# My Emails Are Landing in Spam — UI-First Diagnostic > Spam-folder placement happens for measurable reasons. Walk the Insights page, the Sending Server config, and the Test diagnostic — three UI checks isolate the cause before anyone has to look at headers. - Canonical URL: https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/why-are-my-acellemail-emails-going-to-spam-folder - Author: Ryan Walsh, Audience & Analytics Editor - Category: Troubleshooting — Common errors, debugging, delivery issues, logs, performance - Content type: troubleshooting · Difficulty: intermediate - Tags: Acellemail - Published: 2026-07-04 · Last updated: 2026-08-15 - Reading time: 6 min - Publisher: AcelleMail Knowledge Base, https://acellesend.com/kb --- ## What to check from the dashboard Spam-folder placement isn't a single failure — it's a signal that something measurable is off about your sender setup or your audience engagement. AcelleMail's dashboard exposes the three signals receivers use to make the spam vs. inbox decision. Open a recently sent campaign and click **Insights** (or Subscribers → Engagement tab): ![Campaign Insights — per-recipient engagement signal](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/spam-folder/01-campaign-insights.png) What you're reading: - **Open rate < 5%** for a list you regularly engage → recipients aren't seeing it in their inbox at all. Spam placement likely. - **Open rate normal but click-through 0** → message rendering broken (suspicious content) or recipients are opening, scanning, and not engaging. Reputation drift. - **High open rate but high unsubscribe + complaint rate** → content mismatched to subscriber expectations. ISPs penalize this. ## Open the sending server configuration Most spam-folder cases trace back to the sending side. **Settings → Sending servers** → click your active server: ![Sending server detail — deliverability config](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/spam-folder/02-sending-server-config.png) Three things to verify here: 1. **Authentication status** — SPF / DKIM / DMARC verification chips should all be green. Red means the receiving servers can't confirm you're authorized to send for the domain. 2. **Daily quota** — if you're hitting the quota every send, sends spill over into the next day's batch. Some ISPs interpret this as bulk-spam pattern. 3. **Bounce + complaint rate** (last 24h) — if either is >5%, ISPs throttle your IP. Sustained high rates push you into spam folders. ## Run the test diagnostic Inside the sending server detail, **Test** button sends a one-off message you can inspect: ![Sending server test page — diagnostic send](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/spam-folder/03-sending-server-test.png) Send to your own address. Open the email in Gmail / Outlook / Apple Mail. - **Email arrived in Inbox?** → sending setup is OK. The spam problem is content / recipient-side (engagement, subject lines, frequency). - **Email arrived in Spam?** → sending setup is the issue. Move to operator section. - **Email didn't arrive at all** → outright blocked. IP is on a blocklist. Operator section. In Gmail, click the email → three-dot menu → **Show original**. The headers reveal: - `Authentication-Results: ... spf=pass dkim=pass dmarc=pass` (all three should pass) - `Received-SPF` and `DKIM-Signature` presence If any of the three says `fail` or is missing, that's your fix target. ## Common UI causes and the fix from the dashboard | What you see | Likely cause | What to do | |---|---|---| | Sending server: red SPF / DKIM / DMARC chip | DNS records missing or incorrect | Click *Verify* → AcelleMail walks you through the DNS records to add. Re-verify after publishing. | | Insights: open rate dropped 40% in last 3 sends | IP reputation degrading | Pause campaigns. Run **Subscribers → Email verification** on the list. Investigate recent content for unsubscribe spikes. | | Test diagnostic lands in spam, headers show "spf=fail" | SPF record doesn't include your sending IP / provider | Update SPF record at your DNS host. Add the sending vendor's SPF include (e.g. `include:amazonses.com`). | | Test diagnostic lands in spam, body has spam-trigger words | Content filtering | Re-review subject line + first paragraph. Avoid ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation, link-only content. | | Test diagnostic doesn't arrive at all | IP blocklisted | Check the sending IP at mxtoolbox.com → blocklist lookup. Request delisting per the blocklist's process. | ## Pause and isolate the bad cohort If only some recipients land in spam, segment the list: - **Subscribers → Filter by domain** → check open rates per ISP (Gmail / Outlook / Yahoo / corporate). - A 0% open rate on @gmail.com while @outlook.com is normal → your Gmail-side reputation is hurt. Investigate recent send patterns to Gmail addresses. - Pause sends to the problem segment until you've remediated content / reputation.
Advanced: SPF / DKIM / DMARC tuning for operators The three authentication standards form the deliverability foundation. All three must pass for ISPs to trust the sender. **SPF (Sender Policy Framework — RFC 7208)** A DNS TXT record listing which IPs / domains are authorized to send for your domain. Lookup: ```bash dig TXT yourdomain.com +short | grep spf # Expected: "v=spf1 include:amazonses.com -all" ``` Common gotchas: - Multiple `v=spf1` records on the same domain — SPF requires exactly ONE. Merge into one record. - `~all` (soft fail) instead of `-all` (hard fail) — `-all` is preferred for production. - Sending IP not in the record. Use `dig` to verify; add the include statement. **DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail — RFC 6376)** Cryptographic signature on every outgoing message. The public key is published in DNS at `._domainkey.yourdomain.com`. AcelleMail generates the keypair via the sending-server's *Verify domain* wizard. ```bash # Check the DKIM record exists dig TXT default._domainkey.yourdomain.com +short # Expected: "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0..." ``` Common gotchas: - DNS record published but with line breaks — receivers can't parse. Re-publish as single-line. - Selector mismatch — AcelleMail uses `._domainkey` by default; if you customized the selector during install, verify the record name matches. **DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance — RFC 7489)** Tells receivers what to do when SPF or DKIM fails: ```bash dig TXT _dmarc.yourdomain.com +short # Expected: "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:dmarc-reports@yourdomain.com" ``` Migration path (always start permissive, ramp to strict): 1. `p=none; rua=mailto:reports@yourdomain.com` — monitor; receivers send aggregate reports, no policy applied. 2. After 2-4 weeks of clean reports → `p=quarantine; pct=10` — 10% of failing mail goes to spam. 3. Ramp `pct` to 100 over 2 weeks → switch to `p=reject` only after 100% pass rate. Going straight to `p=reject` without ramping breaks ALL your mail if any auth is misconfigured. **Inspecting Authentication-Results** of a received message: ```bash # Send a test → grep the headers grep -E "Authentication-Results|Received-SPF|DKIM-Signature" /path/to/saved-email ``` Look for `dmarc=pass` AND `spf=pass` AND `dkim=pass`. Any failure → fix that side specifically before retrying. **Engagement-driven reputation** — ISPs increasingly weight subscriber engagement over pure auth. Even with green SPF/DKIM/DMARC, if your open rate is <10% over a 30-day window, Gmail / Outlook may demote you. Mitigation: aggressive list hygiene (unsubscribe inactive subscribers after 6 months), re-engagement campaigns to dormant cohorts before re-engaging them in regular sends. **Blocklist monitoring** — periodic check at mxtoolbox.com for your sending IP + sending domain. Major lists: Spamhaus SBL/XBL/CSS, SpamCop, Barracuda. Each list has its own delisting form.
## Related articles - [Decoding bounce messages](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/decoding-smtp-error-codes-and-bounce-messages) - [How to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/how-to-set-up-spf-dkim-and-dmarc-records) - [Email list hygiene — clean your list for better deliverability](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/email-list-hygiene-clean-your-list-for-better-deliverability) - [SPF record deep dive](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/spf-record-deep-dive) --- ## Related articles - [Decoding Bounce Messages — Read the Tracking Log Like a Pro](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/decoding-smtp-error-codes-and-bounce-messages): Hard bounces, soft bounces, deferred — what AcelleMail's bounce log is actually telling you, and which bounces you can ignore vs. which need action. Read the UI first, dive into the SMTP codes only when needed. - [My Automation Isn't Triggering — How to Diagnose from the UI](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/why-is-my-acellemail-automation-not-triggering): A welcome series or drip that won't fire on new subscribers. The Automations dashboard shows you whether the workflow is active, what trigger it's listening for, and which subscribers are eligible — three checks resolve most cases. - [Email Delivery Issues — UI Diagnostic Checklist](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/debugging-common-email-delivery-issues): When messages don't arrive — late, bounced, missing entirely — the AcelleMail dashboard surfaces nine signals that tell you whether the issue is sending-side or recipient-side. Walk the checklist, fix from the UI in most cases. - [My Campaign Is Stuck in "Sending" — What to Check](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/why-is-my-acellemail-campaign-stuck-in-sending-status): A campaign that still shows "Sending" hours after you hit send. Walk through the three UI signals that tell you what's actually happening — then the two-click fix that resolves it for most teams. - [BIMI with VMC — Cost, Process, and Whether It's Worth It](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/bimi-with-vmc-cost-walkthrough): VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) costs $1,500/yr per domain and takes 4-8 weeks to obtain. This guide walks the cost math, the trademark requirements, the alternative paths, and a decision framework for whether VMC is right for your sending program.