How to Test Email Tracking Without Fooling Yourself

The most common support message we receive is about a test: send an email to yourself, open it, and see Not opened. In almost every case the tracking worked exactly as designed. The test was the problem. Here is how to test it in two minutes without fooling yourself.

Table of contents

The test everyone does first

You install the extension, write an email to your own address, or to a second address you read in the same browser, open it, and check the dashboard. Not opened. It is a reasonable test, and it is almost guaranteed to fail.

Why it shows Not opened

A tracker that counted your own reads would be useless: every time you reread a message in your Sent folder, it would record an open. So mailcheck does two things.

It blocks its own tracking image when you look at your sent messages in Gmail and Zoho Mail. Rereading never counts.

It marks opens that come from the network you sent from, your office or your home Wi-Fi. That could be you, or a colleague at the next desk, so it is marked rather than thrown away; more on that below.

A test sent to yourself and opened on the same computer hits both rules. The result is the one you want for real emails, which is exactly why it is useless as a test. Counting your own opens goes through the reasoning.

The test that works

1. Send to an address you read somewhere else: a personal address, a colleague's, anything you can open on another device.
2. Open it on your phone, on mobile data, Wi-Fi off, so the open comes from a different network than the one you sent from.
3. Wait at least ten seconds before opening. Opens in the first ten seconds after sending are treated as security scanners and not counted.
4. Make sure images display in the app you open it with.
5. Check the dashboard, or wait for the notification. It usually arrives within a minute.

Images have to load

Open tracking works by loading a tiny image. If the recipient's mail app does not load images, nothing is recorded. Some apps block external images by default, Zoho Mail has a setting for it, and many companies turn images off for security. If your test address blocks images, allow them for the test, or you will be measuring the setting rather than the tracker. Why email tracking shows no opens lists the other causes.

Check the switch before you send

Look for Tracking ON next to the Send button before you send. If it says OFF, that email is not tracked, and nothing you do afterwards changes that. On the free plan, once your 10 tracked emails for the month are used, the extension tells you with a notification that the email went out without tracking, rather than failing silently.

The self-opens setting

In the tracking dashboard, under Advanced, a count self opens setting decides what happens to opens from the network you sent from. It is on by default, so they count, because in a shared office they are often a colleague reading a copy rather than you. Turn it off if you only want opens from outside your own network. Either way they stay marked in the list, so you can tell them apart.

When it really is broken

If a correct test still shows nothing after a few minutes, check the status page, which tests our services live from your browser. If everything there is green, write to us from the contact form with the subject of your test email and the time you sent it. That is enough for us to find it.

Conclusion

The tracker is built to ignore you, so a test has to look like a real reader: another address, another device, another network, images on, and a few seconds of patience. Two minutes, and you will know it works.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my test show Not opened when real recipients show opened?

Because the tracker ignores reads by the sender, on purpose. Your test looked like you rereading your own message.

Can I test with two tabs in the same browser?

Not reliably. Same computer, same network: the open is blocked or marked as yours.

Does opening on my phone count?

Yes, as long as it is on a different network than the one you sent from, and images load.

How long does a notification take?

Usually under a minute after the open.

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