SPF: Too Many DNS Lookups, but I Only Count 10?

Question

I'm fairly confident the SPF record is syntactically correct, and that there's only ten DNS lookups. However, I'm still receiving the "too many DNS lookups" error.

Below is the SPF record that I've included.

v=spf1 include:spf.microsoftonline.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.mandrillapp.com ~all

All three include other records, and I've included all of them below:

2 Initial TXT and SPF Lookup
1 include:spf.microsoftonline.com
1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com
1 include:spf.mandrillapp.com
1 include:spfa.microsoftonline.com
1 include:spf.frontbridge.com
1 include:_spf-ssg-a.microsoft.com
1 include:spfa.protection.outlook.com
1 include:spfb.protection.outlook.com
----------------------------------------
10 Records

Am I miscounting? Is there a way to consolidate?

Answer 1

You are not counting the contribution of the PTR directives:

• ptr:protection.outlook.com
• ptr:messaging.microsoft.com
• ptr:o365filtering.com

That said, I'm not sure why you're including spf.microsoftonline.com. If you're using Office365 it should only be necessary to include spf.protection.outlook.com. See this link - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn789058%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx