My inbox isn't sending — what to check
Step-by-step troubleshooting for when CarcMail campaigns are stuck or emails are not being delivered.
Check these four things first: campaign status, credit balance, inbox connection status, and daily limit. These account for the vast majority of “not sending” reports.
Overview
If your CarcMail campaign appears active but emails aren’t going out, there are several possible causes. This guide walks through them in order from most common to least common.
Before diving in, check the Send Logs page. If you can see recent entries (within the last few hours), sending is likely working and you may just be within normal pacing. If Send Logs shows no activity for more than 24 hours on an active campaign, work through this guide.
Quick checklist
- Campaign status shows 'Active' (not Paused, Stopped, or Completed)
- Credit balance is above 0 in the top bar
- Inbox shows 'Connected' status in Settings → Inboxes
- Daily send limit is set above 0 in campaign settings
- There are leads in the campaign with 'Pending' status (not all completed or skipped)
Step-by-step troubleshooting
Check your credit balance
Look at the top bar in CarcMail. If your credit balance shows 0, sending has automatically paused. You’ll need to upgrade your plan or wait for your billing cycle to reset.
If you recently upgraded and credits still show 0, refresh the page. If still 0, contact support.
Check campaign status
Go to Campaigns. What does the status badge show next to your campaign?
- Active — campaign should be sending normally. Move to the next step.
- Paused — campaign was manually paused or auto-paused due to high bounce rate or 0 credits. Click Resume if appropriate.
- Completed — all leads have been emailed. No more emails to send.
- Error — something went wrong. Click the campaign to see the error detail.
Check inbox connection status
Go to Settings → Inboxes. Find the inbox used by this campaign. What does the status badge show?
- Connected — inbox is working. Move to next step.
- Error — the inbox has disconnected. Click Reconnect to re-authorise (Gmail) or update credentials (SMTP).
- Reconnect required — OAuth token has expired. Click Reconnect with Google.
After reconnecting, return to the campaign and check if it resumes sending.
Check the daily send limit
Go to Campaigns → [your campaign] → Settings. Check the daily send limit. If it’s set to a very low number (like 1 or 2), sending is technically happening but very slowly.
Also confirm you haven’t already hit your daily limit today. Check Send Logs — if today’s count equals your limit, the campaign will resume tomorrow.
Check remaining leads
On the campaign detail page, look at the lead status breakdown. If all leads show “Sent,” “Bounced,” or “Skipped” — there are no more pending leads for the campaign to send to. The campaign has effectively completed.
If there are leads showing “Pending” but still not being sent, move to the next step.
Check for rate limiting from your email provider
Some email providers — especially with SMTP connections — enforce hourly or daily rate limits that are lower than your CarcMail campaign limit. If your provider’s limit is lower, CarcMail will slow down automatically to avoid errors.
Check Send Logs for any “Provider rate limit” errors. If you see them, your sending is being throttled by your email provider, not by CarcMail. Consider lowering your campaign daily limit to match what your provider allows.
How to confirm it’s fixed
- Send Logs shows new entries appearing with timestamps from the last hour
- The campaign’s “Sent” count increases when you refresh the campaign page
- No error badges visible on the campaign or inbox
Common issues and quick fixes
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| Credits at 0 | Upgrade plan or wait for billing cycle reset |
| Inbox shows Error | Reconnect the inbox in Settings → Inboxes |
| All leads already sent | Campaign is complete — add more leads or create a new campaign |
| Campaign paused auto | Check bounce rate in campaign stats; clean list before resuming |
| Daily limit already hit | Wait until tomorrow; CarcMail resets limits at midnight in your timezone |
| SMTP authentication failed | Update your app password — they expire for some providers |
If you’ve worked through all of these steps and sending is still not working, go to Send Logs, export the recent error log, and contact CarcMail support with it attached. The error log contains the specific failure reason.
Put it into practice
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