How to Fix “No DMARC Record Found” in 5 Easy Steps

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“No DMARC record found” error means that your domain is missing DMARC record. Fix this error by simply adding the missing DMARC record on your domain’s DNS.

by Maitham Al Lawati

Reading Time: 9 min
How to Fix “No DMARC Record Found” in 5 Easy Steps
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“No DMARC record found” is an error you may come across if your domain is missing the DMARC record. Fixing this error may be as simple as having a DMARC record published on your domain’s DNS.

Similar variations of the same error may be as follows:

  • No DMARC record
  • No DMARC record found
  • DMARC record is missing
  • No DMARC found
  • DMARC record not found
  • No DMARC record published
  • DMARC policy not enabled

Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance, or DMARC, is an email authentication protocol that can protect your domain from phishing attacks. Email validation systems like DMARC have become increasingly popular in recent years because of the surge in email-based cyberattacks. According to the FBI IC3 Report, phishing was the most prevalent cybercrime of 2021, taking up 22% of all data breaches! This further demonstrates the immediate need for advanced email security measures like DMARC to boost anti-phishing measures.

This article takes you through step-by-step guidelines on fixing the “no DMARC record found” error for your domain by getting a published DMARC record.

Key Takeaways

  • “No DMARC Record Found” indicates that your domain lacks a published DMARC record, leaving it vulnerable to phishing and email spoofing.r
  • DMARC is essential for email authentication, building on SPF and DKIM to prevent cyber threats like Business Email Compromise (BEC).
  • Fixing the error involves generating a DMARC record, selecting an enforcement policy (p=none, p=quarantine, or p=reject), and adding it to your DNS.
  • Proper implementation is crucial, as setting p=reject without monitoring can block legitimate emails and disrupt communication.
  • Ongoing monitoring with tools like PowerDMARC ensures email security, prevents future errors, and improves deliverability.
  • PowerDMARC simplifies deployment, offering 100% compliance, human-readable reports, and expert-guided policy enforcement.

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Why is a DMARC Record Needed

A DMARC record is essential for protecting against email spoofing, phishing, and domain abuse by building on SPF and DKIM authentication protocols to validate emails. Without a DMARC record, your domain is vulnerable to cyberattacks like Business Email Compromise (BEC) and phishing, which harm brand reputation, compromise sensitive data, and cause financial loss. 

Failing to implement a reject policy within DMARC further weakens its effectiveness, leaving your domain exposed to threats and increasing email deliverability issues. To safeguard your domain, analyze email flows with “p=none,” progress to “p=quarantine,” and enforce a “p=reject” policy to prevent unauthorized emails from reaching recipients.

Prerequisites For Fixing the Error

Before you start fixing the “no DMARC record found” error by setting up your DMARC record, make sure you have the following in place: 

Set Up SPF Authentication

To ensure your emails are authenticated and reduce the chances of them being marked as spam, you’ll need to publish a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record. SPF is defined under RFC 7208. Here’s how you can do it:

  • Generate the SPF record: Use a free SPF record generator tool. Input your domain and any IP addresses, or third-party email senders that you authorize to send emails on your behalf.
  • Format your SPF record: The format for an SPF record usually looks something like this:
  • Publish the Record in Your DNS: Go to your domain hosting provider’s DNS management console. Add a new DNS TXT record. Paste the generated SPF record into the TXT value field. Save the changes and allow some time for DNS propagation.

Set Up DKIM Authentication

Setting up DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) authentication involves configuring your mail server to sign outgoing messages with a unique cryptographic signature. This signature ensures that the message hasn’t been altered during transit and verifies that it comes from your domain. DKIM is defined under RFC 6376. 

Implementation steps:

  • Generate a DKIM record: First, you need to create a DKIM record using a DKIM record generator
  • Add DKIM record to DNS: Next, log in to your DNS management portal. Create a new TXT record using the DKIM selector and paste the public key into the TXT record field. 
  • Configure mail server with DKIM: Now, you need to configure your mail server to sign outgoing emails with DKIM:
  • Test DKIM configuration: Finally, test your configuration using our DKIM lookup tool. 

Note: It is not mandatory to set up both SPF and DKIM before implementing DMARC, but it is a recommended approach for enhanced security. Setting up either of the two protocols is necessary for DMARC deployment. 

Now let’s discuss the steps to set up your DMARC record: 

How to Fix “No DMARC Record Found” Error in 5 Steps

On encountering the “no DMARC record found” error, you can get your DMARC record created and published on your domain to troubleshoot the error easily. Given below are the steps for automatic and effortless DMARC deployment. 

Step 1: Detect the Error

It is important to first find out whether or not the “no DMARC record found” error is present. To do so, sign up on the PowerDMARC portal and inspect your dashboard for registered domains. If you find the “No record found” message on your dashboard, this affirms that the error exists.

Alternatively, you can check your DMARC record with our free DMARC checker tool to confirm the presence of a record or the absence of one.

Step 2: Create a TXT record for DMARC

Create your free account on PowerDMARC and access your portal. You can select our DMARC record generator tool from the Toolbox to start creating your missing DMARC record.

Step 3: Choose Your DMARC Policy

Determine the DMARC enforcement policy you desire to configure from the table shown below. 

How to determine your DMARC enforcement policy?

To determine which DMARC policy mode you should choose for the policy parameter (p), you can refer to the table below:

Zero enforcement/monitoring only p=none
Review unauthorized emails in the spam folder p=quarantine
Discard/Not deliver emails p=reject

What Are the Risks of Setting a DMARC Policy to “p=reject” Without Proper Setup?

Setting a DMARC policy to “p=reject” without proper setup can lead to significant risks, including the rejection of legitimate emails, limited visibility into email failures, and disruptions to normal communication channels. Misaligned email infrastructure can cause valid emails to be mistakenly flagged as fraudulent, resulting in lost correspondence and business disruptions. 

To mitigate these risks, start with a “p=none” or “p=quarantine” policy to gather data and monitor email performance, then transition gradually to “p=reject.” Regular monitoring and updates are essential to ensure proper configuration and maintain both domain security and email deliverability.

Step 4: Add the Missing DMARC Record to Your DNS

Login to your DNS management console and create a new TXT record for DMARC. The hostname for this record must be _dmarc and you can configure a TTL of 1 hour. 

Step 5: Validate the Published DMARC Record 

Ensure you avoid a DMARC record publish failure validating and passing it through a DMARC checker tool.  

Fixing “No DMARC Record Found” Error for Different Service Providers

Steps for adding your missing DMARC record are different for different mail service providers. Here are our help articles for a few main ones:

1. Deploying DMARC on Cloudflare 

2. Deploying DMARC on GoDaddy

3. Deploying DMARC on cPanel

Need Help with a Different DNS Provider?

If your DNS provider isn’t listed above, don’t worry. You can explore our knowledge base for more information on setting up DMARC records with various DNS providers apart from the ones listed above. 

Is Adding The Missing DMARC Record Enough To Solve “No DMARC Record Found”?

It can be annoying and confusing to come across prompts saying “Hostname returned a missing or invalid DMARC record” when checking for a domain’s DMARC record while using online tools. Once you have successfully resolved the “No DMARC record found” error and your domain is now configured with DMARC authentication, your work doesn’t end there. It may be exciting to imagine that DMARC is a silver bullet that can resolve all your issues, but it’s not, and here’s why: 

Shortcomings of DMARC

  • Dependency on SPF and DKIM: DMARC requires SPF or DKIM to work. You must first implement either of the two protocols to start your authentication process with DMARC.
  • Reports generated in XML: DMARC reports are generated in XML format, which is hard to read.
  • Protection only at an enforced policy: At none policy, DMARC doesn’t offer protection against cyberattacks like phishing or spoofing. 

Your Next Steps after Fixing Missing DMARC Error

After fixing the “No DMARC record found” error, you must make sure that errors like this won’t reoccur. Monitoring your domain and emails is‌ a long-term practice to achieve this, combined with taking the following steps to ensure your email security functions at optimal health: 

  1. Get rid of SPF Permerror by staying under 10 DNS lookups 
  2. Prevent additional email attacks by configuring MTA-STS and TLS-RPT 
  3. Monitor your email deliverability reports regularly to stay on top of any email delivery issues

Overcoming DMARC Weaknesses with PowerDMARC

PowerDMARC’s approach to fixing your “no dmarc found” error is different, and it goes beyond your basic protocol implementation. We address DMARC’s limitations and constraints to provide a well-rounded solution to our customers that helps them make the most of their deployment efforts. Here’s what we do: 

100% DMARC Compliance

We align your domains against both SPF and DKIM to achieve 100% compliance in no time.

Human-Readable Reports

We convert your XML Aggregate Reports to a human-readable format that everyone can easily understand. 

Smooth Transition to Enforcement

We help you make a smooth transition to an enforced policy guided by real-life security experts so you can start protecting your domain against cyberattacks.

We Help You Implement DMARC the Right Way 

PowerDMARC helps your organization achieve compliance by aligning authentication standards with assistance from experts. You can shift from monitoring to enforcement safely with us, while ensuring your legitimate emails don’t fail delivery or get marked as spam. Our DMARC analyzer platform features advanced monitoring capabilities that provide the visibility required to troubleshoot DMARC errors in a breeze! 

PowerDMARC combines all email authentication best practices such as DMARC, SPF, DKIM, BIMI, MTA-STS, and TLS-RPT, under the same roof. With us, you can automatically update changes to your dashboard without you having to update your DNS manually. We tailor solutions to your domain and handle most things in the background, so that you implement DMARC correctly to help keep impersonation attacks at bay!

Hope we helped you fix the error! If you found our article helpful, feel free to share it with anyone who may ‌be searching for solutions to fix “No DMARC record found” error. Sign up with PowerDMARC to get a free DMARC trial for your domain today – no credit card details needed!

DMARC Error FAQs

  1. What is the impact of not having a DMARC reject policy?
    • Without a DMARC reject policy, your domain remains vulnerable to phishing and spoofing attacks, as unauthorized emails are not blocked. This compromises security, damages your brand reputation, and increases financial risks. A “p=none” policy only monitors traffic but offers no protection, leaving your domain exposed to fraudulent activities and eroding recipient trust.
  2. How can you monitor and adjust your DMARC policy for full protection?
    • To achieve full protection, start with a “p=none” policy to monitor email flows and identify authentication failures through detailed reports. Gradually transition to “p=quarantine” to move suspicious emails to spam folders, and finally enforce a “p=reject” policy to block unauthorized emails entirely. Use tools like PowerDMARC for regular monitoring and make necessary adjustments to ensure your policy adapts to evolving email practices.
  3. What are the Consequences of Not Fixing “No DMARC Record Found” Error?
    • Failing to fix the “No DMARC Record Found” error exposes your domain to email abuse, including direct-domain spoofing, phishing attacks, and business email compromise (BEC). This can result in financial loss, unauthorized access to sensitive information, and a damaged brand reputation. Additionally, it may lead to higher email bounce rates, spam classifications, and non-compliance with major email provider policies.
  4. Why is it Important to Fix “No DMARC Found” Error?
    • Fixing the “No DMARC Found” error is critical to protect your domain from cybercriminals who exploit email vulnerabilities to impersonate your brand. DMARC strengthens email authentication, reducing risks of fraud and phishing while safeguarding organizational and customer trust. Implementing DMARC enhances email deliverability, compliance with email provider policies, and overall communication security.

Our Content Review and Fact-Checking Process

PowerDMARC has real-life experience in helping customers overcome the “no DMARC record found” error. This article is based on practical strategies we have implemented during the troubleshooting process. It has worked well for our clients and we hope it will help other people out there fix this issue as well!

 

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