Fix email delivery and invitation problems

Fix email delivery and invitation problems

You sent invitations to participants but they say they never received the email, or the invitation link is not working. Here are the most common causes and how to fix them.

Possible causes

1. The email landed in spam or junk

Automated emails from platforms are sometimes caught by spam filters, especially for recipients using corporate email accounts with strict filtering rules.

How to fix it:

  1. Ask the participant to check their Spam, Junk, or Promotions folder.
  2. Have them search their entire mailbox for “upcoach” to catch emails that may have been auto-filtered.
  3. If they find the email in spam, they should mark it as “Not spam” so future emails arrive in their inbox.
  4. For organizations using custom domains, proper DNS configuration (SPF, DKIM) helps with email deliverability. See Set up a custom domain for details.

Invitations expire 30 days after they are sent. Someone who opens an expired link sees This invitation has expired, with a note to ask the person who invited them to resend it.

How to fix it:

  1. Open Admin Area > Users and find the person. The Invite Status filter’s Pending option lists invitations not yet accepted, including expired ones.
  2. If Resend Invitation shows in the row’s three-dot menu, the invitation is still valid: resend it, and the person gets a new email with a new link, valid for another 30 days.
  3. If Resend Invitation doesn’t show, the invitation has expired. Send a new one with Invite.

A pending user's three-dot menu in Admin Area > Users, with Resend Invitation

Already joined?

If someone opens an invitation link after they’ve already joined, they see You’ve already joined with a Sign in button, so they can sign in instead.

3. The email address was entered incorrectly

A typo in the email address means the invitation goes to the wrong place. upcoach sends invitations to exactly the address you provide.

How to fix it:

  1. Open Admin Area > Users and check the participant’s email address.
  2. If there is a typo, you will need to send a new invitation to the correct address.
  3. When inviting participants, you can invite up to 20 people at a time. Double-check addresses before sending, especially when copying and pasting from a list.

An address that is missing its domain ending, such as name@school instead of [email protected], can’t receive email, so emails to that person don’t arrive until the address is corrected.

4. The participant already has an account

If someone already has an upcoach account with that email address, the invitation process works differently. They are added directly to your organization and programs. Instead of a “create your account” flow, they receive an email to accept the invitation and join.

How to fix it:

  1. Ask the participant to check for an email about joining your organization (not a “create account” email).
  2. If they already have an account, they can log in at your organization’s URL and should see the programs you assigned them to.
  3. You can verify their status in Admin Area > Users — if they appear in the member list, they have already been added to your organization.

5. Email deliverability with a custom domain

If you use a custom domain for your organization, email deliverability depends on proper DNS setup. Missing or misconfigured SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records can cause emails from your domain to be rejected or filtered by recipient mail servers.

How to fix it:

  1. Check your custom domain configuration in Admin Area > Brand & Settings.
  2. Verify that all required DNS records are in place.
  3. If you recently set up a custom domain, allow 24-48 hours for DNS changes to fully propagate.

See Set up a custom domain for DNS configuration details.

6. Emails arrive a little later in a large workspace

When many emails go out at the same moment, such as notification summaries for hundreds of members, upcoach sends them one after another at a steady pace rather than all at once. In a workspace with a few hundred members, the last email arrives within about a minute of the first.

How to fix it: nothing to do. Wait a minute or two before checking again.

Still not working?

If the participant still has not received their invitation after checking all of the above, contact support with:

  • The participant’s email address
  • When the invitation was sent
  • Whether the issue affects one person or multiple invitees