Are you getting emails bounced back when sending to Google Gmail email addresses from an Ionos account?

We recently found out some companies who run their emails through the Ionos Mail Servers were getting messages returned as undeliverable.

Error messages went along the lines of:

Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender. This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of the recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address failed.

And it gives you some insight into the failure in the errors.

For example: “SMTP error from remote server for TEXT command, host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com” and it goes on to add “authenticate with at least one of SPF or DKIM”. SPF is just a line of text in a DNS TXT record that has tags and values. Tags are mechanisms and the values are IP addresses or domain names.

With Ionos, they have a help page relevant to this. You can visit their Using IONOS SPF to Improve Email Delivery page

The reason this seems to be an issue for established websites is that Ionos only introduced this automatically to websites from 13 December 2022 onwards. Website domains purchased prior to this will most likely need this extra piece of info added to the DNS record.

If you’re looking for the SPF Google Email fix, then here it is:

It’s a simply enough process if you have access to the hosting and DNS.

Step 1: Log in to your Ionos domain hosting, select the relevant domain* and then click the DNS tab.
*Remember this is the domain settings relevant to the email address you are sending emails from.

Step 2: Once in the DNS tab settings, click Add Record. Select the IONOS SPF (TXT) option.

Step 3: Click Save.

A TXT record for “IONOS SPF” is now created for your domain. You shouldn’t not need to do anything else. Remember it may take up to 48hrs for this change to take effect. If you are experiencing these failed delivery issues and you are with another provider, it would beneficial to check the DNS settings to see if you have an SPF TXT record. If not, and it’s not obvious how to add one, just give your hosting company a call, and we’re sure they’ll help you out.

More information is also available at Google Support by clicking the link below.

Help prevent spoofing and spam with SPF

Google Workspace Admin Help – answer #33786