

RFC 5321 — SMTP
🔍

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