Hi,
I had this same issue. I transferred my domain from a different host. After the transfer my Amazon SES domain verification (the TXT record) and the DKIM records (CNAME) were no longer verified - even after entering them exactly as I had from the previous DNS host into the GoDaddy DNS area.
When I performed a DNS check in a command-line tool (Mac Terminal or Windows cmd) using the following code:
nslookup -type=TXT _amazonses.yourdomain.com yournameserver.com
I received the following result:
** server can't find _amazonses.yourdomain.com: NXDOMAIN
As I discovered (and as others have mentioned) this is because GoDaddy appends your domain to the end of the TXT Name entry. So if you enter your TXT Name as:
_amazonses.yourdomain.com
It will actually be recorded as:
_amazonses.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com
(this means Amazon SES can't find the record - because they're searching for the _amazonses.yourdomain.com - hence it cannot be verified)
You can verify this by checking for the double-domain record by doing an NSLOOKUP. For your TXT record:
nslookup -type=TXT _amazonses.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com yournameserver.com
Be sure to replace yournameserver.com with your actual nameserver. Find your name server:
nslookup -type=NS yourdomain.com
If your domain name has been repeated, this should return something like:
Server: yournameserver.com
Address: 12.12.12.12#53 (the IP address)
_amazonses.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com text = "your_text_code_will_appear_here"
And to search for the DKIM:
host -t CNAME replace_this_with_your_DKIM_value._domainkey.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com
Other forums suggest placing a period '.' at the end of your domain to prevent GoDaddy from automatically adding your domain again, but I have found this did not work with GoDaddy.
Instead, you must just remove your domain from the TXT Name and the CNAME Name. Instead of what Amazon SES Management Console suggests:
TXT Name*: _amazonses.yourdomain.com
Enter:
TXT Name*: _amazonses
The same applies for the DKIM CNAME entries. Instead of:
Name: big_long_code_here._domainkey.yourdomain.com
Enter this instead:
Name: big_long_code_here._domainkey
The values remain unchanged. I've seen some forum stating you must enter your values encased within double-quotes (" "). But I did not do this and it worked out fine - I do however have my gmail SPF record TXT value encased within double quotes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Wait a while for these to propagate, then check again with an NSLOOKUP (this time not repeating your domain twice):
For TXT record:
nslookup -type=TXT _amazonses.yourdomain.com yournameserver.com
For a specific CNAME (DKIM) record:
host -t CNAME replace_this_with_your_DKIM_value._domainkey.yourdomain.com
(replacing the DKIM code for each of the three records you want to check).
Or, use an online DNS checking tool (like https://dnschecker.org) to see if your changes are beginning to propagate worldwide (perform a TXT search entering _amazonses.yourdomain.com into the text input / or perform the DKIM search by entering
replace_this_with_your_DKIM_value._domainkey.yourdomain.com). If they are, it should be a matter of time for Amazon SES to verify your TXT and DKIM entries.
This worked for me, hope it helps - I've tried to explain it very simply for people like me (those who don't really know what they're doing and are learning as they go).
Cheers.
(p.s. Amazon 'paid' Support were not able to provide me with this information (I guess each DNS host is slightly different) I had to do it through trial-and-error).
