Almost no messages are simply lost in transit. If you haven't received a message you were expecting, there's usually another cause.

First, check with the sender to make sure that they actually sent the message and aren't having problems with their mail server. No matter what the cause, the best solution is to ask the sender to re-send the message. Also, check your mail again to see if you've received their message.

If that's not the problem, it's possible one of the following occurred:

• The message was not addressed properly.
  The sender might not have your correct email address. Or, sometimes people make typos in email addresses, but the "incorrect" address just turns out to be someone else's correct email address. If this happened, the message intended for you could have been received by someone else.
  If you're an international Yahoo! Mail user, the sender might have used the standard yahoo.com domain instead of your appropriate address (e.g., yahoo.co.uk or yahoo.fr).


• The message was delayed.
  Most messages are delivered within a few minutes, but messages can sometimes be delayed while in transit due to problems on the sender's mail server, heavy Internet traffic, or routing problems. (On rare occasions, delays can last for several hours or more.)


• The sender's address is blocked.
  The Blocked Addresses feature in Yahoo! Mail allows you to block mail from specific senders. Mail coming in from one of these senders does not bounce. Instead, it is simply discarded. Did you block this sender's address? To check your Blocked Addresses list, click Options in the upper-right corner of the page and select Mail Options. Under "Spam," click Block Addresses. You'll see a list of any addresses you've blocked.


• You've enabled mail forwarding.
  Are you a Mail Plus user? Good choice! Check to see if you set your mail to be forwarded to another email address. Click Options in the upper-right corner of the page and select Mail Options. Under "Management," click POP Access and Forwarding. If there's a dot in the box beside "Forwarding," you're forwarding messages to a different address. Click to remove the dot.


• You've set up filters.
  You might have set up filters that are causing the message to be sent to Trash or to another folder. To check, click Options in the upper-right corner of your Yahoo! Mail page and select Mail Options. Under "Management," click Filters. Are there any filters listed? If so, ensure they're not set to prevent receiving emails from this sender.

Note: Mail in your Trash folder can be deleted at any time. Check your filters to ensure that mail you want isn't going straight into trash!

• Other possibilities.
  Occasionally, interruptions or disruptions in email transmissions over the Internet will render a message undeliverable. While this is very rare, it does happen. Unfortunately, aside from waiting, there's no way to know whether a message has been delayed or whether it has been rendered undeliverable. If a sender can re-send it, have them do that.