### [Verifying Your DNS Records](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-verify-your-sending-domains-dns-records/)

**Published:** December 12, 2023
**Author:** David Ozokoye

**Excerpt:** Learn how to check that your DNS records are set up correctly.

**Content:**

Are you still having problems with email delivery after setting up WP Mail SMTP? It may be that your sending domain’s DNS records were not added properly, preventing your emails from being authenticated.

This article will explain how to verify the DNS records you added during the WP Mail SMTP setup process.

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WP Mail SMTP helps improve email delivery for your site by authenticating your emails through one of our [supported mailers](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/a-complete-guide-to-wp-mail-smtp-mailers/ "A Complete Guide to WP Mail SMTP Mailers"). This process often involves [adding DNS records](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-add-dns-records-for-wp-mail-smtp-setup/ "How to Add DNS Records for WP Mail SMTP Setup") to the DNS settings of the sending domain for your site.

Your sending domain is the domain of the from email you added to your WP Mail SMTP settings when you configured the plugin.

![The From Email setting in WP Mail SMTP](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/from-email-1.png)

So, if you used the from email pattie@example.com, your sending domain would be example.com.

**Note:** If you haven’t set up WP Mail SMTP yet, see our [complete list of available mailers](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/a-complete-guide-to-wp-mail-smtp-mailers/ "A Complete Guide to WP Mail SMTP Mailers") for step-by-step guides on how to configure our plugin’s settings based on your chosen mailer.

If you set up WP Mail SMTP but are still having email delivery issues, checking to see if your sending domain’s DNS records are verified can help troubleshoot the problem.

**Note:** Changes to your DNS settings can take up to 48 hours to apply. If you just set up your mailer and added the necessary DNS records, you may try waiting to see if the updates need more time to finalize before doing any further troubleshooting.

### Sending a Test Email

The first way to verify your DNS records is to [send a test email](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-send-a-test-email-in-wp-mail-smtp/ "How to Send a Test Email in WP Mail SMTP") using WP Mail SMTP’s built-in tool. In your WordPress admin area, go to **WP Mail SMTP » Tools** and click on the **Email Test** tab.

![Accessing the Email Test tool](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/wp-mail-smtp-tools-email-test.png)

Then enter any email address whose inbox you have access to in the **Send To** field.

Use the HTML setting to choose whether to send a plain text or HTML email. Unless you know you’ll only be sending plain text emails, we recommend leaving this option toggled on.

![Sending a test email in WP Mail SMTP](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/wp-mail-smtp-send-test-email.png)

Finally, click the **Send Email** button.

If DNS records for your sending domain are missing, you’ll see a notice similar to this one instead of a confirmation message.

![Domain Check results for a test email indicating that DNS records are missing](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/email-test-missing-record.png)

### Using the Site Health Tool

Another way you can see if there is a DNS record verification issue for your site is to use WordPress’ Site Health tool. To access it, go to **Tools » Site Health** in your admin area.

![The Site Health tool in WordPress](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/tools-site-health.png)

In the **Status** tab, look under the recommended improvements for an item labeled **Email domain issues detected** and expand it.

![Finding the Email domain issues detected item in the list of recommended improvements from the Site Health tool](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/wp-mail-smtp-site-health-recommended-improvements.png)

If there is a verification issue with your DNS records, you’ll see a message here reading “Action Needed,” followed by the details of which DNS records required by your mailer are missing.

![The message that DNS records are not verified for your mailer in the Site Health tool](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/wp-mail-smtp-site-health-email-domain-issues-detected.png)

### Resolving DNS Records Verification Issues

If you use one of the methods above to determine that there is a problem with verifying the DNS records needed to set up your mailer, there are a few steps you can take to fix the issue.

First, see our guide to [adding DNS records to set up your WP Mail SMTP mailer](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-add-dns-records-for-wp-mail-smtp-setup/ "How to Add DNS Records for WP Mail SMTP Setup"). If you haven’t already added the records to your DNS settings, follow the appropriate steps to do so.

If you’ve tried adding the required DNS records (and waited an appropriate amount of time for your changes to apply) but are still experiencing verification issues, contact your web host’s support team. They should be able to look into your DNS settings and make sure you added the DNS records properly.

That’s it! We hope this article helped you troubleshoot your DNS records verification issues in WP Mail SMTP.

Next, want to learn how to monitor errors in WP Mail SMTP so you can fix them more easily? See our tutorial on [debugging sending issues](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-debug-email-sending-issues-in-wp-mail-smtp/ "How to Debug Email Sending Issues in WP Mail SMTP") for more details.

**Categories:** Getting Started, DNS Records

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