AWeber Import Rejected? The Nine Reasons AWeber Gives and How to Get the Next One Accepted

AWeber reviews every import, and rejects a list for one of nine reasons: unclear origin, too many bad addresses, high bounces, high complaints, a vague sign-up form, co-registration, unrelated content, personal or social contacts, or file errors. A rejection isn't final. Give AWeber the sign-up details, drop subscribers older than about a year who haven't heard from you, verify what's left, and resubmit. Verification fixes the address reasons only; origin and consent are judged on what you tell AWeber.

Sources: AWeber's Why was my import rejected? and Can I use AWeber to clean my list?, read 2 November 2026. Neither page shows a last-updated date or a numeric threshold.

The nine reasons, and what fixes each

AWeber's reason	What it means	What fixes it
Not enough information	AWeber can't tell how people joined; old or unknown-origin lists can't be used	Sign-up URL or event and dates, opt-in method, what they expect
Issues with email addresses	A substantial number would cause bounces and complaints	Remove dead and risky addresses before upload
High bounce rate	The list hasn't been maintained	Delete undeliverables, keep mailing the good list for several weeks
High complaint rate	Complaints would hurt your reputation	Keep mailing for several weeks to lower complaints
Your form lacks information	The sign-up form doesn't describe the content	A more specific form description
The list is co-registered	Shared by several parties (conference, multi-sponsor contest)	Not accepted
Unrelated content	What you send doesn't match what they signed up for	Align list description and messages
Personal, Facebook, LinkedIn contacts	No explicit sign-up permission	Not accepted
Your import contains errors	Formatting problems	Fix the file

AWeber also looks at the list description, your campaign messages and past broadcasts against the import source.

Prepare the resubmission in this order

1. Write down the origin. Sign-up URL or event, dates, how people opted in and what they were told they'd get. This answers the first reason, which no tool can.
2. Cut by age. AWeber says addresses that signed up over a year ago, or haven't been contacted in a long time, are likely to be removed, and suggests starting with subscribers active within roughly 6 months to a year.
3. Take out what can't come. Co-registered contacts and personal or social contacts without sign-up permission aren't accepted, cleaned or not.
4. Remove unsubscribes and past bounces from your previous tool. Our export AWeber subscribers post covers carrying those across.
5. Verify the remaining addresses. Upload the file at /verify and keep the valid ones. Leave risky ones (catch-all, role) out of the first import.
6. Fix the file. Formatting errors are a rejection reason of their own. The AWeber subscribers tool prepares it in your browser.
7. Resubmit and ask. Include the origin details. AWeber's article links a separate page on manual review, and its Customer Solutions team can help.

If AWeber flagged bounces on an existing list, its advice is to delete subscribers under the Undeliverable filter, then keep sending to the good subscribers for several weeks before importing more.

What AWeber's own screening does and doesn't do

AWeber screens imports against a database of known undeliverable addresses and domains, which it says catches only the most obvious invalid ones. It won't find and remove undeliverable addresses for you, and it may reject an import with enough of them. So the address check has to happen before upload. AWeber also notes that list cleaning services help but don't guarantee approval, which is accurate: they answer the address question, not the consent one.

For moving a whole audience across, see verify a list before switching ESP and the AWeber export guide. Mailing an old list at all has its own risks, covered in mailing an old email list.

Where SimpleVerifier fits

SimpleVerifier checks your list before it goes to AWeber and labels each address valid, risky (with the reason) or invalid. It doesn't make a list without consent acceptable. The first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in on the verify page. Pro is $39 a month with the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off. One-time packs of 10,000 checks for $15 never expire (CSV only). See pricing.