Apologies for what is no doubt a dumb newbie question: I’ve enabled SPF for my DNS. But now all email from my domain to Google gets bounced back to me as undeliverable. Tech support at my Web-server host suggested switching the SPF TXT record from the default, which just lists cloudflare
to a line that also includes their mail servers. Did that, but on saving and re-locking the records, the update disappears and it reverts to the above line. Is there a way to make the change permanent?
Welcome to the Cloudflare Community. 
I don’t know what you mean by re-locking the records. Nor is it evident what the above line refers to. Perhaps you forgot to include some example.
Can you share domain and the record that you are trying to create? If you can put a backtick ` as the first and last character in your SPF record when you share it, that will make it easier to read. You will want to do that with your domain name, too, so the forum doesn’t try to turn it into a link.
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Thanks and sorry for the poor explanation.
I logged into the Cloudflare dashboard, and on the lefthand menu, clicked into Email Routing and then Settings. Clicked on “Start Disabling.” On the next page, click on “Unlock and Keep DNS records,” then on Continue. Now I can, and do, click on “Edit Records on DNS.” This brings up all my DNS records, including one TXT record for my domain with an entry of
v=spf1 include:_spf.mx.cloudflare.net ~all
which I want to change to
v=spf1 include:_spf.mx.cloudflare.net include:webmail.pair.com include:relay.pair.com include:pairlist.com a:qs4263.pair.com ~all
I click “Edit” and make the change, then save the record. And it works. But now, if I go back to Email Routing from the left menu, I get a blue box that says “Lock DNS Records.” If I click that and well, lock the records, the TXT item I just edited reverts back to the default cloudflare-only settings.
So my question is how to keep that from happening - or is it OK to keep the records unlocked? I hardly every fiddle with DNS settings (which I think the above makes obvious), so maybe don’t need to protect myself from inadvertently deleting everything, but maybe I should?
Yes, I do.
AFAIK Email Routing doesn’t permit adding/changing records. If you are using other services don’t use Email Routing.
There are numerous services that handle email forwarding and numerous services that offer free email with a custom domain. Do some searching.
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I’m inclined to agree with @anon9246926 here. If you already have domain email on a mailserver, you should have it in your MX and Cloudflare Email Routing should not be enabled. What’s the driver behind having Cloudflare Email Routing enabled?
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That would explain it. Thanks!
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