Runbook: notice emails not arriving

Approvers and requesters get emails from notifier through Mailcrest: a request waiting, a reminder, a decision made. A missing email never blocks access: the request is still in the approvals inbox, and since 4 August it is also in the bell. So this is SEV3 unless every email in a region stops.

1. Which account?

Since 16 October there are two Mailcrest accounts:

Client region	Account
EU	EU account
UK, US	US account

Check the client's region first (portal › Organisation settings, or ask support). Looking in the wrong account's logs is the most common waste of time since the switch-over.

2. Did we send it?

1. notifier logs in the client's region: search for the request id. Look for notice.sent with Mailcrest's message id.
2. No notice.sent: look for the event on the queue and in outbox_events in identity-service. If the event is there and unpublished, the relay is stuck: see the outbox lag alarm.
3. notice.sent present: go to Mailcrest's logs for that account and the message id. Logs are kept 30 days.

3. What Mailcrest says

Status	Meaning	What to do
delivered	it reached the recipient's mail server	ask the customer to check spam and their mail filters; send them our sending domains
bounced (hard)	the address doesn't exist	the person's email is wrong in the portal; support tells the customer
suppressed	earlier bounce or complaint	remove from the suppression list only if the customer confirms the address works; both accounts share the list
deferred	the receiving server is slow	wait; Mailcrest retries for 72 hours

4. A whole account stops

Open an OPS ticket (SEV2), post on the status page under Email notices, and check Mailcrest's status. Do not move clients between accounts to get mail out: an EU client's mail must not go through the US account (ACM-305). Notices queue and go out when the account is back.

Change history

Version	Date	Who	What
2	5 Aug 2026	Elif	In-app notices as the fallback
3	13 Oct 2026	Elif	Mailcrest keeps logs in the US (ACM-305)
4	15 Oct 2026	Elif	EU account added, not yet in use
5	16 Oct 2026	Elif	Two accounts; never move a client between them (OPS-50)