# Bounced emails not being detected

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/bounced-emails-not-being-detected/293518>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Tags:** email\
**Created:** [January 30, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bounced-emails-not-being-detected/293518 "2024-01-30T18:36:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![supermathie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/supermathie/32/507518_2.png) [@supermathie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/supermathie)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bounced-emails-not-being-detected/293518/2 "2024-01-30T18:51:44Z")

</div>

Discourse uses the `reply_key` to associate bounces with sent emails. When Discourse sends mail, it uses the `reply_by_email_address` value as the SMTP envelope sender.

You need to ensure your `reply_by_email_address` includes a `{reply_key}` so your instance can associate the bounces with the correct sent mail.

For instance, here on meta it’s set to `incoming+%{reply_key}@meta.discoursemail.com` and anything set to that address gets delivered to this instance.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bounced-emails-not-being-detected/293518)._