Error response types

Error response types you can expect to receive when an API request fails

With the Dotdigital API, you can expect conventional HTTP response codes to indicate the success or failure of an API request.

Typically, HTTP response codes mean:

  • 200 range - a successful request
  • 400 range - a failed request (a request parameter wasn't included, an object couldn't be found, etc.)
  • 500 range - an error with our servers (these will be rare)

400 range HTTP response codes indicating a failed request come with an error response type in the body of the response, all of which are outlined below:

ERROR_ACCOUNT_INVALID
The account is not valid. This means you are trying to reference an account that doesn’t exist or has certain restrictions placed upon it. Please contact our support department if you require assistance.

ERROR_ADDRESSBOOK_DUPLICATE
There is already an address book or segment with that name in the account. Please make sure that the name of the address book you are using is unique and not one of the reserved address book names such as 'Test' or 'All Contacts'.

ERROR_ADDRESSBOOK_IN_USE
The address book you are attempting to use in your request is in use – retrying later may succeed.

ERROR_ADDRESSBOOK_INVALID
This address book is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the address book object you are sending to the method/operation, or you are referring to a non-existent address book. Check that your address book object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_ADDRESSBOOK_LIMITEXCEEDED
Your account will have a limited number of address books, which depends on the level of account you're using. You have currently exceeded this limit. Please delete some of your unused address books.

ERROR_ADDRESSBOOK_NOT_FOUND
The address book you have specified with the addressBookId argument does not relate to an address book which exists in the account you are currently connected to.

ERROR_ADDRESSBOOK_NOTWRITABLE
The address book you have specified with the addressBookId argument relates to an address book which cannot be written to. For example, you cannot upload contacts to the 'Test' address book via the API.

ERROR_ADDRESSBOOK_TOOMANY
You have requested program enrolment from too many address books. Please reduce the number of address books in your array.

ERROR_APIUSAGE_EXCEEDED
The last method/operation call you made exceeded the cut-off of 2000 API calls in a one hour period. You will be unable to make any further API calls until the number of API calls made in the last hour goes below this figure. Please review your code to determine what is causing this excess usage.

ERROR_APIUSER_INVALID
The API user credentials that you have used in the request are invalid. You may have entered them incorrectly. Please check that your credentials are being entered correctly.

ERROR_BODY_DOES_NOT_MATCH_CONTENT_TYPE
The body of your request does not match the content type. Please check that the content type is set correctly.

ERROR_CAMPAIGN_CONTAINS_UNSUPPORTED_BLOCKS - The campaign you're attempting to send can't be sent because it contains unsupported EasyEditor building blocks and links.

ERROR_CAMPAIGN_INVALID
The campaign that you are attempting to create has some invalid properties. Please check the settings you are using for this campaign.

ERROR_CAMPAIGN_NOT_FOUND
The campaign you are trying to get could not be found within the account. It is likely that you are using the incorrect ID number.

ERROR_CAMPAIGN_READONLY
The campaign you are trying to update cannot be updated - please check that you have the right ID.

ERROR_CAMPAIGN_SEND_INVALID
The campaign send is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the campaign send object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your campaign send object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_CAMPAIGN_SENDNOTPERMITTED
We cannot permit you to send this campaign. This will most likely be because your account is not fully enabled.

ERROR_CANNOT_PERFORM_OPERATION_ON_ACCOUNT
The operation that your request is trying to perform can’t be executed on your account.

ERROR_CONTACTS_ARE_NOT_SPECIFIED
The request you are making is not specifying the contacts that are required. Make sure you have included these in your request.

ERROR_CONTACT_INVALID
The contact you are trying to add is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the contact object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your contact object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_CONTACT_NOT_FOUND
The ID of the contact you have selected is not present within the account.

ERROR_CONTACT_RESUBSCRIPTION_INVALID
The contact resubscription is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the contact resubscription object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your contact resubscription object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_CONTACT_SUPPRESSED
The contact you are trying to add to the address book has been suppressed. This means that you cannot add the contact back into the address book or the account.

ERROR_CONTACT_SUPPRESSEDFORADDRESSBOOK
The contact you are attempting to add is suppressed for this address book.

ERROR_CONTACT_TOOMANY
You have exceeded the number of contacts permitted for your account type. Please consider upgrading your account.

ERROR_CONTENT_TYPE_IS_NOT_SUPPORTED
The content type is not supported. Please check that you have set a supported content type for your request.

ERROR_DATAFIELD_INVALID
The data field is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the data field object you are sending to the method/operation, or you are referring to a non-existent data field. Check that your data field object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_DATAFIELD_LIMITEXCEEDED
You currently have more than the allowed contact data fields in your account, despite the fact that we advertise unlimited contact data fields per account for some account levels. Please delete some of your unused contact data fields in order to create more.

ERROR_DATAFIELD_NOTFOUND
One or more of the contact data fields you are trying to set for the contact does not exist. Please make sure that you create any required contact data fields before attempting to assign values to them.

ERROR_DATAFIELD_VALUE_OVERFLOW
There has been a data field value overflow.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_ATTACHMENTSTOOLARGE
Your attachments are too large. They have reached the maximum limit. Please reduce the size.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_DATAEMPTY
There is no data supplied for this document object. Please ensure this document exists in your account and has valid data.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_FOLDER_INVALID
The document folder is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the document folder object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your document folder object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_FOLDER_NOT_FOUND
The document folder could not be found within the account. Either it has been deleted or it is likely that you are using the incorrect ID number.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_INVALID
The document is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the document object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your document object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_NAMEINVALID
The document provided has an invalid name. Please check that the name is correct.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_NOT_FOUND
The document object could not be found within the account. Either it has been deleted or it is likely that you are using the incorrect ID number.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_TOOLARGE
The document that you're attempting to add is too large. It exceeds the maximum size of 10MB.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_TOOMANYATTACHMENTS
Your campaign has reached the maximum amount of attachments it is allowed to have. Please reduce this amount.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_UNSUPPORTEDFORMAT
The document is not in a supported format. Please ensure you use the correct format.

ERROR_DOCUMENT_ALREADYATTACHED
You are attempting to attach a document object that is already attached to this campaign.

ERROR_EMAIL_BANNED
You are attempting to add an email address that is banned from the system.

ERROR_ENROLMENT_ALLOWANCE_EXCEEDED
You have exceeded the limit of 20 calls per hour for creating program enrolments across all programs. You will be unable to make any further calls to create program enrolments until the number made in the last hour goes below this figure.

ERROR_ENROLMENT_INVALID
The program enrolment you are trying to create or retrieve is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the enrolment object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your enrolment object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_ENROLMENT_IS_PROCESSING
The program enrolment faults report in your request can’t be retrieved because the enrolment is still processing.

ERROR_ENROLMENT_NOT_FOUND
The program enrolment you are trying to retrieve or reference in your call does not exist. Please make sure that the program enrolment ID (GUID) you are using is correct.

ERROR_FEATURENOTACTIVE
The feature your call is referencing is not active on your account (e.g. transactional email). Please make sure this feature is enabled before calling it again.

ERROR_IMAGE_DATAEMPTY
There is no data supplied for this image object. Please ensure this image exists in your account and has valid data.

ERROR_IMAGE_FOLDER_NOT_FOUND
The ID of the image folder could not be found within the account. Either it has been deleted or it is likely that you are using the incorrect ID number.

ERROR_IMAGE_FOLDER_DELETED
The image folder you have selected has been deleted.

ERROR_IMAGE_FOLDER_INVALID
The image folder is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the image folder object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your image folder object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_IMAGE_INVALID
The image is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the image object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your image object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_IMAGE_NAMEINVALID
The image object provided has an invalid name. Please check that the name is correct.

ERROR_IMAGE_PARENTFOLDERISFULL
The parent image folder that you are attempting to add the child folder to is now full.

ERROR_IMAGE_UNSUPPORTEDFORMAT
The image object is not in a supported format. Please ensure you use the correct format.

ERROR_IMPORT_NOT_FOUND
The GUID you have provided does not relate to an import in our system. Please check that you are entering the correct GUID.

ERROR_IMPORT_REPORT_NOT_FOUND
The import report object could not be found within the account. Please check that you are entering the correct GUID.

ERROR_IMPORT_TOOMANYACTIVEIMPORTS
You currently have more than 25 imports running at the same time.

ERROR_IMPORT_UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT
The import object is not in a supported format. Please ensure you use the correct format.

ERROR_INVALID_APIUSEREXISTS
You cannot attempt to recreate an API user which already exists.

ERROR_INVALID_EMAIL
The email address of the contact you are adding is invalid. Each contact object must contain a valid email address.

ERROR_INVALID_LOGIN
The username or password you are attempting to authenticate your method call with is invalid. Please make sure you have used the correct details. If your login attempt is still unsuccessful please follow the steps to reset your username and password as set out in the documentation. This error is also returned if the account you are attempting to connect to is turned off or disabled.

ERROR_INVALID_PERSONALISATION_VALUES
The personalisation values you've used aren't valid JSON strings and aren't escaped properly (especially when an HTML string is provided in the 'Value').

ERROR_MALFORMED_REQUEST
Your request is not formed correctly. Please check our documentation to make sure you have included all of the required parameters in your request and that it is formed correctly.

ERROR_MANAGED_USER_INVALID
The API managed user credentials that you have used in the request are invalid. You may have entered them incorrectly. Please check that the managed user credentials are being entered correctly.

ERROR_MISSING_SETUPKEYVALUES
You have not included all setup keys.

ERROR_MULTI_FILE_UPLOAD_NOT_ALLOWED
You have attempted to upload multiple files in a call, which isn’t allowed. Please upload one file per call.

ERROR_NO_EMAIL_COLUMN
The data file you are attempting to import does not contain an Email column. This column is required when importing a file of data.

ERROR_NON_UNIQUE_DATAFIELD
The data field you are trying to create already exists within the account you are connected to. Please either use the existing data field or choose a different name.

ERROR_NON_UNIQUE_EMAIL
The email address that you are trying to use is not unique.

ERROR_OAUTH_TOKEN_INVALID
The OAuth token being entered with the call is invalid. You may have entered it incorrectly. Please check that the OAuth token is being entered correctly.

ERROR_PARAMETER_INVALID
One of the method/operation arguments you are sending is invalid.

ERROR_PREFERENCE_INVALID
One of the preferences or preference categories is invalid. Possible reasons for this error message include the following: Not including private name for a preference, and assigning a preference category to another preference category.

ERROR_PREFERENCE_NOT_FOUND
A preference or preference category with the given ID does not exist.

ERROR_PROGRAM_NOT_ACTIVE
You are attempting to create a program enrolment for a program that isn’t yet active. A program must be active before it can enrol.

ERROR_PROGRAM_NOT_FOUND
The program you are trying to retrieve or reference in your call does not exist. Please make sure that the program ID you are using is correct.

ERROR_SEGMENT_NOT_FOUND
The segment object could not be found within the account. Either it has been deleted or it is likely that you are using the incorrect ID number.

ERROR_SEND_LIMITEXCEEDED
You have exceeded the amount of sends your account is allowed this month. Please contact your account manager if you wish to send more.

ERROR_SMS_INVALID
The SMS is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the SMS object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your SMS object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_SMS_INVALIDPHONENUMBER
The phone number you have attempted to send to is invalid.

ERROR_SMS_SENDNOTPERMITTED
You do not have sufficient credit within your account for this SMS send. Please contact your account manager if you need more sending credits.

ERROR_SURVEY_NOT_FOUND
The survey you are trying to retrieve or reference in your call does not exist. Please make sure that the survey ID you are using is correct.

ERROR_SYSTEM_SERVICETEMPORARILYUNAVAILABLE
The API is temporarily down, most likely for scheduled maintenance, for which you should have received notification; if you did not please subscribe to our user warning list to be notified of these updates in future.

ERROR_TRANSACTIONAL_DATA_COLLECTION_DOES_NOT_EXIST
The transactional data collection you are trying to retrieve or reference in your call does not exist. Please make sure that the collection name you are using is correct.

ERROR_TRANSACTIONAL_DATA_INVALID_COLLECTION_NAME
The transactional data collection name you are trying to create isn't valid. Valid transactional data collection names can only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), dashes ( - ) and underscores ( _ ), they can't start with a number and they can't exceed 255 characters in length. Please make sure that the collection name you are creating is valid.

ERROR_TEMPLATE_INVALID
The template is not valid. This means that there is something incorrect with the template object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your template object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_TEMPLATE_NOT_FOUND
The template object could not be found within the account. Either it has been deleted or it is likely that you are using the incorrect ID number.

ERROR_THEME_INVALID
You are attempting to set up an account with an invalid theme. Please check that the theme is correct.

ERROR_TRANSACTIONAL_DATA_DOES_NOT_EXIST
This piece of transactional data does not exist. Either it has been deleted or it is likely that you are using the incorrect collection name or key.

ERROR_TRANSACTIONAL_DATA_STORAGE_ALLOWANCE_EXCEEDED
You have exceeded your transactional data storage allowance.

ERROR_TRANSACTIONAL_DATA_VALIDATION_FAILED
The validation of the transactional data failed. This means that there is something incorrect with the transactional data object you are sending to the method/operation. Check that your transactional data object is valid by checking the definition in the documentation.

ERROR_UNKNOWN
We don't know what went wrong. Please contact our support department if you require assistance.

ERROR_UNKNOWN_ACCOUNT
The account is unknown. This means you are trying to reference an account that isn’t recognised. Please contact our support department if you require assistance.

ERROR_USERACCOUNT_UNKNOWN
This user account is not known. Please check the details you are using are valid.

ERROR_WEAK_PASSWORD
The password set for your API credentials is too weak.