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How to Suppress and Unsuppress Contacts

Patryk Romanczuk ·

Overview

Suppressing a contact stops them from receiving your emails without deleting them. The contact stays on your Contacts page and in every list they belong to, so you keep their details and history. Suppress contacts who ask not to be emailed, or ones you want to pause for now, and unsuppress them later if you change your mind.

Who this applies to: All users

Plan requirement: Pro, Enterprise

Contacts isn't included on the Essentials plan.

Understanding Suppression

A suppressed contact:

  • Doesn't receive your emails. The Email button disappears from their details panel while they're suppressed.
  • Stays in All Contacts and in any lists they belong to.
  • Appears in All Suppressed on the left side of the Contacts page.
  • Doesn't count against your contact limit.

Every suppressed contact has a reason, shown on their row instead of their relationship strength. Hover over the info icon next to the Suppressed count above your contacts to see how many contacts have each reason.

The Suppressed breakdown: Invalid, Abused, Manually Suppressed, and Other
  • Manually Suppressed — you suppressed the contact yourself. This is the only reason you can undo with Unsuppress.
  • Invalid, Abused, and Other — you can't unsuppress these contacts.
    • Invalid — the address failed validation, hard-bounced, or is on a blocked domain.
    • Abused — the contact reported your email as spam.
    • Other — every other reason: for example, the contact unsubscribed or opted out, was suppressed for Low Engagement, or was Oversubscribed when you suppressed them.
  • Low Engagement — the contact was suppressed as unengaged: from the unengaged review, with Suppress All in the unengaged banner, or with auto-suppress (off unless you turn it on). A contact is unengaged when they've been in your contacts for more than 180 days, got at least 3 of your emails in the last 180 days, and haven't opened, clicked, played, or viewed anything in that time. The contact's row shows Suppressed, their details panel shows Low Engagement, and the breakdown counts them under Other. This is permanent — you can't unsuppress these contacts.

Oversubscribed works differently. It isn't a suppression reason and isn't counted under Suppressed — it marks contacts that are over your plan's contact limit, and they won't receive your emails either. Oversubscribed has its own count above your contacts, and Oversubscribed contacts don't appear in All Suppressed unless you suppress them. If you suppress a contact while they're Oversubscribed, the breakdown counts them under Other, not Manually Suppressed, so you can't unsuppress them. See Understanding Contacts in the New BombBomb to learn how the contact limit works.

To see only contacts with a particular reason, click Filter above your contacts and choose Manually Suppressed, Invalid, Abused, or Oversubscribed. Click the same option again to clear it. In All Suppressed, Filter lets you pick one category at a time: All Suppressed, Suppressed, Invalid, Abused, or Oversubscribed.

Suppressing a Contact

You can suppress a contact from their row or from their details panel.

From the contact's row:

  1. Click Contacts in the left navigation.
  2. Click the ⋯ menu on the contact's row.
  3. Click Suppress.
  4. Click Suppress to confirm.
A contact's row menu with Suppress highlighted

From the contact's details panel:

  1. Click the contact's email address to open their details.
  2. Click Suppress at the top of the panel.

The details panel suppresses the contact right away — there's no confirmation step. Either way, the contact is marked Manually Suppressed and moves into All Suppressed (if they were Oversubscribed, they're counted under Other instead). They stay in all of their lists.

Suppressing Several Contacts at Once

  1. Check the box next to each contact you want to suppress.
    • The box at the top of the table selects every contact on the current page, not every contact you have.
  2. Click Suppress in the bar at the bottom of the page.
  3. Click Suppress to confirm.

Each selected contact is marked Manually Suppressed.

To clear your selection without suppressing anyone, click Deselect.

Suppressing Everyone on a List

Use Suppress All to stop emailing every contact on a list in one step.

  1. Click the list on the left side of the Contacts page.
  2. Click the ⋯ menu above the table.
  3. Click Suppress All.
  4. Click Suppress All to confirm.
The Suppress all contacts on this list? confirmation

Every contact on the list is marked Manually Suppressed, so you can unsuppress them later. Contacts that were already suppressed for another reason, such as Invalid, keep that reason. The contacts stay on the list.

Want suppressed contacts off a list? Open the list, click the ⋯ menu above the table, and click Remove Suppressed, then Remove. This takes every suppressed contact off that list only. It doesn't delete or unsuppress them, and they stay in any other lists.

Unsuppressing a Contact

You can unsuppress a contact only if they're Manually Suppressed.

From the contact's row:

  1. Click All Suppressed on the left side of the Contacts page.
  2. Click the ⋯ menu on the contact's row.
  3. Click Unsuppress.
A Manually Suppressed contact's row menu in All Suppressed with Unsuppress highlighted

From the contact's details panel:

  1. Click the contact's email address to open their details.
  2. Click Unsuppress at the top of the panel.

Unsuppressing happens right away, with no confirmation. The contact leaves All Suppressed, their row shows their relationship strength again, and they count toward your contact limit again — your contacts remaining goes down by one. If you need to unsuppress several contacts, unsuppress them one at a time — there's no bulk Unsuppress.

If a contact's row menu in All Suppressed shows only View Details and Delete, or their details panel shows a grayed-out Suppressed button, they can't be unsuppressed — for example, because they were suppressed automatically as Invalid.

Suppressing vs. Deleting

If you only want to stop emailing someone, suppress them. Deleting a contact is permanent: it removes the contact from your BombBomb account along with their email tracking data, and there's no undo.

To delete contacts:

  1. Click the ⋯ menu on the contact's row and click Delete, or check the box next to several contacts and click Delete in the bar at the bottom of the page.
  2. Click Delete to confirm.

Contacts that come from an Auto List (synced from the BombBomb Gmail or Outlook extension) can't be deleted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does suppressing a contact remove them from my lists? No. Suppressed contacts stay in every list they belong to. To take them off a list, use Remove Suppressed on that list.

Can I undo a suppression? Yes, if the contact is Manually Suppressed — click Unsuppress in their row menu or details panel. Contacts counted under Invalid, Abused, or Other — including contacts suppressed for Low Engagement — can't be unsuppressed.

Why don't I see Unsuppress for a contact? The contact's suppression is counted under Invalid, Abused, or Other. Other includes contacts suppressed for Low Engagement and contacts that were Oversubscribed when they were suppressed. Their details panel shows a grayed-out Suppressed button instead.

Why is the Email button missing from a contact's details? The contact is suppressed or Oversubscribed, so they can't receive your emails. The button comes back when you unsuppress a Manually Suppressed contact.

Does suppressing a contact stop emails that are already scheduled? Yes. BombBomb checks suppression when each email sends, so scheduled, queued, and automated emails skip a suppressed contact.

Do suppressed contacts count against my contact limit? No. When you unsuppress a contact, they count toward your limit again.

Should I delete or suppress a contact? Suppress them if you just want to stop emailing them. Deleting is permanent and also removes their email tracking data.

Next Steps

Contacts