Let's start with a very familiar mistake. You're signing up for a site, you copy the address, paste it into the form, wait five minutes, and nothing turns up. Later it turns out that while filling in the form, you opened the site once more in a private window, and that window handed you a brand-new address. The inbox you're staring at doesn't belong to the address you signed up with.
Small mix-ups like this are one of the most common reasons an email seems to go missing. Most of the other causes have to do with the sending side. We go through both below, but if you're in a hurry, here's the table first.
Quick checklist
| Check | How to tell | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Was the address copied correctly? | Compare the address you entered on the site with the one on screen, letter by letter | Use the COPY button and send it again |
| Are you looking at the right tab? | Do you have more than one Geçici Mail tab open? | Close the others and stay in the tab with the address you used |
| Did the page close? | On a phone, the page may have reloaded after the browser went to the background | If the address changed, use your recovery key to get the old one back |
| Has the inbox refreshed? | Is the small circle to the left of the address box moving? | Press the REFRESH button |
| Did the site actually send the email? | Did the site show an "email sent" message? | Wait a minute or two, then hit "resend" |
| Does the site accept temporary addresses? | Sign-up went through without an error, but the email never arrives | Use DELETE to get a new address on a different domain, or use a permanent address |
Now let's look at each of these a bit more closely.
How long does an email normally take?
To tell whether something is "late", you need to know what normal looks like. The inbox refreshes itself every 5 seconds. In our own tests, a sent email shows up in the inbox in 3 to 5 seconds on average. So in most cases there are only a few seconds between someone pressing "send" and the message appearing on your screen.
When an email arrives, a notification sound plays and the tab title changes to let you know, so you'll notice even if you're working in another tab. Unread emails have a blinking green dot to their left.
If more than a minute has passed and there's still nothing, it's time to look at the causes below.
1. The address was copied wrong
A letter gets missed while typing, a space sneaks in at the end, or only part of the address was selected. Random addresses aren't made to be memorable, so the eye skips over these errors easily.
The safest option is the COPY button next to the address box. Clicking on the address itself does the same thing. After pasting, check that the whole address came through, including the part after the @ sign.
2. There's a different address in another tab
This is the story from the introduction. Every time you open the home page, you're shown an address. In the same browser your current address is usually kept, but in a private window, a different browser or on a different device, you get a new one. On a phone, a link that opens in an app's built-in browser can behave like a separate browser too.
The fix is simple. Stay in one tab for the whole process. If you're not sure, compare the address saved on the site with the one on your screen.
3. The page closed or reloaded
An address is valid for 3 hours, and that time extends on its own while the page is open. If you close the tab or clear your browser data, you may come back to a different address. The email may well have arrived at the old one.
This is where the recovery key comes to the rescue. It's shown under the address box, next to the green key icon, in the format XXXX-XXXX. If you noted it down, you can go back to your old address via "Recover Email" in the top menu. More details in our recovery key guide.
4. The sender is slow or has a queue
Not every site sends email instantly. Some platforms put messages in a queue and send them in turn. At busy times, such as big sale days, that queue can get long. Some sites also add a waiting period so people can't hammer the "resend" button.
The best thing to do here is be patient. Leave the page open; the inbox refreshes on its own. If two or three minutes have passed, press "resend" once. Clicking it ten times in a row rarely helps, and on some sites it can get you temporarily blocked.
5. The site may be blocking temporary email domains
This one deserves an honest answer. Some sites deliberately refuse addresses from temporary email services. Sometimes they say so plainly on the sign-up form ("this email address is not accepted"). Other times they accept the sign-up and quietly never send the email. Because you don't see an error in the second case, it looks like the problem is on our end.
We use several different domains. When you press DELETE (it asks for confirmation) and get a new address, you may land on a different domain. But if a site clearly doesn't want temporary addresses, and especially if the account is one you'll keep, using your real address or an alias is the better route. We look at why sites do this, and what you can do about it, in a separate article.
6. "Could it be in the spam folder?"
With a regular email account, that's the first place to look, but we don't have a separate spam folder. Every email that reaches your address appears in a single list. So there's no need to wonder whether it went to another folder. If the list is empty, the email never reached your address, and the cause is one of the ones above.
7. The inbox hasn't refreshed yet
It's rare, but when your phone screen locks, or the browser keeps a tab in the background for a long time, automatic refreshing can pause. The small circle to the left of the address box shows how many seconds are left until the next refresh. If the circle isn't moving, or you just don't feel like waiting, the REFRESH button updates the inbox right away.
Still nothing? What to do next
- Compare the address saved on the site with the address on your screen.
- Make sure only one tab is open and press REFRESH.
- Wait two or three minutes, then press "resend" on the site once.
- If it still doesn't come, use DELETE to get a new address and try again with a different domain.
- If that fails too, the site most likely doesn't accept temporary addresses. Consider using a permanent one.
If one particular site never sends anything but emails from other sites arrive without trouble, the problem isn't our service; it's that site's choice. If emails from other sites aren't arriving either, write to us through the contact page with the time you tried and the site you used, and we'll take a look.
FAQ
How long does it take for an email to reach a temporary address?
In our own tests, a sent email appears in the inbox in 3 to 5 seconds on average. The inbox refreshes itself every 5 seconds; delays usually come from the sending site.
Does the temporary inbox have a spam folder?
No, there's no separate spam folder. Every email that reaches the address shows up in the same inbox list.
Why do some sites never send me anything?
Some sites block temporary email domains or silently stop sending to them. You can try a new address on a different domain with the DELETE button, or use a permanent address.
I closed the tab. What if the email went to my old address?
If you have your recovery key, you can go back to the old address with "Recover Email" in the top menu. Emails stay in the inbox for 24 hours.
Why can't I see attachments?
Geçici Mail doesn't show attachments; only the text and HTML content of an email are displayed. For anything that needs an attachment, use a permanent address.
For other questions about how temporary email works, take a look at our FAQ page.