<h2>Major Incident Management communication emails fail with "recipient-list-resolution-pending" and "Email contains no recipients, send ignored"</h2><br/><div style="overflow-x:auto"><article><div ><h2 >Issue </h2><section><style type="text/css"><!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } </style> <div class="ns-kb-css-body-editor-container"> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">When sending Major Incident Management (MIM) communications with dynamically populated recipient lists, the emails fail to deliver and remain pending. The email log shows two sequential errors: "recipient-list-resolution-pending" followed by "Email contains no recipients, send ignored."</p> <span id="ns-kb-css-end-div-identifier" style="display: none; pointer-events: none;"></span></div></section></div><div ><h2 >Symptoms</h2><section><style type="text/css"><!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } </style> <div class="ns-kb-css-body-editor-container"> <ul style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Recipients appear correctly in the To field when composing a MIM communication, but the email is not sent</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Email log displays recipient-list-resolution-pending status for the communication</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Email log displays Email contains no recipients, send ignored message immediately after</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Static recipient lists (non-dynamic) send successfully</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Issue occurs only at send time, not during compose</li></ul> <span id="ns-kb-css-end-div-identifier" style="display: none; pointer-events: none;"></span></div></section></div><div ><h2 >Facts</h2><section><style type="text/css"><!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } </style> <div class="ns-kb-css-body-editor-container"> <ul style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">MIM Communications feature with dynamic recipient lists configured</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Recipient list script dynamically derives recipients from the Major Incident's Configuration Item (CI) and associated Support Group</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The glide.email.smtp.max_recipients system property controls the maximum number of recipients that can be processed in a single email operation</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Default (out-of-the-box / OOB) value: 100</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Affected when configured to a higher value (e.g., 100,000)</li></ul> <span id="ns-kb-css-end-div-identifier" style="display: none; pointer-events: none;"></span></div></section></div><div ><h2 >Release</h2><section><style type="text/css"><!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } </style> <div class="ns-kb-css-body-editor-container"> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">All currently supported releases</p> <span id="ns-kb-css-end-div-identifier" style="display: none; pointer-events: none;"></span></div></section></div><div ><h2 >Cause</h2><section><style type="text/css"><!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } </style> <div class="ns-kb-css-body-editor-container"> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The glide.email.smtp.max_recipients system property was set to a value higher than the OOB setting of 100. When this property is configured above the OOB threshold, the MIM email sender attempts to process the entire recipient list in a single operation. This causes recipient resolution to time out, and the email system is unable to parse and validate all recipients within the allotted time window. As a result, the system fails to resolve any recipients and drops the email as undeliverable.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">This typically occurs after an instance upgrade or configuration change when the property is manually adjusted to accommodate large recipient lists without considering the underlying performance impact on the email resolution pipeline.</p> <span id="ns-kb-css-end-div-identifier" style="display: none; pointer-events: none;"></span></div></section></div><div ><h2 >Resolution</h2><section><style type="text/css"><!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } </style> <div class="ns-kb-css-body-editor-container"> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Revert the glide.email.smtp.max_recipients system property to the OOB value of 100 to allow the email resolution service to process recipients in smaller batches.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">1. Log in to your instance as an instance administrator.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">2. In the filter navigation bar, type sys_properties.do and press Enter.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">3. In the Name field, search for glide.email.smtp.max_recipients.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">4. Click the property record to open it.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">5. In the Value field, clear the current value and enter 100.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">6. Click Save.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">7. Test your MIM communication by navigating to an incident, opening the Communicate tab, clicking Compose, and sending a test email to your dynamic recipient list.</p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">After you save the property change, the email should resolve recipients correctly and deliver to all intended recipients without generating resolution or no-recipient errors.</p> <span id="ns-kb-css-end-div-identifier" style="display: none; pointer-events: none;"></span></div></section></div><div ><h2 >Related Links</h2><section><style type="text/css"><!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } </style> <div class="ns-kb-css-body-editor-container"> <ul style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0px; list-style-position: inside;"><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Critical Delay in Sending Publications (Targeted Communications) via Email (<a title="Critical Delay in Sending Publications (Targeted Communications) via Email KB2709699" href="https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB2709699" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KB2709699</a>)</li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a title="Instance Security Hardening Settings: sc-max-smtp-recipients" href="https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/platform-security/instance-security-hardening-settings/sc-max-smtp-recipients.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Instance Security Hardening Settings: sc-max-smtp-recipients</a></li></ul> <span id="ns-kb-css-end-div-identifier" style="display: none; pointer-events: none;"></span></div></section></div></article></div>