6 minutes reading
When you receive a 554 5.7.5 Permanent Error Evaluating DMARC Policy message, it indicates a permanent rejection of your email by the recipient’s server. This message appears because the receiving server could not validate the authenticity of the email with the DMARC TXT record published by your domain. This problem is almost always a result of misconfigured DNS records and a failure of SPF or DKIM alignment.
For example, if there is a typo in your DMARC TXT record or you have added a marketing tool that did not get published in an existing SPF record, and so on.
Fixing this is simply a matter of checking and correcting your email authentication systematically. In this guide, we will show you a practical step-by-step fix, we will explain why it happens, and also show how DMARC monitoring can help you stop it from causing issues in the future.
Fix 554 5.7.5 DMARC Error in Nine Steps
To resolve a 554 5.7.5 error, you need to systematically validate your domain’s DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records. Follow this systematic process in the following steps:
Confirm the DMARC Record
Start from the very beginning. First, confirm that you do have a published DMARC TXT record at dmarc.yourdomain.com. Use a DMARC checker tool to verify. Your published DMARC TXT record should look good, begin with v=DMARC1; and then contain a policy tag, such as p=none;.
You can only publish one DMARC record per domain. Even an abandoned record invalidates DMARC, so having multiple records is invalid.
Valid baseline example: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]; fo=1; adkim=s; aspf=s.
Validate Syntax and Tags
DMARC records are highly sensitive to format. One misplaced character can break the entire policy.
Follow the syntax rules: Use lowercase tags (for example, p=, not P=), use a semicolon to separate tags, and have no trailing spaces.
Remove invalid characters: Make sure there are no extra quotation marks, spaces, or periods. A valid DMARC record must begin with v=DMARC1; with DMARC in evidence.
A few things to remember:
- Keep all the tags lowercase.
- Separate all tags with semicolons (;), not trailing spaces.
- Remove unsupported or duplicate tags.
- Don’t make the mistakes associated with declarations like: sp = reject (space before =) or, v=DMARC1; P=none (upper case).
Examine SPF Alignment
SPF requires that an email sent from your domain be sent from an allowed server. DMARC adds an alignment check that ensures that Return-Path matches the domain in the From field.
Have only one SPF record: Similarly to DMARC, you can only have one v=spf1 record per domain. If you have several records, you need to combine them.
Stay under 10 DNS lookups: The SPF record cannot result in more than 10 DNS lookups, or it generates a permanent error. You can use SPF flattening services if needed.
Sample SPF record: v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com; include:sendgrid.net -all.
Examine DKIM Alignment
DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to verify that the contents of an email have not been tampered with. DMARC requires DKIM to be aligned with the d= tag with the From domain.
Validate selector and public key: Ensure that your DKIM selector is valid and that the public key published in your DNS resolves correctly.
Check for domain alignment: The domain in the DKIM “d=” tag must align with your “From” email header. This is a frequent problem with third-party vendors.
Rotate your keys if signature fails: If your signature is invalid, you will need to rotate your DKIM keys.
Right-size Policy While Testing
In an effort to mitigate the issue, without blocking all your emails, you want to temporarily lower your DMARC policy.
Begin with p=none: Use p=none so you can monitor failures and get aggregate reports without hindering your delivery.
Raise policy gradually: Once your SPF and DKIM are consistently passing, you can go up to p=quarantine, then finally to p=reject.
Eliminate Conflicts and Oversize
DNS records can get messy and conflict with each other. The best practice is to have a neat DNS configuration.
Consolidate records: Have one authoritatively notated DMARC record and one SPF record per domain.
Review all vendors: Double-check every service that is sending email on your behalf and is authorized in your SPF record and signing with your domain via DKIM. This is where a DMARC monitoring tool like TDMARC can really help; it detects all sending sources.
Continue to Respect Propagation Windows
Changes to DNS records do not happen instantly but rather take some time to complete the changes on the Internet.
Leave sufficient time: You should always leave 24–48 hours for all DNS caches throughout the world to complete their change after an update.
Do not toggle the record infinitely: Opening and closing DNS records will only reset the clock to start propagating the change.
Verify Using Controlled Sends
Once you believe you have resolved the configuration, you’re ready to start testing.
Send test emails: Send test emails from all of your legitimate sources (your normal email, whatever marketing tools you use, support desk, etc.).
Confirm results: Use a DMARC monitoring dashboard like TDMARC to confirm that all sources are now passing DMARC authentication.
Monitor Aggregate Reports and Forensic Reports
DMARC reports are your eyes and ears in terms of what is failing authentication and where attempts were made at spoofing.
Parse reports: To make them human-readable, use a tool like TDMARC to parse the complex XML aggregate (rua) and forensic (ruf) reports.
Track issues: The dashboard should allow you to monitor failing IPs, subdomains out of alignment, and senders unauthorized to send email.
Why 554 5.7.5 Permanent Error Evaluating DMARC policy Appears
This error message is a clear indication that there is a misconfiguration with the email authentication you had set up.
- Configuration options: You could be out of service with SPF or DKIM, or not aligned with DMARC at all for some of your traffic.
- Syntax: Sometimes, small errors like an extra space or a missing semicolon in your DNS records can cause DMARC evaluation to fail.
- Policy: you have established a strict DMARC policy p=reject or p=quarantine before you had together SPF and DKIM alignment for all legitimate traffic.
- DNS constraints: SPF will fail if you exceed 10 DNS lookups or if you have multiple SPF records associated with the same domain.
- Stale data: In some cases, it’s a waiting game for the DNS to reconcile its changes.
Real-Time DMARC: Make the Fix Stick
Even the best DMARC record won’t remain that way forever. New tools, new vendors, and continuous changes in DNS will create drift.
This is where real-time DMARC monitoring comes into play.
- Real-time checks will identify alignment or syntax breaks the minute they happen.
- Instant alerts reduce your time to resolution as well as protect your transactional workflows.
- Dashboards will show you unauthorized senders or lookalike domains in seconds.
- Automated RUA/RUF parsing will prevent blind spots in complicated multi-domain environments.
With TDMARC’s clear and actionable insights, your team will be ready to confidently enforce a strict DMARC policy without damaging deliverability.
Long-Term Prevention
Effective DMARC management is continuous, not a one-time fix. Prevention Checklist:
- Conduct audits of DNS quarterly across all domains and subdomains.
- Have only one authoritative DMARC record per domain.
- Know when new marketing tools or SaaS vendors come into play and update the SPF/DKIM prior to the first send.
- Keep SPF consolidated and ideally under lookup limits using flattening.
- Use TDMARC for enforcement in a continuous approach, SIEM integration, and compliance-grade visibility.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Definition of 554 5.7.5
Ans: This refers to a permanent rejection of an email message, as it did not pass your domain’s DMARC evaluation policy
Q: Syntax sensitivity
Ans: Even the smallest syntactical mistake in your DMARC record can render it void and result in an error
Q: Propagation window
Ans: Allow time. DNS updates can take up to 48 hours for global propagation.
Q: Reputation impact
Ans: Continuous failures send a message to mailbox providers that you are unreliable and damage your sender’s reputation and inbox placement.
Q: Operational safeguard
Ans: Real-time DMARC monitoring is critical to prevent silent loss of delivery for inbound messages and for managing authentication failures.
Director of Growth
Naman Srivastav is the Director of Growth at Threatcop, where he leads customer-facing and product marketing teams. With a self-driven mindset and a passion for strategic execution, Naman brings a competitive edge to everything he does — from driving market expansion to positioning Threatcop as a leader in people-centric cybersecurity.