Amazon Not Sending OTP Email - Resolved
I could not log in to Amazon because I was not receiving the Amazon OTP Email:
When I try to login to Amazon I enter my email and password but then Amazon all-of-a-sudden one day decided that I need to enter a One-Time-Password (OTP) in order to access their website to do pretty much anything at all. I click ok and then I have to enter some funny characters from one of these human capture thingies, and Amazon tell me that they will send me an email containing the Amazon OTP to my registered email address, but Amazon does not the OTP email, I do not receive it.
In my case, I could actually receive it sometimes, several hours later, but by that time my login attempt had timed-out, or the OTP had timed-out and was useless.
After hours of trying I called Amazon who suggested I check my spam filter and spam folders etc. Of course, I checked SpamAssassin and BoxTrapper and there was no issue there, nothing in my spam folders. The lady said the only option they have is to try to change my password so she sent me a passwork link by email that did not arrive... until two hours later. No problem, she assured me that the reest password link would not time out. And it didn't. But it did require a OTP to again be emailed to me in order to change the password. The Amazon OTP email was not send and did not arrive...until two hours later.
Why is the Amazon OTP Email not coming into my inbox?
I finally checked the Full Headers and Raw Source of the email after it arrived. It showed that the time the email was sent matched the time it should have been sent, and showed the arrival time of the email to be two hours later. So, it was getting stuck somewhere. The headers also showed a line that said "bounced-to". This means that the email was rejected by my server and sent back to Amazon several times until finally it got through. So, this explains the delay!
How did I fix the problem so that I can receive Amazon OTP Emails?
I actually run my own server so I went back into Cpanel and I found the Email section and found something called Email Greylisting. Greylisting means that your server might reject some emails that it believes to be spam, and bounce them back to their origin. However, if the email is returned several times it eventually lets it through.
I turned-off Email Greylisting and now I can receive the Amazon OTP emails without any problem at all.
If you do not run your own server please contact your host or email provider and ask them to check that spam filters are turned-off, add Amazon to your whitelist and turn off Greylisting, or look for all of these options within the options/settings of your email web access.
I hope this helps you, if it does, or does not, please feel free to leave a comment below. Good luck!
#1: Guest #1477 (?) - at 02:50 on 16 Feb 2023
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