My Return-Path Record Won't Verify

If you’ve already followed the steps for adding a Custom Return-Path, but you’re still waiting on the verified status, let’s go over how to check the records added and some common issues that we see for why that could be happening. If you’re also having trouble with verifying your DKIM record, pop over here for some help with that.

Checking Your Custom Return-Path Record

Even though you’ll likely be able to see your records propagate quicker, keep in mind that DNS changes might take up to 48 hours. You can use dig to see if your custom Return-Path record is showing publicly.

As an example, let’s say you send emails from example.com. If your custom Return-Path record is valid, it would be in DNS at pm-bounces.example.com. You can check to see if it is there using the following command:

$ dig pm-bounces.example.com CNAME

The dig command should report back the Return-Path value pm.mtasv.net:

You can also use whatsmydns.net to see if your record has fully propagated. To check, input your Hostname and domain, for example pm-bounces.example.com and select CNAME from the drop-down list.

All locations should show you your Return-Path value and a green tick.

Common Custom Return-Path Record Problems:

If the CNAME value is blank and 48 hours have passed, check to make sure that:

1. The DNS records have been added correctly. Your DNS records should match exactly what’s in Postmark for your domain, so the Hostname should be pm-bounces (unless you’ve changed that to something else) and the value should be pm.mtasv.net.

Sometimes DNS providers will automatically add your domain to the value so that it ends up as pm.mtasv.net.example.com. If you’re seeing this, try adding a . (dot) to the end of the value to avoid this happening (pm.mtasv.net. instead of pm.mtasv.net).

2. If you’re using Cloudflare click on the orange cloud to disable Cloudflare on the CNAME record as sometimes it can get in the way of us being able to verify your custom Return-Path record:

How-To Examples:

Feel free to click on the image to view our video collection on how to set up DKIM, custom Return-Path, and DMARC records in various DNS providers.