How to Solve the Amazon SES Error: 'SendEmail operation: Illegal address'
How to Solve the Amazon SES Error: ‘SendEmail operation: Illegal address’
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is a powerful, flexible email sending service that many data scientists and software engineers leverage for various tasks. However, it’s not uncommon to encounter the error message ‘SendEmail operation: Illegal address’. This article aims to demystify this error and provide a comprehensive solution.
What is the ‘SendEmail operation: Illegal address’ error?
When working with Amazon SES, the ‘SendEmail operation: Illegal address’ error typically surfaces when the email address you’re trying to send an email to is not verified, or it doesn’t comply with Internet email address standards (RFC 5321). This error message is Amazon SES’s way of ensuring that only valid and verified addresses serve as email recipients.
Step-by-step Solution
Follow these steps to solve the ‘SendEmail operation: Illegal address’ error:
1. Verify the Email Address
In Amazon SES, before you send an email, the recipient’s address needs to be verified. This step is crucial, especially in the sandbox environment, where Amazon SES necessitates that both sender and receiver addresses be verified for security reasons.
import boto3
# Create a new SES resource and specify a region.
ses = boto3.client('ses',region_name='us-east-1')
# Try to verify an email address.
response = ses.verify_email_identity(
EmailAddress='recipient@example.com'
)
The above Python script will send a verification link to the ‘recipient@example.com’ email address. The recipient has to click on this link to verify the email address.
2. Check for Proper Formatting
Ensure that the recipient’s email address adheres to the standard email format as per RFC 5321. It should be in the form ‘local-part@domain’. The local part may consist of alphabetic and numeric characters, and the following special characters: ! # $ % & ' + - / = ? ^ _ { | } ~. The domain part includes at least one dot, and should not start or end with a hyphen.
3. Remove any Invalid Characters
Sometimes, hidden invalid characters may creep into your email addresses, especially when they are dynamically fetched or generated. Invisible characters like whitespaces, control characters, or non-ASCII characters can trigger the ‘Illegal address’ error. A good practice is to sanitize your email addresses before use.
def sanitize_email(email):
# Remove leading/trailing whitespaces
email = email.strip()
# Remove non-ASCII characters
email = email.encode("ascii", errors="ignore").decode()
return email
4. Ensure the Domain is Correct
Incorrect domains lead to the ‘Illegal address’ error. Make sure the domain part of the email address is correct and exists. For instance, ‘recipient@nonexistentdomain.xyz’ will trigger this error. You can use various online tools to verify whether a domain is valid and active.
Conclusion
The ‘SendEmail operation: Illegal address’ error in Amazon SES is commonly due to unverified or incorrectly formatted email addresses. By following the steps outlined above, you can effectively handle this error and ensure your email sending operations run smoothly.
Remember, the key to avoiding such errors lies in proactive error handling and data sanitization. Happy emailing!
References:
Keywords: Amazon SES, SendEmail operation, Illegal address, error handling, data science, software engineering
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