--- title: "Understanding SPF Lookup Failure And The Way Out From It | DuoCircle" description: "Join the thousands of organizations that use DuoCircle Find out how affordable it is for your organization today and be pleasantly surprised.Interested in" image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png" canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/spf-lookup-failure/" --- Content # Understanding SPF Lookup Failure And The Way Out From It Join the thousands of organizations that use DuoCircle Find out how affordable it is for your organization today and be pleasantly surprised.Interested in [ Talk to an Expert → ](/contact/) [ See what we make ](/products/) ## Understanding SPF Lookup Failure And The Way Out From It _The [SPF lookup limit](/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/spf-lookup-limit) is usually set to 10_. The reason behind this rationale is minimizing the usage of resources that the mailbox providers spend. When the **DNS lookup count** goes beyond this specified limit, it results in an ‘[spf too many dns lookups](/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups)’ error. [Fix Your SPF Errors Now](/email/spf-record-check) ![spf too many dns lookups](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2021/01/email-spf-record-check.png) ### The Interpretation Of SPF Authentication [SPF authentication](https://www.autospf.com/) verifies an email for its legitimacy before it reaches its destination. The feedback output following the authentication could be any of the following. - **None**: ‘None’ would mean there was no record found. - **Neutral**: It is akin to ‘None’ and has a similar connotation. - **Pass**: The ‘Pass’ message means that the emails are authorized to pass through and reach the destination. - **Fail**: An ‘SPF fail’ notification would mean the _IP address is not authorized to send from the said domain_. - **Softfail**: It indicates that the IP address may or may not be authorized. - **TempError**: This output means that there has been a _temporary error while sending the email_, and the user may try again. - **PermError**: This feedback shows that _the **SPF record** was unverified by the mailbox provider_. ### The Way Out A prevalent reason for **SPF lookup failure** is the crossing of the SPF lookup limit of ten. One of the methods used to overcome this situation is ‘[SPF flattening](/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/spf-flattening).’ It is an [SPF compression](/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/spf-compression) method that combines the information of [multiple SPF records](/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/multiple-spf-records) into a single long one. It will not affect SPF authorization. The objective of any solution to avoid ‘[Permerror SPF permanent error too many DNS lookups](/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/permerror-spf-permanent-error-too-many-dns-lookups)’ notification is to keep the lookups within the limit set by the [SPF lookup counter](/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/spf-lookup-counter). [SPF lookup](/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/spf-lookup) failure happens due to many reasons, the most common being exceeding the [DNS lookup limit](https://www.autospf.com/). It results in unnecessary authentication error situations. However, by following the right solutions, which are also simple, one can avoid such errors altogether. ![multiple spf records](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2021/01/dns-spf.png) ##### Join the thousands of organizations that use DuoCircle --- Find out how affordable it is for your organization today and be pleasantly surprised. [Auto SPF - Sign Up FREE](/email/spf-record-check)Interested in our Partner Program for MSPs and VARs? Visit Our [MSP Partner Program](/msp-partner-program). ## Ready to talk? Same-day response from someone technical. We tell you yes or no quickly. If yes, we get to work. [Talk to an Expert→](/contact/)[See what we make](/products/) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. We deliver about 90% of category-leader capability at roughly half the price, backed by experts who own the outcome. Trusted by 50,000+ organizations since 2014.","subOrganization":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138898167","name":"DMARC Report","url":"https://dmarcreport.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897474","name":"AutoSPF","url":"https://autospf.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897912","name":"Phish Protection","url":"https://www.phishprotection.com"}],"sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/company/duocircle","https://x.com/duocirclellc","https://www.facebook.com/duocirclellc","https://www.g2.com/products/phish-protection-by-duocircle/reviews","https://github.com/duocircle","https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/duocircle-llc"],"contactPoint":{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactType":"customer support","url":"https://support.duocircle.com"},"knowsAbout":["Email Security","Email Authentication","SPF","DKIM","DMARC","Phishing Protection","Spam Filtering","SMTP Relay","Email Deliverability","Email Forwarding"]} ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebSite","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. We deliver about 90% of category-leader capability at roughly half the price, backed by experts who own the outcome. Trusted by 50,000+ organizations since 2014.","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. We deliver about 90% of category-leader capability at roughly half the price, backed by experts who own the outcome. Trusted by 50,000+ organizations since 2014.","subOrganization":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138898167","name":"DMARC Report","url":"https://dmarcreport.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897474","name":"AutoSPF","url":"https://autospf.com"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138897912","name":"Phish Protection","url":"https://www.phishprotection.com"}]}} ``` ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","name":"Understanding SPF Lookup Failure And The Way Out From It","description":"Join the thousands of organizations that use DuoCircle Find out how affordable it is for your organization today and be pleasantly surprised.Interested in ","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/spf-lookup-failure/","speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":[".page-answer",".duo-rich-text p:first-of-type"]},"dateModified":"2023-08-07T14:27:49.000Z","datePublished":"2021-01-05T17:02:29.000Z"},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"DuoCircle","item":"https://www.duocircle.com/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Understanding SPF Lookup Failure And The Way Out From It","item":"https://www.duocircle.com/content/spf-too-many-dns-lookups/spf-lookup-failure/"}]}] ```