# What if my domain or IP is on a blocklist?

> What a blocklist listing means for cold email, how Warmerly checks for one, what a policy listing is, and how to get delisted.

Source: https://warmerly.com/docs/help/blocklisted

A blocklist (also called a blacklist or DNSBL) is a public list of domains and mail-server IP addresses that have been reported for spam. Mailbox providers and spam filters check these lists on every message. If your domain or the server your mail leaves from is listed, a lot of your email will be sent to spam or rejected outright until the listing is removed.

Warmerly checks for listings for you. If one is found, you get an alert email (unless you turned alert emails off) and the **Health** tab of the mailbox shows **Your domain is blocklisted** or **Your mail server's IP is blocklisted**, with the list names.

## Where to see it

1. Go to **Accounts** and click the mailbox.
2. Open the **Health** tab.
3. Look at the **Blocklists** row of the domain health card. Expand it to see each list and what the listing means.

For a domain check with no account, use the free [blacklist checker](https://warmerly.com/blacklist-checker).

## Which mailboxes are safe to send from right now

Every mailbox in **Accounts** carries a small pill under its status: **Safe to send**, **Send with care**, **Don't send** (with the reason, such as "server listed" or "domain listed") or **Not checked yet**. The mailbox page shows the same verdict with the reason and what you can do about it. **Not checked yet** is never a clean result: it means we have no recent blocklist check, so we cannot say. **Safe to send** means none of our checks found a listing, not a guarantee of inbox placement. You can also ask Warmi "which of my mailboxes are safe to send from right now?".

## What Warmerly checks

- **Six domain lists**: Spamhaus DBL, SURBL, URIBL, NordSpam, Spam Eating Monkey and s5h.
- **Ten IP lists**: including Spamhaus ZEN, SpamCop, Barracuda, PSBL, Mailspike, NordSpam, Spam Eating Monkey, Lashback, DroneBL and GBUdb.

Blocklists are re-checked about every six hours. **Re-check now** on the card re-reads DNS at once but may reuse a recent blocklist result.

## Which listings matter

**Domain listed.** Your sending domain was reported. This is the serious one, because it follows you across every mailbox on that domain.

**IP listed.** The mail server your mailbox submits through was reported. If you use Gmail or Microsoft 365, Warmerly does not check an IP for you, because your mail leaves from the provider's shared servers and you cannot delist those. If you use a small or self-hosted server, this is your address.

**Policy listing (for example Spamhaus PBL).** The card says "This IP range isn't meant for sending". That means the range is a home or office connection that providers do not expect to send mail directly. It is not a report that you sent spam, and you do not request delisting. If you send through an email host, ask the host about it.

**Clean on some lists, others did not answer.** Some lists refuse automated lookups sometimes. This is not a listing, and the card says how many did not answer.

**Unknown.** The check could not complete. It is not a listing. It will be retried.

## What to do when you are listed

1. **Stop cold sending from that domain** while you sort it out. Keep warmup running.
2. **Find out why.** The usual causes are a purchased or old list with many bad addresses, a sudden jump in volume from a new mailbox, a compromised mailbox, or spammy links in your copy. Check your campaign's bounce rate and your recent content.
3. **Fix the cause first.** Delisting requests for a problem that is still happening are refused or the listing comes back.
4. **Request removal** on the list's own site. The blocklist row links to the right page for each list. The main ones are:
  - Spamhaus: [check.spamhaus.org](https://check.spamhaus.org/)
  - SURBL: [surbl.org/surbl-analysis](https://surbl.org/surbl-analysis)
  - URIBL: [uribl.com/lookup.shtml](https://uribl.com/lookup.shtml)
  - SpamCop: [spamcop.net/bl.shtml](https://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml)
  - Barracuda: [barracudacentral.org/rbl/removal-request](https://www.barracudacentral.org/rbl/removal-request)
  - PSBL: [psbl.org/remove](https://psbl.org/remove)
  - Mailspike: [mailspike.org/iplookup.html](https://mailspike.org/iplookup.html)
5. **Wait, then re-check.** Some lists remove you within hours, others expire listings after days. Warmerly cannot remove a listing for you and cannot speed up a list's decision.

If the mailbox is a OneMail mailbox that Warmerly hosts for you, the mail server IP is Warmerly's rather than yours, so ask Warmi or support instead of requesting removal yourself. See [OneMail mailboxes](https://warmerly.com/docs/help/onemail-mailboxes).

## Also from Warmerly's side

If your bounce rate climbs, Warmerly slows and then pauses campaign sending on its own, which protects your domain from getting this far. See [Why did sending slow down or pause?](https://warmerly.com/docs/help/sending-slowed-or-paused).

For mailboxes Warmerly hosts, our own sending addresses are watched for blocklist listings too, and a listed address is slowed down and taken out of use. See [How our email infrastructure works](https://warmerly.com/docs/infrastructure).

## Common problems

**The card says listed but the list's own site says clean.** A listing may have just expired. Use **Re-check now** in a few hours.

**I was delisted and it came back.** The cause is still happening. Check list quality (verify addresses before you send) and volume.

**Everything says "not checked" or unknown.** The blocklists could not be queried. This is not a clean result. Try again later, or use the free checker.

## Related

- [Domain health card](https://warmerly.com/docs/help/domain-health-card)
- [Deliverability checklist before you launch](https://warmerly.com/docs/guides/deliverability-checklist)
- [Verify emails](https://warmerly.com/docs/verify) to clean a list before sending

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