iCloud+ Custom Email – “Check your SPF record” Error Despite Correct DNS Settings

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to set up a custom domain with iCloud Mail (iCloud+), but I keep getting the error “Check your SPF record”during verification – even though I believe all DNS records are set up correctly.

I’ve added the required DNS records as instructed. Checking via whatsmydns.net, all records (including TXT) propagate successfully across all regions. It’s been over 72 hours since I updated them, so DNS propagation should not be the issue.

For privacy reasons, I won’t share my domain name publicly, but here are the TXT records I have set:

"v=spf1 include:icloud.com ~all"  
apple-domain=XXXX

(where XXXX is the unique ID Apple provides for domain verification)

My domain is hosted on Name.com. Previously, I used this domain with another email provider and everything worked fine. However, I later deleted all old DNS records (except the A record) and added only the new ones required for iCloud.

Is there anything else I should check? Could there be some caching or hidden DNS record still interfering? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!