Troubleshooting: Emails Not Showing Up in Sonas

If you are not receiving emails from specific senders in Sonas, there are several common causes and steps you can take to resolve the issue.

1. Check Your Email Provider's Spam/Junk Folder

Emails that land in your spam or junk folder in your email provider (e.g., Gmail, Outlook) may not be forwarded to Sonas. Log into your email account (e.g., Outlook, Gmail) and check if the missing emails are in your spam folder. If they are, mark them as "Not Spam" so future emails from that sender are forwarded correctly to Sonas.

2. Emails Going to Spam in Gmail

If you use Gmail and notice that emails — especially replies from existing contacts — are being flagged as spam, try the following:

• Ensure your emails are authenticated: Make sure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly set up for your business domain. If you don't know what this means, ask your IT support. See this article (steps 4 and 5) for guidance.
• Avoid "spammy" content: Check your email templates for excessive images, links, all caps, or trigger words that might look like marketing spam.
• Create a "Never Spam" filter in Gmail:

1. Go to Settings (gear icon) > See all settings.
2. Go to Filters and Blocked Addresses.
3. Click Create a new filter.
4. In the Subject or From field, enter a common keyword, phrase, or sender address.
5. Click Create filter and check Never send it to Spam.

3. Verify Your Email Forwarding Rules

Sonas receives emails via forwarding rules set up with your email or DNS provider. If emails from a specific sender are not arriving in Sonas:

• Confirm that the forwarding rule from your email address (e.g., enquiries@yourvenue.com) to your Sonas inbound address (e.g., venueinitials@xxxxxx.sonas.email) is still active.
• You can view your Sonas inbound email addresses under Company > Email Domains.
• If your email account was recently compromised or reset, the forwarding rule may have been removed or disabled. Ask your IT team to verify and re-enable it.

For full details on setting up incoming email, see How to set up Default Sonas Email.

4. Update Your DMARC Settings for Better Deliverability

To help ensure your outgoing emails reach your customers' inboxes (and don't end up in their spam), update your DMARC settings. See this guide and complete steps 4 and 5. You may need your IT contact to assist — they may have already done this as part of initial setup.

5. Alternative: Use a Subdomain to Bypass Gmail

If spam filtering in Gmail continues to be a problem, you can set up a subdomain for your email so that all email goes directly into Sonas, bypassing Gmail entirely. For example, your address would become something like events@events.yourvenue.com. Contact support if you'd like to set this up. Note that non-customer emails received this way would need to be handled separately in Gmail.

6. Check the Email Delivery Report

If you're unsure whether an email was successfully sent or received, you can check the delivery status within Sonas:

1. Navigate to the event's Messages > Sent folder.
2. Click on the sent message.
3. Click on the Delivered status at the bottom of the email to view a detailed delivery report, which shows whether the email was delivered and to which recipients.

For more on message status icons, see How to Understand Message Status Icons.

7. Blocking Spam or Unwanted Emails

You cannot block email senders directly within Sonas — you can only delete unwanted emails from your Sonas inbox. To prevent spam or unwanted emails from being forwarded into Sonas, you need to block the sender in Outlook (or your email provider). Once blocked in Outlook, those emails will no longer be forwarded to Sonas.

Still Having Issues?

If you've tried the above steps and are still not receiving emails, reach out to the Sonas support team for further assistance.

Updated on: 24/04/2026