Resolve Alert Delivery Failures

Advocacy alert recipients who have a high rate of delivery failures display a warning next to their name in the Select Targets page. When a target has deliverability issues, the target might not receive action alerts.

Delivery warnings display as part of Luminate's Advanced Targeting feature, as described in this video:

Many issues can cause alert deliveries to fail. For example, an alert delivery can fail if:

Required information was not included in the alert
The representative changed their form and the autofill no longer matches
The targeted recipient’s server is down or overloaded
The sender is not from the legislator’s district
The sender did not pass a CAPTCHA challenge

Blackbaud monitors failures daily to resolve errors as they occur. However, if you would like to investigate delivery failures for your alert, follow the troubleshooting information below to determine the best course of action.

To troubleshoot and take action on failed messages

Go to Data Management > Reports > Reports Classic > Advocacy Reports and run the Alert Delivery Failure report.
Check the Failure Code column for error messages about the alert deliveries.
Review the errors in the Email and Webform Errors table or Fax Errors list to understand the issue.
Follow the recommended action.
(Optional) If Fax is enabled for your site, roll over failed email or webform alert submissions to fax submission.
(Optional) Print out alert responses by following the instructions To download letters associated with an Action Alert, and then postal mail or hand deliver the responses to the target.

Email and Webform Errors

The following table lists some of the errors you may encounter with email or webform delivery failures, why it occurred, and what to do next.

Who can resolve	Errors	Cause	What to do
Errors that Site Administrators can usually resolve without help from Blackbaud	"clickAndWait"	The submission timed out. Either bad data was entered or the processing server was busy or overloaded. This can also happen if there was a change in the webform so that the button the Luminate Online servers are looking for is no longer on the page.	Retry your delivery. Wait a couple of hours, then run the report again to check failures. In these cases, retrying delivery has a good chance of success. If unsuccessful, contact Support.
	"open (/some subdirectory/)"	The webform processor timed out after trying to load the initial web page.
	"Premature EOF encountered"	The connection between the sending server and the target server was broken.
	"waitForTextPresent"	This is usually due to a timeout on a targeted recipient's server.
Errors that Blackbaud can resolve in most cases	"ERROR: Element [id or name of some form component] not found"	The second page of a multipage form was not found. Usually this indicates a 5+4 zip code validation failed, or server processing of the submitted data failed. This can also occur when a webform has a two step process, where the constituent puts in a zip code. The zip code provided might not be in the district of the representative. It can also mean that the target's form has changed and needs to be retrained, if possible.	First, verify that the zip code, if required, was correct. Retry your delivery. Wait a couple of hours, then check the failures again. If unsuccessful, contact Support.
	"select (name=some name here) - ERROR: Option with label not found"	The webform processor tried to select an item that does not exist from a dropdown list. For example, selecting Ontario from a list of U.S. States.
	"The (INITIAL) WebPage does not match the response"	This usually means that either the URL to the webform changed, the form was taken down, or identifiers in the form were changed (for example, “Email Me” was changed to “Send Me An Email”). It can also mean that the target's website has a temporary error page due to high traffic on their site.
	"Unable to find any of the WebPages that follow Page 1"	Either some text changed in the representative's webform, such as changing the wording from "Message" to "Comments", or a zip code was not correct.
	"Unable to locate a configured form on the response page"	This usually occurs with multi-page contact forms that require multiple form submissions (for example, the first form asks for a zip code and the second form asks for contact information if the zip code validates). The webform processor cannot find the expected fields. (For example, one of the input tags could have changed from "first_name" to "FirstName.") This can be a permanent problem if the webform has changed. It can be a temporary problem if the page is temporarily having difficulties loading the webpage or if the form was submitted incorrectly, such as with an invalid zip code.
Errors that Blackbaud can sometimes help with	"Internal Server Error; status code = 404"	The URL for the webform has changed or the webform was taken down from the representative's site.	Contact Support. In these cases, retrying delivery will most likely not be successful.
	"Bad email address" "No email address"	Either the targeted recipient's email address is not available, or the email that Luminate Online has on file is not working. This is similar to when you cannot email a constituent because their email address is "hard bounced."
	"MapDataSourceToInputText REQUIRED data source not found / blank"	Either a required field on the elected official's form was blank in the action alert form, or an input field’s name has changed on the representative’s webform.
	"MapDataSourceToSelect matching WebOption match not found"	The webform processor tried to select an element that no longer exists from a dropdown list.
	MapDefaultToSelect matching WebOption not found	The form was found but did not entirely match the trained form. The target has slightly changed their form.
	"no webform found for webform_id <id>"	The target's webform was not found.
	"null"	The webform was not correctly trained to match the targeted recipients webform.
Errors that Blackbaud cannot resolve	"Internal Server Error; status code = 500"	The webform is broken on the representative's site.	Contact the targeted representative to alert them about the broken website.
	"Name in certificate does not match host name"	On the representative's site, either the server's security certificate was not considered legal (because it had expired or because of unknown critical extensions, for example) or, more likely, the issuer is not trusted. This can happen when a host name in the certificate is used that is different than the one using the certificate.	Contact the targeted representative to alert them about their expired certificate.
	"recipient is not current"	The targeted recipient is not a current representative.	Choose a current representative for your action alert and resend.
	"Unable to automate the processing of recipient webform" "Unable to deliver due to limitations with our webform delivery tool"	Blackbaud has marked the recipient's form as "broken." The recipient's web form might not accept autofills. These show as "UNTRAINABLE" in the legislative contactability index. If the target releases a new webform that is trainable, the target will become contactable again.	Contact Support if you have a question about a broken webform.
	"Zip code cannot be found in this site's list of known zip codes"	The zip code provided by the constituent cannot be found on the elected official's site in the list of known zip codes.	Alerts sent with an incorrect zip code are never accepted by the targeted recipient.
	"Zip code not specific enough for this site. ZIP+4 needed"	The elected official's webform requires ZIP+4, and we were unable to correct the constituent's address to automatically include the full ZIP+4.
	"Zip code outside of rep's district according to this site"	The zip code provided is either invalid or does not map to any existing district according to the district mapping data.

Fax Errors

Tip: Fax errors below marked with an asterisk always fail. Do not retry the alert.

Busy or invalid number
Connection dropped
Deliver partial fax, recipient’s fax machine stopped receiving
Destination fax machine could not receive Fine resolution images
Disconnected due to Error Correcting Mode error
Disconnected while in progress
Error Correcting Mode error
Fax cancelled
Fax did not get sent out. Fax server error
Fax interrupted
Fax server board encountered error
File corrupted
Invalid fax number*
Invalid number*
Line busy
Network pickup or voice pickup*
No answer or voice answer*
No dial or fax tone*
No signal from fax line
Out of paper
Possibly line noise
Receiving fax machine improperly configured
Ring no answer or voice answer*
Unable to retrieve file or file missing
Unknown country code*
Voice answer*
Voice recording*