MS 365 Family and custom domain established - appear in Outlook as "Unverified Sender"

[ZeBryn]

Hi guys,

I'm having an issue I have not found any solution for, so far. I'm paying for the premium version of Outlook.com - included in the MS 365 family subscription. I've transferred my DNS to Godaddy and established the domain in Outlook.com. So my family and I are able to send and receive e-mail using our custom domain - so far, so good.

The problem is the fact that recipients reading e-mail from me in their Outlook all see this icon with a question mark on it (instead of my picture or initials). There is also clearly a mark stating the sender is "Unverified".

I've edited my SPF records (automatically set by MS), but so far no change at all. I fear the marking will not go away before we can register DMARC and/or DKIM - which is unavailable to us, so far.

To me this looks a bit inconstant from MS side - first I am sold a solution, and then (using my work e-mail) I am told the solution is insecure?

Does anyone know if there is anything to be done with this from my side? Or if there is anything MS can do about this?

[#2]

So there are a couple of things to consider here.

The first is the Domain registration itself can take a couple of days, 48-hours is not uncommon for GoDaddy. This, of course, can have downstream implications for the DNS. This in turn means any SSL certs you may be have implemented are also in affected.

Depending on how long ago you set it up, you may neeed to wait a bit longer. If it has been more than 2-3 business days, review your DNS records and consider pulling a new SSL cert for review as well. Odds are one of them will contain an error (or several).

[#3]

Hi@LordReydrX , thanks for your reply!

I´m sorry - I did not articulate my problem clear enough.

The setup for the custom domain has been active for a couple of months, so everything related to DNS settings should be settled a long time ago.

Regarding certs - as this is a 365 Family subscription, there is a lot I do not have any access to, and there are also a few other limitations. Like the ability to deploy certificates, DMARC/DKIM....

So as far as I know, I should be done waiting. And I can so far not see any other reason for MS to brand my outgoing emails as "Unverified" than missing DMARC/DKIM - which is not available for the Family subscription.

If there is something I am missing here, I would love to know...

[#4]

After considering the probable causes of error, reviewing the Docs, reviewing the GoDaddy Help pages, several independent communities, and confirming there is no DIY fix-it options…

It appears we are likely dealing with a few pieces of mail that either did not get properly sent to you during the migration, or perhaps found their way to the circular file a bit early.

https://www.godaddy.com/help/add-my-microsoft-365-email-to-outlook-windows-20019

Either way, this issue has been a common theme with GoDaddy domains and Microsoft emails (Outlook, Office, and M365). After filtering through several years of posts from GD customers with this issue I was able to find the advise pasted below.

It does seem to fit the issue and seems to be the most probable solution.

——
Not sure if this will work but try the following:

Log into your GD account.
Go to "MyAccount"
Click to "Launch" Domains

Click every box [to the left] of all names "still pending"

With pending names checked hover your mouse on
the "nameservers" option at the top.

Choose "resend email verification" if it shows.
Access the email, click each to verify.

If it doesn't work, call GD CS 480.505.8877 and ask
the rep how to resend the verification email for the
names still pending. Or request s/he to help verify
over the phone.

Hope it helps.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/anyone-having-issues-with-godaddy-email-validation.813668/

——

To that point, GD, does have a “Because we feel like it”, and “when we get to it” review policy.

https://www.godaddy.com/help/what-does-pending-verification-mean-6312

[#5]

Thanks for all your efforts - really appreciated. To me the verification of the domain registration went like a breeze (the article with the email verification issue is from 2014 - I guess the world has moved on by now) and there is no option to verify another time. I also think this how-to is a bit out of date, as I do not recognize the actual gui vs the instructions given in this post.
I have also been spending a bit of time to try to understand both why recipients are tagging my emails as Unverified - and I have come to the conclusion that this is a feature in MS 365, ment to help users filter out phishing emails.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/office-365-now-warns-about-suspicious-emails-with-un...

As positive this is, as a customer with no way of actually managing this part, it looks to me like I am stuck with this situation.
As this states - your domain needs to be DMARC compliant to NOT be tagged as Unverified.
https://blog.mxtoolbox.com/2019/11/21/microsoft-office-365-requires-dmarc-compliance/

[#6]

@ZeBryn I had the exact same problem.  I just connected my domain yesterday since the deadline for home subscriptions is tomorrow.  You are missing an SPF record in your DNS.  I added in the following TXT record to the DNS and the question mark indicating spam went away.

NAME = @

TTL = 1 HOUR

TYPE = TXT

VALUE = v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:outlook.com -all

I'd look at your DNS settings in GoDaddy and confirm if this record exists.  If you already have an spf1 record, don't create a new one, just add the values in.

Hope that helped