Overview
Guest List Warnings
The Warnings column flags guests Gatsby can't email, registrations that aren't finished, and contacts who rarely respond. Here's what triggers each warning and how to clear it.
What the Warnings column tells you
Section titled “What the Warnings column tells you”Warnings is a column on every guest list. It answers one question: which guests on this list need something done about them before the event?
Gatsby works it out for you. Each warning is calculated from the guest’s own record, so the column fills itself in and keeps itself current. You can’t type in it, and you can’t clear a warning by hand. Fix the thing the warning points at and the warning goes away on its own.
A guest can carry several warnings at once. They always appear in the same order, so the column reads the same way on every row.
Where to find it
Section titled “Where to find it”The column is on the guest list of every event you create. A view you add yourself is different: it starts with Name, Email and RSVP Link only, so you switch Warnings on there yourself.
Either way the fix is the same, and it affects only the view you’re looking at:
- Open the view where you want the column.
- Click Columns in the top right.
- Find Warnings in the list and switch it on.
It’s a standard column, so it’s in the main Columns list. You don’t need Add Fields.
Filtering by warning
Section titled “Filtering by warning”Open Filter → Event Fields → Warnings and tick the warnings you want. By default you get every guest carrying any one of them. Switch on results must match all selections to narrow it to guests carrying all of them at once.
Filtering on Missing Email before you build a campaign is the fastest way to see who your send would skip.
Warnings about email
Section titled “Warnings about email”Four warnings about whether you can reach a guest. The first two stop a send before it happens. The last two record what already happened.
Missing Email
Section titled “Missing Email”No email address on the contact. You can’t invite them or send them a campaign until you add one.
This is normal on plus-ones, on walk-ins added at the door, and on rows imported from a spreadsheet with no email column. Add the address on the guest’s contact record and the warning clears.
Invalid Email
Section titled “Invalid Email”There’s an address, but it isn’t a usable one. A typo in the domain, a stray character, a missing @.
Gatsby doesn’t attempt delivery to these. If you send a campaign to a list that includes them, the composer warns you first, and if you go ahead those guests are recorded as failures on that campaign rather than being sent to. Correct the address on the contact to clear it.
Email Bounced or Failed
Section titled “Email Bounced or Failed”The guest’s current RSVP status is Bounced or Failed, which means the last email Gatsby sent them didn’t get through.
This one is a record, not a block. Nothing stops you sending again. A bounce usually means the address is dead, so check it before you retry. The warning follows the RSVP status, so it clears when the status changes, for example when the guest responds.
Email Blocked by Gatsby
Section titled “Email Blocked by Gatsby”Gatsby stopped a send to this guest. Two things cause it: a previous email to that address bounced, or the guest unsubscribed.
Both protect you. Repeatedly mailing addresses that bounce is what gets a sending domain flagged, and mailing someone who unsubscribed is a compliance problem. If you believe a block is wrong, send us the guest at
Warnings about registration
Section titled “Warnings about registration”Three warnings about a guest who started something and didn’t finish, or who got missed.
Hasn’t RSVP’d yet
Section titled “Hasn’t RSVP’d yet”Their invitation went out more than seven days ago and they still haven’t responded.
Gatsby measures from the first send, not the most recent one, and only while the guest is still sitting at Invited. As soon as they accept, decline, or go on the waitlist it disappears. Filter on it to build a follow-up list.
Survey Not Submitted
Section titled “Survey Not Submitted”The guest responded (Accepted, Waitlist, or Maybe), your registration form has at least one required question, and Gatsby has no answers from them at all.
It shows up when a guest confirms through a route that skips the form, or when an organizer sets the status by hand. Send them their personal RSVP link and ask them to complete it, or enter the answers yourself on their row.
This warning is about having no answers, not incomplete ones. A guest who answered one of five required questions doesn’t get flagged.
Missing Calendar Invite
Section titled “Missing Calendar Invite”They accepted more than 24 hours ago and no calendar invite has reached them.
The 24-hour delay is deliberate. It keeps the warning off guests who accepted a few minutes ago and whose invite is still on its way. Past that, treat it as real: send the invite from the guest’s row, or check whether calendar invites are switched on for this event’s confirmation email.
Warnings about a guest’s history
Section titled “Warnings about a guest’s history”Three warnings that look past this event at everything the guest has been invited to across your org, including this one. Gatsby needs three or more events of history before it will flag anyone.
These describe a pattern, not a person. Someone who ignored three invitations may well come to the fourth. Use them to decide where to spend a phone call, and hide the column if you’d rather not see them.
Unlikely to RSVP
Section titled “Unlikely to RSVP”Three or more invitations, and they have never responded to any of them. No accept, no decline, no maybe, no waitlist.
Unlikely to Accept
Section titled “Unlikely to Accept”Three or more invitations, and they have never accepted or joined a waitlist. This one also catches people who reply reliably and always say no, which the previous warning doesn’t.
Unlikely to Attend
Section titled “Unlikely to Attend”They accepted at least twice and have never been marked as attended on an event they accepted. Your serial no-shows.
This one depends on your check-in data. If your team doesn’t record attendance, nobody will ever be marked attended, and the warning stops meaning anything.
Common Questions
Section titled “Common Questions” Can I clear a warning without fixing the underlying problem?
No. The column is read-only. Every warning is recalculated from the guest’s record each time the list loads, so anything you typed over would come straight back.
If a warning isn’t useful to you, hide the column in that view: Columns, then switch Warnings off. It affects only the view you’re looking at.
I filtered on Outdated Calendar Invite and got nobody
That option is in the filter list but nothing produces it, so it always returns zero guests. The state you’re after lives in a different column.
Add Calendar Invite State to see it. That column shows Out of date on guests whose invite predates a change to the event’s date, time, or location.
A guest has a warning I think is wrong
Check their contact record first. Most surprising warnings come from a second contact for the same person, an address that was corrected on one record and not the other, or an RSVP status an organizer set by hand.
If the record looks right and the warning still doesn’t, send us the event and the guest at
Why does a guest who declined show “Unlikely to Accept” but not “Unlikely to RSVP”?
Because those two ask different questions. Unlikely to RSVP is about silence: they never replied at all. Unlikely to Accept is about the answer: they replied, and it was never yes.
Someone who declines every invitation is responsive and unavailable. Someone who never replies might not be seeing your emails. The follow-up is different in each case, which is why they’re separate warnings.
Do warnings affect who receives a campaign?
Missing Email and Invalid Email do, because there’s no usable address to send to. Email Blocked by Gatsby does too. Those guests are skipped and recorded as failures on the campaign.
The rest don’t. A guest flagged Hasn’t RSVP’d yet or Unlikely to Attend is a normal recipient.
Can I filter reminder emails by warning?
No. Reminders offer a smaller set of filters than the guest list, and warnings aren’t among them. A reminder resolves its audience days after you set it up, and a warning that’s true today may not be true by then.
Build a campaign from a filtered guest list view instead, where you choose the recipients at send time.