Replace the ptr mechanism in the SPF record on Cloudflare

Why it matters

ptr is deprecated: slow, unreliable when DNS has errors, and adds lookups, so mail relying on it can fail SPF. Listing addresses or includes directly is more reliable.

Staged change. Do this in stages and check each one before the next, so a mistake does not break your site or your mail.

The fix

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard open DNS > Records, edit the SPF TXT record: add the ip4, ip6 or include terms that replace ptr, remove ptr, and save.
2. Watch your DMARC reports for a few days for legitimate mail that now fails SPF, and add any sender that was missing.

Type:     TXT
Name:     example.com
Content:  v=spf1 ip4:203.0.113.25 include:_spf.YOUR-MAIL-PROVIDER.example ~all

The examples use example.com. Replace it with your own domain.

Read the documentation ↗(opens in a new tab)

Related

• Reported by the SPF record check
• Publish an SPF record
• Merge the SPF records into one
• Fix the syntax error in the SPF record
• Replace +all in the SPF record with ~all
• Narrow the very large address range in the SPF record
• Change ?all in the SPF record to ~all
• Choose the right SPF ending for this domain
• End the SPF record with ~all or -all
• Bring the SPF record under 10 DNS lookups
• Leave room under the SPF lookup limit
• Remove SPF terms that point at names that no longer exist
• Fix the SPF include that has no SPF record
• Break the loop in the SPF includes
• Replace the include that has several SPF records
• Check the SPF terms that use macros
• Re-run the scan if part of the SPF record could not be read