Recipient is empty in email notification

anvitha ash
Tera Contributor

‎06-03-2025 02:38 PM

Hello

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I have grouped the notifications by subject, meaning the same notification is sent to different users. The notification system is functioning correctly for all users except one.

 

For this specific user, the issue is that although their email appears correctly in the "To" column, the "Recipients" field is empty. As a result, we are receiving the following error:

"smtpsender: no recipients, email send ignored."

 

I have already verified the following:

1.Notifications are enabled in the user's preferences.

2.The primary device is set to email and is active.

3.The user account is active and not locked.

4.The user has a valid email address.

 

Despite these checks, the Recipients field remains empty for this user. I need help identifying why this is happening and how to resolve the issue.

 

Thanks in advance ☺️ 

 

 

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Maik Skoddow
Tera Patron
Tera Patron

‎06-03-2025 09:52 PM

Hi @anvitha ash 

 

as you already did a great job with some troubleshooting analysis I can only add some special ideas:

  • If there are multiple user records with the same email address (active and inactive), ServiceNow may ignore the recipient due to ambiguity or because it selects the inactive record. Ensure all user records have unique email addresses and that only the active user has the target email.

  • The notification's "Who will receive" section may have advanced conditions or recipient definitions that inadvertently exclude the user. For example, if the notification is set to send only to users in a specific group or with a certain role, and this user does not meet that criteria, they will not be included as a recipient.
  • If the notification is triggered by an event and expects a user field (like assigned_to), but that field is empty or not referencing the correct user, the recipient will be empty.
  • Any special email filter prevent sending emails to the recipient's email domain.
  • The SMTP server is blocking the email address.

I recommend using the "Preview Notification" function in the notification record to see if the user is highlighted as an invalid recipient (in red). This can help pinpoint why ServiceNow is excluding them: https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0954694 

 

Maik

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