Keeping your email list clean is essential for maintaining high deliverability and protecting your sender reputation. In Mailchimp, bounced emails — often marked as “Cleaned” — indicate that messages to those addresses failed. These contacts no longer receive emails from your campaigns, and it’s best to remove them from your list.
Here’s how to remove bounced (cleaned) email addresses in Mailchimp in a few easy steps.
Step-by-Step: Remove Bounced Emails (Cleaned Contacts) in Mailchimp
1. Log in to your Mailchimp account
Start by logging in at mailchimp.com.
2. Navigate to your Audience
Once logged in, click on “Audience” from the main navigation.
3. Go to Segments
In your selected audience dashboard, click on “Segments” to create a filter.
4. Create a New Segment
Click “Create Segment” to begin filtering out the bounced addresses.
5. Set the Filter Criteria
- In “Select or search a filter”, choose “Email Subscription Status”
- Then choose “is one of”
- From the options, select only “Clean”
This will include only the bounced (cleaned) contacts in the segment.
6. Review and Use Segment
- Click “Review Segment”
- Then select “Use Segment”
7. Name and Save the Segment
- Give your segment a recognizable name like “Bounced Emails” or “Cleaned Contacts”
- Click “Save and Exit”
8. Go Back to Audience Dashboard
Return to the Audience section.
9. Select Your Cleaned Segment
At the top, choose the segment you just created. This will filter your audience and show only the bounced email addresses.
10. Select the Contacts to Remove
Use the checkboxes to select individual contacts or click the top checkbox to select all.
11. Archive or Delete the Bounced Contacts
- Click “Actions”
- Choose either “Archive” or “Permanently Delete”
Note: Archiving is reversible, while deleting is permanent. For safety, most users prefer archiving.
Why This Matters
Removing or archiving bounced emails helps you:
- Maintain a clean list
- Improve open and click rates
- Reduce the risk of being flagged as spam
- Save on Mailchimp contact count billing
