Why did my Attentive email opens jump?
The Attentive help pages give 3 common reasons. The first to rule out: The Mail app on Apple devices can load email images ahead of time, and Attentive then counts those emails as opened even when the person did not open them.
Is it broken, or just quiet?
A number can fall because fewer people came, or because something stopped counting them. Below are the causes the Attentive help pages give, and how to check each one yourself.
What causes it?
The Mail app on Apple devices can load email images ahead of time, and Attentive then counts those emails as opened even when the person did not open them.
In the Attentive help:
With the release of iOS 15, images in emails are prefetched and cached by the Mail app on Apple devices. This means that these emails are counted as opened in Attentive even when the recipient didn’t actually open the email themselves.
Reporting metrics glossary, read 2026-11-12.The total opens figure counts every time a message was opened, so the same people opening an email more than once raise it.
In the Attentive help:
Number of times a message was opened.
Reporting metrics glossary, read 2026-11-12.If Audiences AI is turned on, it can add subscribers likely to buy to a campaign and leave out those less likely to, so who receives the email can change between campaigns.
In the Attentive help:
When enabled, Audiences AI may add additional subscribers likely to make a purchase and exclude subscribers less likely to purchase.
Reporting metrics glossary, read 2026-11-12.
How do I check it myself?
Compare unique opens, which count each recipient once, with total opens to see whether the jump is more people or more repeat opens.
In the Attentive help:
Number of recipients who opened a message.
Reporting metrics glossary, read 2026-11-12.Build a segment that sets aside subscribers whose Apple devices open emails for them, to see how much of the jump comes from those subscribers.
In the Attentive help:
In Attentive, you can use dynamic segments to exclude subscribers who have Apple MPP enabled on their devices, i.e., their devices open their emails for them.
Create segments of engaged email subscribers, read 2026-11-12.
How does Attentive work with Feder?
- Connect Attentive to Feder and it joins your Reach apps.
- When you connect Attentive, Feder checks the connection straight away and shows Connected only when that check passes. If a reading cannot be taken later, Feder shows it as not read, never as zero.
Some numbers are too quiet to judge daily, such as a form filled in a few times a week. Until there is enough of your own history to judge a change, Feder says it is still learning and scores nothing, rather than guessing.
See whether you can trust the numbers in Attentive, one of your Reach apps. Feder only reads. It never changes anything in Attentive.
What else goes wrong with these numbers?
- Why did my Attentive message sends drop?Attentive
- Why doesn't my Attentive subscriber total add up?Attentive
- Why did Google Analytics stop collecting data?Google Analytics
- Why aren't my key events showing in Google Analytics?Google Analytics
- Why does Google Analytics show (not set)?Google Analytics
See every question.
Where do these answers come from?
Every cause and check on this page comes from the Attentive help pages, quoted above with the date we read them. Last reviewed 2026-11-12. We read them again by 2027-11-12. If one changes, this page changes or comes down.