What's with the Invalid_Response emails I'm getting?

We've had some questions recently about people getting Invalid_Response emails from xMatters. We know you get enough emails, and we want to help make sure you don't get any from us that you can't act on.

These Invalid_Response emails are sent when xMatters receives an email response to a notification that it already has a response for. There are a few scenarios that might cause this, each with its own unique solution.

Your security team is being (wisely) cautious

It's possible that your security team has put in place software to try to protect you from malicious links. This is good. But it can also muck up the URL response in the response email, adding entries to the URL which cause multiple responses to be sent back to xMatters. xMatters generally accepts the first response, but sends that Invalid_Response email for the additional responses.

Ask your security team to add xMatters to the safe sender list so that these additions to the response URL are not added and xMatters just receives the one response.

Email security systems are automatically scanning links

You might receive an error message saying "You have already responded to the message" when you haven't actually responded. This can happen because email security systems automatically follow links in messages to check for threats. When these systems follow the response links in xMatters notifications, they can trigger responses without your knowledge, causing unexpected error messages when you try to respond manually.

Work with your IT team to add xMatters to the security system's permit list to prevent automatic link scanning for xMatters communications.

You've already responded to the notification

We know you're keen to resolve any issues that cross your path, but you might be responding to the same event from different devices. If you don't have any delays set up between your devices in xMatters, they ALL receive the same notification at the same time.

Keep being you, and keep responding to events. But only respond to the notification on one device. Better yet, set up delays between your devices in xMatters – that way we'll only notify you on more than one device if you don't respond on the first one.

One of your teammates is already on it

It could be that one of your teammates has already responded to the event in a way that ends the event escalation, meaning you don't need to respond. If you do, you get that Invalid_Response email.

There are a couple of things you can try to stop this. First, add delays between the people in your group. This gives the first person on the list a chance to respond before xMatters notifies you. If that doesn't work, check how the Response Options/Actions of a Communication Plan are set up – it might be that you need to tweak these to let your team respond in a way that does not cause others to get Invalid_Response emails.

You have multiple similar email addresses configured

When multiple similar email addresses are included in a single email trigger, xMatters may generate duplicate alerts for each address. For example, if you include variations like ABCD@email.company.xmatters.com and ABCD SUPPORT@email.company.xmatters.com, you might receive multiple notifications for the same alert, potentially resulting in Invalid_Response emails when you respond to one of them.