Adobe Sign agreement stuck at "waiting for others" - one signer never got the email
Fixes Adobe Sign agreements stuck at 'waiting for others' when a signer never got the email. Use when one participant blocks an agreement and claims no email arrived. Key trigger: check the audit trail for bounces, then resend or correct the address.
TL;DR: "Waiting for others" is accurate - the agreement is fine, the email never reached the human. Check the participant's address for typos, look at the audit trail for a bounce, then resend with a reminder or replace the participant with the corrected address. If your org filters aggressively, get the Adobe Sign sender domain allowlisted.
waiting for othersOpen the agreement in Manage and check the participant list and audit trail. Expected: the stuck signer's status shows sent, delivered, or bounced - a bounce or typo is the smoking gun.
Verify the email address character for character against what the signer gave you. Expected: you either confirm it or find the typo.
Send a reminder from the agreement's Manage page. Expected: status updates to show the reminder; ask the signer to check spam.
If the address was wrong, use Replace Participant (or edit the participant) to correct it. Expected: the agreement re-sends to the right inbox and the signer can act.
If the address was right but nothing arrives, have IT allowlist Adobe Sign's sender domain and check quarantine. Expected: the next reminder lands in the inbox.
Use this when
- an agreement sits at "waiting for others" and one signer says they got nothing
- the agreement is otherwise healthy (other signers completed)
- this is a first-time signer at a new company (filters are the usual suspect)
Not for this skill when
- the agreement expired (it needs to be re-sent, not reminded)
- the signer got the email but cannot open it (check their PDF reader or link handling)
- NOBODY got emails (check the sender account status instead)
Variant phrasings
adobe sign waiting for others signer did not receive email
adobe sign reminder not received
adobe sign email not arriving to signer
Why it happens
Adobe Sign hands the email to the recipient's mail system and waits. Corporate filters, quarantine policies, and typos all produce the same symptom: no bounce visible to the sender, no email for the signer, agreement parked at "waiting for others" indefinitely.
Edge cases
- Some signers' "spam" is actually a quarantine digest their IT holds; the reminder alone never escapes it.
- If the signer changed jobs mid-flow, replace the participant rather than forwarding the link.
- Delegation rules at the signer's org can reroute the request silently - ask them to check with their admin.
- Agreements have expiry dates; a long-stuck agreement may need a fresh send, not a reminder.
Provenance
Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_J2NX8dqMEFkuaa7XgwfIPA