Name servers not serving TXT records

April 26, 2017 1.2k views


I have created a number of TXT records for my domain on the Digital Ocean name servers:
TXT returns "v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4: ~all" 3600

However when I query directly against the DO name servers my TXT records are not being returned:

dig TXT

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> TXT
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available


;; Query time: 154 msec
;; WHEN: Wed Apr 26 20:22:24 AEST 2017
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 40

Other records created such as A and CNAME are being returned correctly. As I am querying DO name servers directly propagation delay should not be an issue. Why aren't my TXT records being served? Any help to resolve this issue would be appreciated.

3 Answers


Are the TXT records showing up for your domain through the DigitalOcean Control Panel under the Networking -> Domains page?

When querying your domain for A and CNAME, I can confirm they do show up, though I'm not seeing TXT records on my end either.

Hi @tractionmusic

It says status: SERVFAIL, so something goes wrong. Try modifying the record to:

v=spf1 a ~all

I have removed the + signs, since I've never seen them used. And just have a, since the mx and ip4 are the same address.

Thanks for the replies. I had a malformed DKIM record along with my SPF record. The malformed record prevented any TXT records being returned, not just the malformed one. Deleting this resolved the issue.

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