Overview

Do you need to resend a particular message that has been previously submitted to Mailgun? Perhaps the message failed when delivery to the recipient was first attempted due to a problem with the recipient's mailbox. Or, perhaps for some reason a recipient does not see the message in their mailbox and has requested for you to resend it.

Message resending is possible by using either the Messages API or the Logs page of the Mailgun Control Panel. However, the key prerequisite is that the message must still exist within the Mailgun's environment.

Important!
Only the roles of Support, Developer, and Administrator can resend messages, whether through the API or within the Control Panel.

However, users with the Support role can resend only to the original recipient or any of the account's authorized recipients. Meanwhile, users with the Developer and Administrator roles can resend to a different recipient (i.e. email address), as well as to the original recipient and any of the account's authorized recipients.

Determining whether the message exists

Whether you can use Mailgun to resend any particular message depends on three factors that govern how long any particular message persists within Mailgun (and thus, whether the message is available to view or resend):

• the account's plan at the time the message was submitted to Mailgun (primary factor)
• the sending domain's retention settings at the time the message was submitted to Mailgun (secondary factor)
• the elapsed time since the message was submitted to Mailgun (variable factor)

If the message has expired due to any or all of the above reasons, you must construct and submit a new message to Mailgun.

Account's plan

Your account's plan is the main factor that determines how long messages are retained on your account. 

To view the account's plan(s):

1. In the top-right corner of the Mailgun Control Panel, click your Profile Menu to expand the drop-down list of options.

2. Next, click the Plan & Billing option. Alternatively, you can use this direct link. 

3. The resulting page displays the Plans tabbed section, which lists the account's current plan(s). The bullet point for "message retention" states how many days a message can* exist on your account.
   
   Note: regarding plans that provide greater than 3 days of message retention, the retention period must be increased on a domain-by-domain basis since a domain's default retention period is 3 days.

Alternatively, you may view a plan's message retention on the Mailgun pricing page.

Which method do we recommend? The Control Panel method as it will always be reflective of and personalized to your account.

Sending domain's retention settings

Mailgun allows storage of message bodies for later retrieval (either rendered via the Control Panel or retrieved via API). The maximum number of days of available retention is set by your account's plan.

Note: increases in the retention setting are not retroactive, which means that adjusting the domain's retention period from 3 days to 7 days does not allow you to resend a message that is already 4-7 days old at the time the setting was changed. Such messages will have already expired from Mailgun's infrastructure. 

To view a domain's message retention settings:

1. First, log in to the Mailgun Control Panel (if you have not already done so).
2. Then, within the Navigation Menu on the left side of the Mailgun Control Panel, click the Domain settings option. (If needed, click the Send product first to expand the drop-down list of options; Domain settings is an option within the Sending section of the Send product). 

3. Near the top-right corner of the Mailgun Control Panel, ensure that the intended domain is selected within the Domain drop-down list before proceeding to the next step.

4. The resulting page displays the Domain settings tabbed section, which shows the domain's current message retention period (among various other settings). 
   
   Note: regarding plans that provide greater than 3 days of message retention, the retention period must be increased on a domain-by-domain basis since a domain's default retention period is 3 days.

Elapsed time

In light of the account's plan and sending domain's message retention settings, how long ago the original message was submitted to Mailgun is the final determining factor as to whether the message still exists within Mailgun.

Let's illustrate with a few examples:

• Example 1: An account subscribes to the Foundation plan, which provides up to 1 day of message retention. Attempting to retry a message sent 2 days ago will not be possible since the message has already expired.
• Example 2: An account subscribes to the Scale plan, which provides up to 7 days of message retention. However, the sending domain in question is configured for 3 days of message retention by default. Attempting to retry a message sent 4 days ago will not be possible since the message has already expired.
• Example 3: An account subscribes to the Scale plan, which provides up to 7 days of message retention. Accordingly, the sending domain in question is configured for 7 days of message retention. Attempting to retry a message sent 4 days ago will be possible since the message has not yet expired.

We will discuss in the Resending the message - Method 2: Messages API section how to determine when a message was sent.

Resending the message

Method 1: Control Panel
 

As the less technically-challenging method, ease-of-use is maximized at the expense of the automation and scalability offered by the Messages API method.

To resend a message by using the Mailgun Control Panel (as long as the message has not expired due to exceeding either your account's or domain's message retention period):

1. First, log in to the Mailgun Control Panel (if you have not already done so).
2. Then, within the Navigation Menu on the left side of the Mailgun Control Panel, click the Logs option. (If needed, click the Send product first to expand the drop-down list of options; Logs is an option within the Reporting section of the Send product).
3. Alternatively, you can use this direct link.

4. Filter the data (if needed). Once the event for the message in question is located, click the ellipsis icon to expand the drop-down list of options. Click the Resend message option.
   
   Note: if you do not see the Resend message option listed, then the message is expired due to exceeding either the account's or domain's message retention period, and thus, is not able to be resent. It could also be due to your account user's role (which must be Admin, Developer, or Support to resend a message).
    

   

5. Enter the email address of the recipient to whom you wish to resend the message. Finally, click the Resend Message button. 
   
   Note: if your user has the Support role, rather than either the Developer or Administrator role, you will not have the option to choose any recipient in this field. You will be restricted to 1) the original recipient or 2) any of the account's authorized recipients.
    

   

Method 2: Messages API

As the more technically-challenging method, automation and scalability are maximized at the expense of the ease-of-use offered by the Control Panel method.

To resend a message by using the Messages API** (as long as the message has not expired due to exceeding either your account's or domain's message retention period):

1. First, log in to the Mailgun Control Panel (if you have not already done so).
2. Then, within the left-hand navigation pane, click the Send product and then click the Reporting option to expand its list of suboptions.
3. Next, click the Logs suboption.
4. Locate in the logs the message that you wish to resend. Use the filters, sorts, and searches as needed.
   
   Note: the Timestamp column on the Logs page displays. Accepted, Delivered, and Failed events contain the storage properties. As such, you could filter by event=failed to narrow the logs results. Depending on the nature of your messages, you could also filter by subject or tag to narrow the log results. messages are the ones you want to resend. Filter by event=failed to narrow the logs results.

5. Filter the data (if needed). Once the event for the message in question is located, click the row containing the event to expose the associated event data.

6. Scroll or search within your web browser (Ctrl+F on Windows or Cmd+F on Mac) to locate the storage URL property. The storage URL property is the full and exact URL that will be used in your HTTP POST request to the Messages API.
   
   Note: if for some reason you do not, or cannot, use the storage URL property to build the Messages API request in the next step, you can alternatively use the combination of the storage region and storage key properties.

7. Using the storage property information, build the Messages API request and POST it to Mailgun. Ensure that all placeholder values (e.g. YOUR_API_KEY, YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME, etc.) and email recipients are updated prior to submitting the HTTP request.
   
   Note: provide a form parameter “to” with a string of comma separated email addresses you want to deliver the message to (depending on your user account's role). If your API key has the Support role, rather than either the Developer or Administrator role, you will be restricted to 1) the original recipient or 2) any of the account's authorized recipients. Otherwise, if your API key has the Developer or Administrator role, you choose any recipients that you wish.

cURL example using Storage URL property:

curl -s --user 'api:YOUR_API_KEY' \
{{STORAGE.URL}} \
-F to='bob@example.com, john@example.com'

cURL example using Storage Region and Storage Key properties:

curl -s --user 'api:YOUR_API_KEY' \
https://storage-{{MESSAGE_STORAGE_REGION}}.api.mailgun.net/v3/domains/YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME/messages/STORAGE_KEY \
-F to='bob@example.com, john@example.com'

** Technical note: the Logs API can be used instead of the Control Panel to obtain the storage URL. However, without implementing sophisticated programming logic to select and automate the types of messages to resend, the HTTP requests to the Logs API would need to be manually performed when needed. The HTTP JSON response received from the Logs API will need to be parsed for the relevant data (which is also available in the Logs of the Control Panel). Once that data is obtained, it then can be used in the creation of the HTTP POST to the Messages API to perform the message retry.

Need Support?

Our Support Team here at Sinch Mailgun is happy to help! Reach out to us in the Support page of your Mailgun Control Panel, and we'll be with you shortly!