# Why isn't my email being tracked?

Understand why an outreach email might not show as opened, what causes false positives, and how to tell whether tracking is actually working.

If a coach opened your email but ProductiveRecruit still shows it as **Sent**, the most likely cause is their email client blocking remote images, not a bug in tracking. Here's how tracking actually works, and why it sometimes misses an open (or reports one that didn't really happen).

## How tracking works

ProductiveRecruit tracks opens with an invisible tracking image embedded in the email. When the recipient's client loads that image, we know it was opened. Clicks are tracked by routing every link through ProductiveRecruit before sending the reader on to its destination. Both work the same way whether you send through your connected Gmail account or ProductiveRecruit's built-in sending.

An email's status flips to **Opened** only once a real open is recorded. There's no separate "Clicked" status — link clicks show up in your [opens, clicks & views](/docs/tracking/opens-clicks-views) activity instead.

## Why an open might not show

- **Images are blocked.** Tracking depends on the recipient's client loading images. Outlook desktop and many corporate email security filters block remote images by default, so the tracking image never loads, even though the coach read the email.
- **It's too soon.** We wait 90 seconds after sending before counting an open, to filter out mail servers pre-scanning the message on delivery.
- **It already opened once.** We only record one human open per hour on a given email, so reopening it again won't add a second one.

## When tracking shows an open that didn't happen

Apple Mail's Mail Privacy Protection pre-loads every image the moment an email is delivered, whether or not the recipient actually opens it. If a coach reads Apple Mail or iCloud Mail with that setting on, you may see **Opened** almost immediately at send time — a false positive, not a missed open. Gmail's own image proxy doesn't behave this way; an open recorded on a Gmail recipient is real.

## What to check

1. Give it a few minutes. Opens can take up to 90 seconds to register.
2. Remember that image-blocking clients (especially Outlook) will never show an open, even when the coach genuinely reads the email.
3. Check the email's current status. See [Can I edit a sent email?](/docs/faq/edit-sent-email) for what each status means.
4. More worried about the relationship than the tracking? See [I haven't heard back from a coach](/docs/faq/no-coach-reply).

## What's next

- Learn what opens, clicks, and profile views actually mean in [Opens, clicks & views explained](/docs/tracking/opens-clicks-views).
- Review [deliverability & limits](/docs/email/deliverability-and-limits) if you're worried emails aren't landing at all.
- Read [deliverability best practices](/docs/faq/deliverability-best-practices) for more on inbox placement.

Source: https://productiverecruit.com/docs/faq/email-not-tracking