iCloud+ customer domain SPF issues on NameCheap

I have followed the directions a dozen times, over the past 10 days, and still cannot get iCloud+ to verify my custom domain.

The SPF record is exactly as required, and I have both copied and pasted, as well as manually entering. No matter what I try it tells me to check the SPF record. NameCheap does strip off the quotes around it, but there's nothing I can do about that. I have re-checked everything a million times, and even changed my customer domain identifier when it switched.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Posted on Feb 28, 2022 6:07 PM

Top-ranking reply

MXnightmare

Level 1

13 points

Posted on Apr 29, 2022 11:16 AM

Here’s what fixed mine. Going from Google workspace to apple+ with custom domain.

First make sure you delete the old MX records from Google workspace or any other service.

Don’t worry about the 72 hour thing if you have to delete whatever you’ve put in and restart it will happen almost instantly when you get it right.

secondly and most important Make sure you enter the SPF record FROM APPLE as a TXT type not spf - Add the spf info to another line with your other TXT so you should end up with two MX , TWO TXT and one CNAME

this fixed my issue and I’m up and running

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22 replies

Apr 26, 2022 3:48 PM in response to NotACleverHandle

Same problem here and it’s now holding up my business. I see so many people following the instructions to a T yet still having problems. A solution would be great rather than getting referred back to an article lol I love the support from Apple

Apr 29, 2022 6:41 AM in response to Lance Lawton

Thanks for the suggestion - unfortunately in my case I don't have a duplicate spf record.

My DNS provider doesn't allow the quotes around the spf record details, but it seems like that's okay as the instructions say to start with them but doesn't indicate they are required for it to work. Plus I'm using NameCheap - so if it doesn't work without them, it's not going to work for a zillion customers.

Yeah, I really like Apple products, but support around this is a complete joke.

Apr 29, 2022 8:24 AM in response to NotACleverHandle

Yeah. On the evidence so far, I reckon it's another instance of releasing a product before its been properly tested for bugs. And SPF looks to be pretty buggy still. Apple tech support and even engineering are still figuring it out on a case by case basis. Seems to be a good product for most users. But not if you're one of those who hit a bug like this.

May 17, 2022 1:23 PM in response to ralstonr

I am having the same issuesetting up the DNS records in Wix for my email address with my own domain. When I do the "Finish Setup" I get an error that says my SPF is not working. I thought it might be the delay of 72 hours but my email has been down for way more than 72 hours. I haven't called Apple Care yet but this thread makes it seem like that isn't going to be much help. I am only doing this with one email address.

I also tried setting up the SPF in the TXT area, as some suggested, and that makes the button to "Finish Setup" never appear in the Manage Domain process.

Apr 29, 2022 11:18 AM in response to Lance Lawton

The confusion is where Apple list the SPF as a SPF type and Google looks at it like a TXT type. So just list the SPF info on Google Ads TXT and it works fine

May 2, 2022 5:55 AM in response to ralstonr

Yup, I'm going to Fastmail too. It's not worth the effort to try to troubleshoot this anymore.

Jun 29, 2022 2:52 PM in response to Jayness33

I wanted to echo this recommendation -- I started off using the recommendation in the iCloud settings page regarding updating the MX settings, specifically, the SPF (TXT item) entry: "If you already have an SPF item in your settings, just add "include:icloud.com" (without the quotes) before the "~all". In my case, where Web Hosting Hub is my host, this instruction did not work -- I kept getting the "SPF Error" message in step 4 of iCloud.com settings. Like Jayness33 above, I did a trial and error approach, systematically removing items from my existing SPF item, each time getting the error.

Once I stripped out everything else, leaving the SPF statement as v=spf1 include:icloud.com ~all , saving the update, and waiting a few minutes, going back to iCloud.com Settings and repeating steps 3 and 4, I got this message:

Success! Note that it took a good 45 minutes or so for these addresses to work both sending and receiving from the Apple Mail client on my Mac running MacOS 12.4 Monterey.

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iCloud+ customer domain SPF issues on NameCheap