How to resolve problems with spf / softfail?

Question

I'm having problems with Google rejecting mail because of SPF problems. I thought I had this fixed, but evidently not...

The mail is being sent from a Drupal site running mimemail. A message that shows the problem looks like:

Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning sender@sender.com does not designate xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx as permitted sender) client-ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;
To: "reg" <reg@receiver.com>
Subject: Message Subject here
MIME-Version:1.0
Content-Type:multipart/mixed;
 boundary="ca08a4eb4d5f903d3ee41d8632611e3ff9f7e67713"
Content-Transfer-Encoding:8Bit
Sender:Sender <sender@sender.com>
From:Sender <sender@sender.com>
Message-Id: <20140402172102.3E486101774@sender.com>
Date: Wed,  2 Apr 2014 17:21:02 +0000 (UTC)

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--ca08a4eb4d5f903d3ee41d8632611e3ff9f7e67713
Content-Type:multipart/alternative;
 boundary="2db314e2a942d712c21894936b800a2c7998463d12"
Content-Transfer-Encoding:8bit


--2db314e2a942d712c21894936b800a2c7998463d12
Content-Type:text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Disposition:inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding:8bit

Message text goes here...

--2db314e2a942d712c21894936b800a2c7998463d12
Content-Type:text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Disposition:inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding:8Bit

<html>
<html text goes here>
</html>

--2db314e2a942d712c21894936b800a2c7998463d12--

--ca08a4eb4d5f903d3ee41d8632611e3ff9f7e67713--

[Apologies for the anonomyzing.]

The SPF records for the domain, obtained from http://www.whatsmyip.us/txt, look like:

v=spf1 ip4:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ~all , ttl : 14144
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all , ttl : 14144
v=spf1 a -all , ttl : 14144
v=spf1 ip4:xxx.xxx.xxx.yyy ~all , ttl : 14144

similarly anonymized.

I can't figure out what's wrong -- the appropriate SPF records seem to be in place. The only issue I can see is that I have indeed set up (or tried to set up) two servers as legal senders for the domain; this is meant to cover both a production and a development server (let's call them sender.com and dev.sender.com). Is this an issue?

Any thoughts about what's wrong? Again, I thought this was once working correctly, but it's definitely not now. Thanks!

There's too much anonymization here -- please at the very least use example.com records to show us where exactly those four SPF records live; if they're all on just one domain, well, that's your problem, but if they're separate we need to know where they are in relation to each other to help you. — Kromey, Apr 03 '14 at 16:43

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 03 '14 at 16:46

19

You can only have one SPF record. Since you created four of them, which one actually gets used is essentially random. You should combine them together into a single record.

answered Apr 03 '14 at 16:46

Michael Hampton

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Aha -- so this would be something like `v=spf1 ip4:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ip4:xxx.xxx.xxx.yyy include:_spf.google.com -all` ? – Jim Miller Apr 03 '14 at 16:57
That's the general idea, yes. – Michael Hampton Apr 03 '14 at 16:58
Thx! -- I'll try it and report back. – Jim Miller Apr 03 '14 at 16:58
1

Bingo! The domain's SPF records are updated and mail is getting through, with the domain "designated as permitted sender". Thanks! – Jim Miller Apr 03 '14 at 20:05
Have in mind that hardfail can be a bitch. Sending an email through a relaying server i.e. an email is being forwarded, might reject your email at the reciepient. Softfail is IMO the best solution. – SteffenNielsen Oct 15 '15 at 11:14
[That is not the view of all here](http://serverfault.com/questions/369460/what-are-spf-records-and-how-do-i-configure-them/369478#369478). – MadHatter Oct 15 '15 at 12:36

How to resolve problems with spf / softfail?

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