LISTSERV Troubleshooting

Owned by Grosshandler, Mike
Last updated: Sep 25, 2024 by Grosshandler, Mike
2 min read

This page provides common answers for Listserv lists to help you get started.

Subscribers receive garbled Listserv messages

If subscribers on your Listserv list are receiving messages that come through garbled with weird codes/formatting, a likely cause is the "Default-Options" setting on your list. Default-Options determines what new subscribers to your list get as subscription settings on your list.

If your list is configured with the following:

Default-Options= Repro,Shorthdr,NoMIME

Then you should change that to:

Default-Options= Repro,Fullhdr,MIME

This will fix the issue for new subscribers. To fix the setting for all of your existing subscribers, you will need to log in to the Listserv web interface and run the following command:

quiet set LISTNAME full mime for *@*

Replace "LISTNAME" with your actual list name.  For example, if your list is called ABC123-L, then your command would be:

quiet set ABC123-L full mime for *@*

To run the command, once logged in to the Listserv web interface:

  1. On the left side menu, click LISTSERV Command:

  2. Then enter the command and click Submit:

Error messages when sending to the list

Read through the error and any advice included in the error message sent to you.

Check that you are sending messages using the email account that is registered with the LISTSERV list. For example, you may be registered on the list by your UAlbany email address and you forward messages out to an external mail service (i.e. Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail). You can't send messages to the list using your external mail account.