Check that your mail provider is listed in the SPF record
Why it matters
The MX records show that Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 hosts your mail, but the SPF record does not include that provider's sending servers, so mail it sends for you can fail SPF and depend on DKIM alone. The scan cannot see who sends for you, so this is a prompt to check, not a proven fault.
Staged change. Do this in stages and check each one before the next, so a mistake does not break your site or your mail.
The fix
- Find out whether your provider sends your outgoing mail (it does when you write from the Gmail or Outlook web app or from a mail program connected to the account). If mail only leaves through other services that are already in the record, leave it as it is.
- Add the provider's include inside the existing v=spf1 record, before the final all: include:_spf.google.com for Google Workspace, include:spf.protection.outlook.com for Microsoft 365. Do not add a second v=spf1 record.
- The +mx or +a terms do not cover this: they authorise the servers that receive your mail, not the ones the provider sends from.
- Re-scan afterwards and watch the SPF lookup count, which must stay at 10 or below.
dns
; Google Workspace example.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all" ; Microsoft 365 example.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all"
The examples use example.com. Replace it with your own domain.
Related
- Reported by the SPF record check
- Publish an SPF record
- Merge the SPF records into one
- Fix the syntax error in the SPF record
- Replace +all in the SPF record with ~all
- Narrow the very large address range in the SPF record
- Change ?all in the SPF record to ~all
- Choose the right SPF ending for this domain
- End the SPF record with ~all or -all
- Bring the SPF record under 10 DNS lookups
- Leave room under the SPF lookup limit
- Remove SPF terms that point at names that no longer exist
- Fix the SPF include that has no SPF record
- Break the loop in the SPF includes
- Replace the include that has several SPF records
- Replace the ptr mechanism in the SPF record
- Check the SPF terms that use macros
- Re-run the scan if part of the SPF record could not be read
Scan your domain to see whether this applies to you.