GMX, WEB.DE and mail.com · permanent error
554: required Date or From header is missing
GMX refused the message because it has no Date header or no From header, both of which RFC 5322 requires in every message.
- GMX, WEB.DE
- Provider
- Permanent (5xx)
- Class
- Sources checked
- Author
At a glance
- Code
- 554
- Provider
- GMX, WEB.DE and mail.com
- Temporary or permanent
- PermanentRefused for good: the message comes back to the sender, and resending it gets the same answer.
- Who has to act
- The sender. The fix is on the sending side: your domain, your server or your list.
- What the server says
554 Transaction failed
What it means
RFC 5322 section 3.6 makes two header fields mandatory: Date and From. Cases r0705 and r0706 mean the Date header is missing; cases r0711 and r0712 mean the From header is missing. GMX refuses such messages with 554. Messages written by ordinary mail programs always have both, so the cause is almost always software that builds messages directly, such as a web form, a monitoring script or a device sending alerts, without setting them.
Common causes
- A script or application sends raw messages without a Date header.
- The From header is left out because only the envelope sender is set.
- A gateway strips or rewrites headers and drops one of them.
How to fix it
- 01Look at the raw headers of a sent message to see which field is missing.
- 02Set both a Date and a From header in the software that builds the message.
- 03Prefer a standard mail library, which adds them by default, and send again.
Sources
What this page rests on, checked on 20 Oct 2026. The explanation is ours; the reply text is the server's.
- GMX Postmaster case r0705: 554 Transaction failed (Date missing)postmaster.gmx.net
- GMX Postmaster case r0711: 554 Transaction failed (From missing)postmaster.gmx.net
Related codes
- 554A header field appears more than once.GMX refused the message because a header that RFC 5322 allows only once, such as From, Date, Subject or Message-Id, appears more than once.
- 554A header field has invalid syntax.GMX refused the message because a header, such as Date, From, Sender, Subject or To, is not written the way RFC 5322 and RFC 2047 require.
- 554Transaction failed.The server permanently refused the transaction, often after receiving the message data or straight away when the connection opened.
554 at other providers
- 554Permanent rejection (554).Yahoo or AOL rejected the message for good with a 554. Yahoo uses this code for several problems, from failed authentication to unacceptable content, so the wording of the reply tells you which.
- 554Failed authentication.Yahoo or AOL refused the message because it failed the checks that confirm the sending domain, such as DKIM against the domain's policy. Yahoo lists this among its permanent 553 and 554 errors.
- 554Recipient does not exist.The Yahoo or AOL account you wrote to does not exist. The failure is permanent: check the address with the recipient, and remove it from any list.
- 554No reverse DNS (PTR) record.Xfinity refused the connection because your sending IP has no PTR record. Every server sending to Xfinity needs valid reverse DNS, so the owner of the IP must add one.
- 554No reverse DNS for your IP.IONOS refused your mail because the IP address of your mail server has no domain name assigned to it in DNS (no PTR record).
- 554Reverse DNS does not meet IONOS policy.IONOS refused your mail because the PTR record of your IP does not meet its policy, typically a generic or dynamic-looking provider name.
Further reading
All 57 GMX, WEB.DE codesEvery code in the wikiPaste your own bounce