Why is a subscribed user not receiving a specific message (like a newsletter) but still receiving other communications?

When a subscribed user doesn't receive one specific message, such as a newsletter, but keeps receiving your other emails, there are two likely causes: their email category preferences, or the segmentation rules of that particular message.

1. Check email category subscriptions (most common for newsletters)

If you use the email subscription preference center, subscribers can opt out of individual categories (newsletters, promotions, product updates) while staying subscribed to everything else.

• Pushwoosh stores these choices in the Subscribed Email Categories tag — an opt-in list of the categories the subscriber currently receives. If the tag holds values and the newsletter's category is not among them, that campaign is filtered out for that user, while other categories still arrive.
• An empty list means "send everything". When the tag is empty the user is not filtered by category at all, so an empty value is never the reason a newsletter is missing.
• Check the value of this tag on the affected user's profile in User Explorer.
• Category filtering only applies when the preference center is enabled for the app and the message itself has an email category assigned and is not marked as transactional. A campaign sent without a category ignores category preferences entirely.
• A full opt-out is stored separately, in the Unsubscribed Emails tag set to true, which stops all marketing emails.

See Set up the email subscription preference center.

2. Check the message's segmentation

1. Segmentation criteria: newsletters and targeted campaigns are frequently sent to specific segments defined by tags or user attributes. If the user doesn't meet those criteria at the time the message is sent, they won't receive it.
2. Check message segmentation: review the setup of the specific message or campaign and identify the required tags or attributes for the target segment.
3. Check user profile: in User Explorer, verify the affected user actually has the necessary tags or attributes.
4. Timing is key: the user must match the segment criteria when the send is initiated. If a required tag was missing at that moment, they were excluded from that send even if the tag was added later.

3. Why other communications still arrive

The messages the user is receiving are likely a different type (transactional emails, a different category, or a different campaign/segment) for which they do meet the criteria, or are sent to broader audiences without the same segmentation rules.