DIAGNOSTIC PLAYBOOK
Email records were edited at the wrong DNS provider
A registrar account and the authoritative DNS service are not always the same place. A saved record in an inactive zone has no effect on public email resolution.
HealthCheck Email editorial team · · Examples are illustrative
How to investigate
- Look up the domain's delegated nameservers from the public DNS hierarchy.
- Match those servers to the account that currently hosts the zone.
- Move the intended change to the active zone and verify the authoritative answer before waiting for caches.
What this looks like
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
A domain was moved to a new DNS service, but its owner adds DKIM at the old registrar's DNS panel. The interface saves the record without changing public DNS.
A mistake to avoid
Do not change nameservers simply to activate one new record. A delegation change affects the entire zone and needs a complete record migration.
Keep the result in context
The authoritative DNS service publishes records; recursive resolvers may retain earlier answers until their cache expires. Save the queried name, record type, resolver, answer and time. A website loading correctly does not establish that email records are present or that an SMTP server accepts mail.
Take the next step
Use the related check to gather evidence, then compare it with the affected message or service. Keep the result and time with your notes so a later change can be distinguished from the original problem.
Sources and further reading
The protocol references below explain the underlying behavior. Your sending or DNS provider supplies the account-specific settings for its service.