Troubleshoot domain email delivery issues

Your custom domain email (@yourgroovydomain.com) may experience technical issues that prevent emails from being sent or received. In this guide, you will learn how to resolve common problems with domain email services like Professional Email, Google Workspace, and other providers.

DNS records tell email providers where to deliver your emails. Incorrectly configured DNS records can cause errors like “Email failed to send”. To check your domain uses the correct DNS records, choose your provider’s instructions below:

• Professional Email: Follow these steps to verify your DNS records for Professional Email are set up.
• Google Workspace: Reset or set up your DNS records for Google Workspace.
• Microsoft 365: Make sure you have verified your domain with Office 365.
• Other providers: Contact their support team to verify that you are using the correct DNS records. Once you have the correct records, follow this guide to add the DNS records.

DNS changes typically take 24-72 hours to fully propagate. Some changes may work within a few hours, but allow up to 72 hours for complete activation.

Only one email service can be active on your domain at a time. If you have DNS records for different email providers, that may cause your emails to not work properly. That includes our email forwarding service or email forwarding from other email providers.

To clean up conflicting email records:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. Navigate to Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if using WP Admin) to see all the domains associated with that site.
3. Click on your domain.
4. Select the “DNS records” option and click the “Manage” button.
5. Click the three dots next to the outdated records you wish to delete.
6. Click on the “Delete” option.

Only remove records you’re certain belong to old or unused email services. When in doubt, contact your current email provider for guidance on which DNS records are necessary to keep.

If you accidentally deleted an email account, or your subscription expired, recovery options depend on your email provider and how quickly you act.

• Professional Email: Learn how to restore a deleted mailbox or expired email subscription.
• Other email providers: Contact your email provider’s support team for recovery options and policies.

If people tell you they’re not receiving emails you send from your domain email, or your emails are going to their spam folders, try these solutions:

1. Ask recipients to add your email address to their contacts or address book.
2. Avoid using spam trigger words in your subject lines (phrases like “FREE!” “Act now!” or “Limited time offer”).
3. Set up email authentication records (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) through your email provider.
4. Test email delivery with multiple providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) to identify if specific providers are blocking your emails. If certain providers consistently block your emails, contact their support team or ask recipients to whitelist your domain.

Review the following records, depending on your email provider:

• Professional Email: We automatically add the SPF record, the DKIM record and a DMARC record.
• Google Workspace: You can verify the SPF record exists or learn how to turn on DKIM for your domain and add your DMARC record.
• Other email providers: Check with your email provider for the correct SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.

If you use multiple email services (such as Google Workspace, Mailchimp, and WordPress hosting), you must combine their SPF records into a single DNS entry. Adding separate SPF records will cause email authentication to fail and prevent your emails from being delivered.

To merge SPF records:

1. Identify all services that require SPF authentication (email provider, newsletter tools, transactional email services).
2. Find each service’s SPF include string in their documentation.
3. Combine all include: statements into one SPF record.
4. Add the merged record to your domain’s DNS settings.

Make sure to delete any existing SPF records after you have added your merged SPF record.

For example, instead of this:

 yourgroovydomain.com TXT "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all" yourgroovydomain.com TXT "v=spf1 include:servers.mcsv.net ~all" 

Do this instead:

 yourgroovydomain.com TXT "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:servers.mcsv.net ~all"