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A colleague sent the following email ... looks like Yahoo held on to it for 25 hours. The trace shows this:

Received: from [217.146.183.208] by nm25.bullet.mail.ukl.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 31 Aug 2012 16:23:22 -0000
Received: from [217.146.182.142] by tm1.bullet.mail.ukl.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Aug 2012 15:13:00 -0000

Why would Yahoo hold the email for 24 hours? Is there any precedence for this? (Oh, I should mention that I masked the sender and recipient emails ...)

Delivered-To: person@gmail.com
Received: by 10.50.28.3 with SMTP id x3csp20389igg;
        Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:23:23 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.216.241.198 with SMTP id g48mr4570224wer.164.1346430202542;
        Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:23:22 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <person@yahoo.com>
Received: from nm25-vm3.bullet.mail.ukl.yahoo.com (nm25-vm3.bullet.mail.ukl.yahoo.com. [217.146.177.79])
        by mx.google.com with SMTP id h63si6782288weo.33.2012.08.31.09.23.22;
        Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:23:22 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of person@yahoo.com designates 217.146.177.79 as permitted sender) client-ip=217.146.177.79;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of person@yahoo.com designates 217.146.177.79 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=person@yahoo.com; dkim=pass (test mode) header.i=@yahoo.com
Received: from [217.146.183.208] by nm25.bullet.mail.ukl.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 31 Aug 2012 16:23:22 -0000
Received: from [217.146.182.142] by tm1.bullet.mail.ukl.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Aug 2012 15:13:00 -0000
Received: from [127.0.0.1] by smtp115.mail.ukl.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 30 Aug 2012 15:13:00 -0000
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=yahoo.com; s=s1024; t=1346339580; bh=WLs/t/BRIwrgSM5HvD7oDxxgRmSZLUJMpZ/p43I2qUc=; h=X-Yahoo-Newman-Id:X-Yahoo-Newman-Property:X-YMail-OSG:X-Yahoo-SMTP:Received:From:Content-Type:Subject:Date:Message-Id:To:Mime-Version:X-Mailer; b=T4U3OW++47ou5rqwRVfGSQ525GpJnc0v3mpmVzycRuQebn8cKHpiyWOIQVdllrSXVmCMxU7q41myM/DiWmwazHcfcjWp0Cdo9Fq+eGkiSLF0SPdrb1q2uQIZYk8kf/8cLeTe8U1OitcBNd2WXVT01a/q5h1fGkSXPtYc53/kMIc=
X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: 463923.24657.bm@smtp115.mail.ukl.yahoo.com
X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3
X-YMail-OSG: jQhpiPcVM1mIILxdPTFOrTCgEaiJWOWgsS.MOR0n0LEj.3Y
 RGy.OF32lyXrOUQzYJ7MqqHnCgEOQKRI_gCvbYkWb8sdO_I7LZSy_eY3U62H
 RJNcRQ7e8aZKWchTLRmDucfbB_lvKhcEJLI98fJArID0E8iD.ja7shr4.rNJ
 3kDjouoacHxCd7vPzPGxUmSZUms98N3IyiPFwtIjB8Q0d4tV4IRh9Kxgmw6l
 78nenfUYlJ6hxu3nZkb1OA61.j_2EGvCrminljChX8lcncc5iq4kyIaZA_qE
 l30gGeNPfjGzKLBoxDy4WZnL1pFBUt8CpNY2cSwOmNy8d5k9WI8eMHEI2hSr
 CVlCCVRypjwH_je7nnRjxO3ZDSQ8643nIrm67HumUL4OhfPuQLLIHjcVxO8n
 TLah3KD0jzWWabuUc9zzUcBGZQT5iz44JSaCaU4HZUfQ-
X-Yahoo-SMTP: QwzBGyiswBCGVYEzHYDJSFHl
Received: from [192.168.0.112] (c88p1@178.84.141.212 with plain)
        by smtp115.mail.ukl.yahoo.com with SMTP; 30 Aug 2012 08:13:00 -0700 PDT
From: Someone 1 <person@yahoo.com>
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Apple-Mail=_058CD3C7-3DB5-4F5B-BB5D-CCFAEC60EBAE"
Subject: Orders for Accountant
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:12:59 +0200
Message-Id: <15E88BA8-0749-4C8C-8CBD-F532A32C596B@yahoo.com>
To: Someone 2 <person@gmail.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1278)
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1278)


--Apple-Mail=_058CD3C7-3DB5-4F5B-BB5D-CCFAEC60EBAE
Content-Disposition: attachment;
    filename="orders_for_accountant.xlsx"
Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet;
    x-mac-type=584C5358;
    x-mac-creator=5843454C;
    x-unix-mode=0644;
    name="orders_for_accountant.xlsx"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

UEsDBQQABgAIAAGAIQBCOz7JXAEAAJAEAAATAAgCW0NvbnRlbnRfVHlwZXNdLnhtbCCiBAIooAAC
AAAAAAAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
...
AABkb2NZcm9wcy9jb3JlLnhtbFBLAQItABQABgAIAAAAIQDtbF0CiAEAAAcDAAAQAFAAAAAAAAAA
AAAZAF4fAABkb2NQcm9Xcy9hcHAueG1sUEsFBgAAAAAKAAoAgAIAABwiAAAAAA==

--Apple-Mail=_058CD3C7-3DB5-4F5B-BB5D-CCFAEC60EBAE--
share|improve this question
This belongs to the mysterious world of SMTP servers. While your two end-points are web apps, what happens in between is beyond the ken of this site. Server Fault might be a better place to ask. – Al Everett Aug 31 '12 at 17:39
1  
@AlEverett: This isn't a good question for serverfault. The OP doesn't have access or privilege on the relevant systems to diagnose what happened so the answer has to be Ask Yahoo. – Iain Sep 1 '12 at 13:50
@Iain: That being the case, then there probably isn't a good Stack Exchange site for this question. – Al Everett Sep 1 '12 at 16:30
@AlEverett: Agreed. – Iain Sep 1 '12 at 17:48

closed as off topic by Al Everett, Sathya♦, phwd♦ Sep 11 '12 at 4:25

Questions on Web Applications Stack Exchange are expected to relate to web applications within the scope defined in the FAQ. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about closed questions here.

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

There are no guarantees with SMTP that your email will be delivered in a timely manner or even at all. The SMTP protocol does however require that you be provided with a failure notice.

the protocol requires that a server accept responsibility for either delivering a message or properly reporting the failure to do so.

Once you hand your email to the next server in the chain you have passed responsibility for it to that server. If it's delayed then only the people who have suitable access to the relevant server logs can tell you why it happened.

In this case only Yahoo can tell you why it took so long to deliver.

share|improve this answer
Then I'm grateful this doesn't happen more often. Been emailing for 20 years, and only experienced this sort of thing a few times. What a beautiful stack of cards! – neokio Sep 2 '12 at 11:43

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