If you aren’t getting email from Voice for Liberty

Troubleshoot why you aren’t getting email from Voice for Liberty or other senders.

From time to time people ask me if I’m still sending email newsletters from the Voice for Liberty. The answer is yes, I am. But some people tell me they aren’t receiving them, even though I have verified that the emails are, indeed, being sent. So if you aren’t receiving your email from the Voice for Liberty or other senders, here are some troubleshooting steps. (I usually send Friday morning, but sometimes also on other days.)

Spam. Just what is it?

Most email programs or systems filter spam, that is, unwanted email, so it doesn’t reach your inbox. But there is not a clear definition as to what is spam, and spammers are continually innovating in order to bypass spam detection methodologies, just so you won’t overlook that Nigerian prince who wants to send you ten million dollars. So sometimes email that you want to receive is mistakenly marked as spam, and you may not see it. (Amazingly, sometimes Gmail — a service provided by Google — marks email sent from Google as spam.)

Most systems have a spam or junk folder — or something similar — where spammy messages are placed. If you view that folder, you may find that email from Voice for Liberty, along with other desirable email, is there. If so, you can usually whitelist that email. That’s telling your email system that this email is not spam, and that future email from the sender should not be treated as spam.

How to do this varies among email systems. In Gmail there’s a “Not spam” button. Other systems have a “Safe senders” list. Sometimes your contact list serves as the whitelist, so you need to add a sender to your contacts. (The email address Voice for Liberty emails are sent from is [email protected].) This helpful article from Constant Contact, the company I use to send the email newsletter, provides specific instructions for many email systems.

Gmail categories, or tabs

A few years ago Gmail added a feature that automatically sorts email into categories or tabs like Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums. An article on LifeHacker titled Everything You Need to Know About Gmail’s New, Super-Confusing Layout explains.

The problem may be that emails you want to receive are being sorted into a tab that you’re not paying attention to. If so, there are several things you can do.

• On a desktop browser, you can drag an email to a different tab, like Primary.
• Or, you can pay more attention to the tabs other than Primary.
• Or — and a lot of people do this — you can switch off the categorized and tabbed feature. This article from Google shows how to do that.

Did you unsubscribe, perhaps accidentally?

It may be that sometime in the past you unsubscribed to emails from the Voice for Liberty, perhaps accidentally. If so, please be aware that I am not able to restore your subscription. (Constant Contact, my service provider, prohibits this in order to reduce spam.) If you think this is the case, here’s what you can do.

• Click on this link and subscribe. You should receive a confirming email.
• Or, send an email to me, and I can re-send your confirming email.

Has your email address changed?

If your email address has changed, click on this link and subscribe with the new address.

If you’ve having other problems, send me an email, and I’ll try to help. If I receive your email, that is.