A modifier found in your SPF record will be ignored by inboxes based on your current SPF record. This is due to a misconfiguration in your SPF record, which can negatively impact email delivery.
This issue is most often caused by two misconfigurations:
1. Your record contains both an all mechanism and a redirect modifier (This may negatively impact your email delivery)
Example of misconfigured record: v=spf1 redirect:mxtoolbox.com ~all
In the above example, if both the all and redirect are present in the record, the redirect modifier SHALL be ignored by mailservers. If you are using the redirect to point to another domain that manages your SPF record, then this misconfiguration will break your SPF. To fix this problem, you need to remove the all mechanism from your SPF record.
2. Your record contains an exp modifier with a value that is not a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
For example: v=spf1 ip4:1.2.3.4 include:somedomain.com exp:hello ~all
In the above example (which will trigger this warning), the highlighted exp modifier does not contain a FQDN, as such the recipient mail server will ignore that modifier. This issue does NOT affect email delivery, but if you are using the exp modifier for a specific purpose, then this will alert you that it is not currently working.
SPF is the cornerstone of your email delivery strategy.
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