Microsoft has deprecated functionality that Penelope used to rely on, so most email/external communications issues can be resolved by switching to Centralized Email Sending (aka SendGrid!).
These instructions are for agencies sending email from Penelope using Office 365 email servers. They are to be used when needing to unblock a sending email account when using external messaging features in Penelope.
Description of Issue #1
Depending on the structure of some of the messages sent from Penelope, sometimes the receiving email server (eg Hotmail, Gmail, Corporate email etc) will mark the message as spam.
If this occurs in high enough volume, Office 365 (for the sending account) has a security process that marks the account itself as being used to send spam. The sending account is then blocked by Office365 from being used to send outgoing mail.
Step-by-Step Guide
Pre-requisite: Admin level account credentials for Office365.
You will see a warning at the end of this process indicating that it can take up to an hour to clear the issue for that account.
Important Information
This is something that needs to be done periodically as the account can be put back into the state/error above recurrently.
Steps Involved to Fix the Issue
Log in to Office 365 admin with an account with Admin setting/Access.
Click on the square to display the list of apps.
Click on All apps.
Click on Security.
Click on Threat Management.
Click on Review.
Click on the Restricted Users box to go to the list of users currently restricted from sending emails.
Click on the unblock link next to the account you wish to unblock.
Steps Involved to See the List of Incidents of Spam
Log in to Office 365 admin with an account with Admin setting/Access.
Click on the square to display the list of apps.
Click on All apps.
Click on Security.
Click on Reports.
Click on Dashboards.
Select Spam detections report.
Click on View details table.
To see a larger date range, click on Filter and adjust the date range. This can be particularly useful if there is an influx of messages send out during certain periods of time.
Description of Issue #2
Pre-requisite: Admin level account credentials for Office365.
A recipient’s email server may block any email coming from a certain sender as spam. To prevent this it requires a change to be made both at the server level and at the individual recipient’s account level.
Important Information
The instructions below are for Office 365 servers only. Different steps would be needed for other email servers. The steps provide instructions on how to set the sender email as a safe sender for all accounts on the server.
Steps Involved to Fix the Server Level Issue
Log in to Office 365 admin with an account with Admin setting/Access.
Click on the square to display the list of apps.
Click on All apps.
Click on Security.
Click on Policy.
Click on Anti-Spam.
Expand on Allow lists.
Click on Edit next to Allow sender.
Add the email address of the sending account (e.g. info@customername.com).
Click Save.