SPF issues – using WP to forward to Gmail

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  kristiaki · Member · Jun 27, 2023 at 1:40 pm

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  My blog website is http://www.artistickitchens.com.
  I have my email set up as forwarding to a free gmail account (not google workspace). I then use the gmail account and ‘send as’ my custom email address from my domain. I am receiving mail correctly, and I can send mail to non-gmail addresses, but when I try to send email to a gmail account, I get this error:

  Reason: There was an error while attempting to deliver your message with [Subject: ‘Fan 7:38’] to (email visible only to moderators and staff). MTA p3plsmtpa13-01.prod.phx3.secureserver.net received this response from the destination host IP – 142.251.2.27 – 550 , 550-5.7.26 This mail is unauthenticated, which poses a security risk to the
  550-5.7.26 sender and Gmail users, and has been blocked. The sender must
  550-5.7.26 authenticate with at least one of SPF or DKIM. For this message,
  550-5.7.26 DKIM checks did not pass and SPF check for [artistickitchens.com]
  550-5.7.26 did not pass with ip: [72.167.218.17]. The sender should visit
  550-5.7.26 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126#authentication for
  550 5.7.26 instructions on setting up authentication. bw19-20020a056a00409300b0067ea74ba1fbsi416538pfb.328 – gsmtp

  I can navigate to the place to manage my DNS records on my wordpress site, but I can’t for the life of me get the value correct. What value do I need for this?

  WP.com: Yes
  Jetpack: No
  Correct account: Yes

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  staff-doublebassd · Staff · Jun 27, 2023 at 6:53 pm

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  Hi there,
  
  Are you adding the SPF as a TXT record, correct? If so, you can add that by following the steps here: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/custom-dns/#adding-custom-dns-records

  Any TXT record (spf, DKIM, etc) should work as long as it is not over our 255 character limit for custom DNS records. In terms of what you need to place in the fields, I would confirm with your email provider Go Daddy that what you have been trying to add is correct.
  
  
  Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

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  kristiaki · Member · Jun 28, 2023 at 6:23 pm

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  Thanks for your reply! I know how to do it, I just don’t know what to physically put in that space as the value. I’ve tried so many combinations and none of them work.

  I currently have this in the txt record:
  v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

  Go Daddy isn’t my email provider. I purchased the domain from Go Daddy, but it just fowards to wordpress. I use wordpress to host my site and for email forwarding only, and it forwards to a free gmail. I can receive mail sent to my business address at my free gmail account, but I can’t send it out because of the SPF issue. Does that make sense?

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  staff-doublebassd · Staff · Jun 28, 2023 at 10:27 pm

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  Hi there,
  
  The SPF record looks correct, Based on your setup, have you tried adding a DKIM record, as it is a way to verify an email sender’s domain and may be the reason you are receiving this error? So, in addition to the SPF record you have above, you can create a new TXT field and add the DKIM record there.
  –
  Let me know, thanks!