Gmail unsubscribe link does not appear

Question

In Gmail when you have an email from a newslist, you get a 'unsubscribe' link next to the email address, like this:

Google+ <[email protected]> Unsubscribe

There is header named List-Unsubscribe: which identifies the url or email.

In gmail I can see original of email to see headers:

Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 123.123.123.123 as permitted sender) client-ip=123.123.123.123;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
   spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 123.123.123.123 as permitted sender) [email protected];
   dkim=pass [email protected]
List-Unsubscribe: <http://domain.com/uns.html?test=wdqwqw>

I have List-Unsubscribe header set, spf and dkim verification pass.

What can be wrong? Why gmail does not show unsubscribe link?

Bischoff

This question will have a surge very soon, as Gmail is requiring the List-Unsubscribe for people that send larger volumes of email, starting around February 2024. Yet, the "unsubscribe" link still does not show up... so who knows if the headers we're sending to Gmail actually works. – Inshrine

Answer 1

The unsubscribe option is only shown for senders with a high reputation:

This only works for some senders right now. We're actively encouraging senders to support auto-unsubscribe — we think 100% should. We won't provide the unsubscribe option on messages from spammers: we can't trust that they'll actually unsubscribe you, and they might even send you more spam. So you'll only see the unsubscribe option for senders that we're pretty sure are not spammers and will actually honor your unsubscribe request. We're being pretty conservative about which senders to trust in the beginning; over time, we hope to offer the ability to unsubscribe from more email.

Also note that the preferred list-unsubscribe method is mailto, not http. Outlook.com for example only honors mailto.

Scotland

outlook.com also shows this button to high-rep senders only.. blog.returnpath.com/evolution-of-list-unsubscribe – Sidero

Oh, indeed. Thanks! – Sidero

Can't they keep track of who you've unsubscribed from and punish senders that ignore it? – Affect

@Affect don't be too smart we're talking about emails here – Penhall

Guidelines on internet tells me that i loose deliverability if i don't set the list-unsubscribe header, does that mean i need to set it while it won't be used ? Or deliverability is not so much impacted by it after all ? – Sidero

Is the low reputation still used 10 years later? – Crossstaff

Answer 2

Another item to consider, it seems that if you've already clicked the unsubscribe link, it won't show you the link again. So if you're testing and don't see it after the first time, this could be why.

Finnougrian