Microsoft will start honoring p=reject DMARC policies for incoming email which does not pass a DMARC check when the associated DMARC record designates a policy of p=reject. This affects inbound messages at Microsoft Outlook email addresses, Microsoft Hotmail email addresses, Microsoft Live email addresses, and MSN email addresses.

Prior to this announcement, if a sending system’s DMARC policy stated “p=reject”, instead of rejecting the email outright, Hotmail, Outlook, Live, and MSN would instead put the email in the intended recipient’s junk folder or spam folder, also sometimes known as putting it in quarantine.

In the announcement, made to industry groups today, a Microsoft spokesperson explained that “Microsoft is proud to announce our Consumer email service (Outlook/Hotmail/MSN/Live) will now honor the DMARC record of “p=reject” by rejecting the message if the domain fails DMARC. Previously, messages that failed DMARC were sent to the junk folder (Quarantine). Over the next 30 days these DMARC-failing messages will be rejected.”

As we explain in our plain English explanation of DMARC, SPF, and DKIM email authentication, DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. You can sort of think of it as the last check after the receiving system checks SPF and DKIM; DMARC tells the receiving system what to do with an inbound email if it doesn’t pass either of the SPF authentication check or the DKIM authentication check. It does this with the “p=” tag, followed by what should be done. In the case of “p=reject” it is saying that if the inbound email doesn’t pass either of SPF or DKIM authentication the email should be rejected and not delivered.

This is why it’s so important to make sure that your email has at least one of SPF and DKIM set up, and set up correctly. You can read more about that here. If you must have only one of them set up, we recommend that it be SPF, and you can read more about that here.

As always, we offer a hands-on free test of which you can take advantage, whether you are our customer or not, to make sure that your SPF and other email authentication is set up correctly. The advantage of having us check it for you over one of the automated testers such Mail-Tester is that we actually put human eyes on your email and your SPF, etc. so we can see if it’s set up correctly, whereas the automated testers just test whether you have an SPF record and not if it’s correct, and so will tell you that you pass with flying colors even if your SPF is wrong (which can be worse than not having it set up at all).

To have us check out your email authentication set up for you at no charge, email us at support@suretymail.com

Microsoft Inbox Properties to Start Rejecting and Honoring P=Reject DMARC Policies

Let us help YOU get to the inbox like we've helped these others!


No responses yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


We are ISIPP SuretyMail, the original certified sender program and email deliverability service. Learn more here
Search
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Search in posts
Search in pages
Filter by Categories
Blocklists and Blacklists
Content Issues
Deliverability
Email Authentication
Email List Building
Feedback Loops
Mailing List Hygiene
Monitoring and Tracking
Opt-in Practices
Our News
Privacy & Email Laws
Sending Practices
SMS Marketing
Spam Complaints
Technical Stuff
The Industry
Topics
Need Help Getting to the Inbox?
If you need help getting out of the spam folder and into the inbox, we're here for you. Our deliverability services come with a personal touch, and we get results. That combination has created customer loyalty that's nearly unheard of. (testimonials)
Read what we'll do for you here.

Join our email community and get
How to Stay Out of the Spam Folder 
& How to Grow Your Email List free!


 Get to the Inbox by SuretyMail
The Original Email Deliverability Company

Skip to content