Not receiving DMARC reports? The 6 reasons and how to fix each one

You published a DMARC record with a rua address, waited… and nothing arrived. Here are the six causes we see, in the order you should check them — in plain English.

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1. You haven't waited a full reporting cycle

Receivers batch aggregate reports and send roughly one per day, usually covering a UTC day. Your first report typically lands 24–48 hours after the record goes live — and only if your domain actually sent mail to that receiver during the window. Publish, then give it two full days before debugging.

2. The rua tag is missing or malformed

Reports only go where the rua tag points. Check your record:

dig +short TXT _dmarc.yourdomain.com

You want something like:

v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:reports@yourdomain.com

The classic mistakes: no rua tag at all, a missing mailto: prefix, a typo in the address, or a stray semicolon splitting the tag. Any syntax error can make receivers ignore the record entirely. Our free checker validates the syntax and shows you exactly what receivers see.

3. The report address is on another domain — and isn't authorized

If yourdomain.com's record sends reports to reports@otherdomain.com, receivers check that otherdomain.com has agreed to receive them. It must publish this TXT record:

Host: yourdomain.com._report._dmarc.otherdomain.com
Value: v=DMARC1

Without that authorization record, compliant receivers silently drop the reports. This is the most common cause when using any external monitoring service — good services give you the record or use an address that is pre-authorized. (PlainDMARC handles this for you when you add a domain.)

4. Your domain sent no mail that receivers report on

No mail to Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo addresses on a given day usually means no report that day. And many smaller receivers never send reports at all. If your volume is low or mostly goes to corporate servers, sparse reports can be normal. To force a first report, send a few messages from your domain to a Gmail address you control and wait a day.

5. The reports arrive but get filtered

Aggregate reports are emails with zipped XML attachments from senders like noreply-dmarc-support@google.com. Spam filters and attachment policies eat them regularly. Search your spam folder for dmarc, and if you run a strict gateway, allow the report senders. This is a good argument for pointing rua at a dedicated address rather than your personal inbox.

6. Two DMARC records

Just like SPF, publishing two TXT records at _dmarc makes the whole thing invalid — receivers that see two records ignore both, which means no enforcement and no reports. The dig command above shows every record on the name; delete the extra one.

Once the reports arrive: actually read them

Raw aggregate reports are zipped XML that no human enjoys. Our guide on how to read DMARC reports walks through the format — or skip the XML entirely and let a tool translate them.