They say it was sent.
Where did the email stop?

First, know the difference: temporary inboxes and long-term aliases use different routes

If you copied a temporary address from the homepage, check the temporary inbox —messages won’t automatically reach your regular email account. The address is active for 3 hours by default; after that, both the address and its messages are deleted. The two sample messages on the homepage aren’t real delivery records, either.

You create a long-term forwarding alias after signing in with your real email address. Messages arrive at the alias, then forward to the real email address on that account, with a 30-day online archive. The steps below focus on this route. First, make sure you know what kind of address you used. If you’re unsure about the terminology, see the alias glossary.

Map the two steps to pinpoint where delivery stopped

First, ask: did the website’s email reach the alias and create a searchable record? Then ask: what happened to that message, and where did your real inbox put it? A “sent” notice alone can’t connect the two steps.

Looking for how to set up automatic email forwarding? With Letterfwd, sign in using your real email, create an alias, then enter that alias on the website. Messages go to the real email address on your Letterfwd account—not the temporary inbox on the homepage. You don’t need to set up a forwarding rule for a temporary address.

Check the full address before drawing conclusions from “sent”

Go back to the website’s account settings or the page where you made the request. Compare every character in the part before the @ and the @letterfwd.com suffix. Look for an old address filled in automatically, missing characters, or changes that weren’t saved. If the page masks part of the address, you can’t use it to confirm the full recipient.

“Sent” may only mean the website accepted your action. It doesn’t prove delivery was completed or that Letterfwd received the message. Note the request time, including the time zone. If the website doesn’t show the full address, confirm what was saved before switching to another address and creating a second, harder-to-trace delivery path.

Check the alias status—and make sure you’re in the right account

Go to long-term forwarding management, confirm which email address you’re signed in with, then look for the alias. If you use multiple email accounts, you may have signed in with a different one and mistake an empty list for a missing alias.

• Paused: Messages received while an alias is paused are discarded, not forwarded. Resuming it won’t resend messages from that period.
• Deleted: Don’t keep using it as an active address. Update the address on the website first, then make a new request.
• Active: Note its current status and when you checked. Then look in the archive; don’t keep toggling it to test.

Don’t close the whole address just because this message didn’t arrive. It may still be linked to orders or account recovery. An address dependency list can help you check what else uses it first.

If the archive has a match: make sure it’s the message you need

In the 30-day online archive, broaden the status filter first, then search by time range. Compare the subject, sender address, time, and recipient alias—don’t rely on the word “verification code” alone. A service may send notifications from a separate domain, and an older message with a similar subject could be from a different request.

A matching record means a corresponding message reached the alias; it doesn’t prove the verification code is the latest one or still valid. If the status says “Forwarded,” check your real inbox next. If it shows blocked, failed, or another status, investigate that record. A message blocked while the alias was paused can’t necessarily be recovered and forwarded later.

If the archive has no match: that doesn’t prove the sender didn’t send it

First, make sure you’re checking the right account, alias, status filters, and time range. The archive keeps messages for 30 days, so you can’t use today’s list to check older messages. Also account for the time zones used by the website and by your archive view.

Even after ruling these out, a missing record can have several causes: the address was entered incorrectly, the website hasn’t completed delivery, the message was rejected along the way, or the sender doesn’t accept this type of address. An empty list alone can’t tell you which—and it’s not enough to invent an SMTP failure reason. Keep the evidence and ask the sender to confirm the recipient address and send time. Letterfwd can’t guarantee that every website accepts temporary email addresses or forwarding aliases.

Archive shows the message, but it’s not in your real inbox: check categories, spam, and rules

Confirm that you’re checking the real email address used for this request. Search by sender, subject keywords, and time range. Then check spam, archive, promotions or notifications, and deleted mail. If your phone only shows one category, compare your results with your email provider’s website.

Next, check for rules that automatically archive, delete, move, or forward messages again, along with any storage or receiving-limit warnings. Work email may also have an administrator quarantine. Don’t turn off all your protections to test delivery. “Found, but no notification” and “can’t find it at all” are different outcomes; describe them separately when contacting support.

Repeated code requests can make it hard to match each request to the right email

Repeatedly requesting a new code can generate several similar emails. Some websites invalidate older codes, so a delayed message may no longer work. Treat delivery and code validation as separate issues: receiving an email with an invalid code doesn’t mean forwarding failed.

1. Keep the same recipient address and note the request time and time zone.
2. Follow the website’s wait time and resend cooldown. Check the record for this request first.
3. If you need to request another code, note its time separately. Don’t treat different attempts as one message.

Record only the request number, time, and destination—not the verification code. Don’t enter numbers from sample messages on this site into a real login page, either.

Prepare a support report—don’t send verification codes or keys

A report sent to support@letterfwd.com should make it easy to check the same time window. Say whether you used a temporary address or forwarding alias, its status when you checked, whether you found an archive record, and which folders or categories you searched in your destination inbox. Here’s a fictional example with no real credentials:

When contacting support, share only what’s needed to investigate. Crop screenshots to remove unrelated messages and personal information. Never send verification codes, temporary inbox tokens, login tokens, links containing credentials, QR codes, or authenticator keys. A support report does not require full access to your email account.

Test with a low-risk email—don’t treat one success as a guarantee

Once you’ve confirmed the address and status, send a test message with no sensitive information from a regular email account you control. Use a unique subject and note the request time so you can compare it with the archive and your real inbox. Change only one setting at a time to see what affects the result.

A successful test shows only that this route worked for this sender this time. It doesn’t prove the original website can deliver, and it’s no guarantee of future delivery. If the issue is a flood of unfamiliar promotional emails rather than one missing message, see email source tracing. Don’t confuse investigating where a message came from with troubleshooting its delivery.