Updating your SPF record
Why the portal asks you to update your domain's SPF record, how to make the change, and what to do if you already have one.
Once your mail flows through Footer365, your outbound email is sent through the Footer365 relay servers so signatures can be added. Your domain's SPF record needs to list those servers, or receiving mail systems may warn that a message could not be verified, and some mail may be treated as spam. The portal tells you exactly what to change.
With the Outlook add-in only, none of this applies. Your mail does not pass through Footer365's servers, so your SPF record needs no change and the portal never shows the banner. If you add mail flow later, the banner appears if a domain needs the change. Using the Outlook add-in only
When you see the message
The portal shows a yellow banner headed Action required: update your SPF record on the Dashboard, the Getting started page and the Users page under Access. It lists each of your email domains whose SPF record does not yet include Footer365, and gives you the record to publish for each one.
Your "onmicrosoft.com" domains are never listed or checked, because their SPF records belong to Microsoft and cannot be edited. That includes your initial domain and any other domain ending in onmicrosoft.com, such as a mail.onmicrosoft.com domain.
Make the change
- Find the domain in the banner.
- Select Copy beside the suggested record.
- Sign in to your DNS provider (the company that hosts your domain's DNS), or send the record to whoever manages it.
- Change the SPF record as the banner describes:
- If the banner says Change your current SPF record:, edit your existing TXT record that starts with
v=spf1and replace its value with the suggested record. - If the banner says "No SPF record was found. Add this TXT record at the root of your domain:", add a new TXT record at the root of the domain with the suggested value.
- If the banner says Change your current SPF record:, edit your existing TXT record that starts with
- Save the change and repeat for any other domains listed.
The banner clears itself once the new record is detected. DNS changes can take up to an hour to take effect. While the banner is showing, Footer365 re-checks your domains when you open one of these pages (at most once a minute), and it also re-checks every domain every six hours.
Edit your existing record rather than adding a second one. A domain must have only one SPF record. Two TXT records that both start with v=spf1 can make SPF checks fail for all of your mail, not just for Footer365.
What the change is
The suggested record is your current one with a single addition: include:_spf.footer365.net, placed just before the final all mechanism (such as -all or ~all). Everything else in your record stays as it is, so the servers you already allow are still allowed.
If you have no SPF record at all, the suggestion is a standard Microsoft 365 record with Footer365 added:
v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:_spf.footer365.net -all
If you manage SPF through another provider or tool, add include:_spf.footer365.net to your existing record yourself, before the final all mechanism.
The 10-lookup limit
SPF allows a record to trigger no more than 10 DNS lookups. The Footer365 include lists the relay servers' addresses directly rather than pointing at further includes, so adding it uses only the one lookup for the include itself. If your record is already close to the limit, check it with your DNS provider or an SPF checking tool after the change.
Good to know
- You can close the banner, but it comes back on the next page load until the record is detected.
- Footer365 keeps the list of servers behind
_spf.footer365.netup to date itself. You do not need to change your record again when Footer365 adds or changes a server. - SPF is one of three checks receiving servers use. SPF, DKIM and DMARC with Footer365
Related
Still stuck?
Tell us what you were trying to do and what you saw. Include the sender, a recipient and roughly when a message was sent, and we can trace it.