Why Your MailPoet Sender Address Looks Strange (And How to Fix It)

If you've noticed your MailPoet newsletters are suddenly being sent from a strange address like yourname=yourdomain.com@#####.replies.sendingservice.net instead of your normal email, you're not alone. This is a common point of confusion that can alarm your subscribers, as the sender becomes unrecognizable.

Why This Happens: The Sender Rewriting Scheme

This change is not a bug or an error in your configuration. It is a deliberate action by the MailPoet Sending Service. The primary reason is email authentication and deliverability.

Major email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and AOL have strict policies to combat spam and phishing. They often block or heavily filter emails that appear to come from their domains (e.g., a @gmail.com or @yahoo.com address) but are actually sent through a third-party service like MailPoet. To work within these rules while still allowing you to use a free email address as your "From" address, the MailPoet Sending Service uses a technique that rewrites the sender address to one from their own sendingservice.net domain.

This rewritten address still allows replies to be handled correctly. The part before the @ sign (e.g., yourname=yourdomain.com) contains encoded information that ensures any replies from your subscribers are routed back to your original email address.

How to Fix It and Use Your Own Domain

If you want your newsletters to display your own custom domain (e.g., [email protected]) in the "From" field, you need to prove to email providers that you own the domain and authorize MailPoet to send mail on its behalf. This is achieved by setting up three key DNS records for your domain: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

This process, often called "authenticating your domain" or "setting up DKIM," tells receiving email servers that your emails are legitimate and not spoofed. Once these records are correctly in place, the MailPoet Sending Service will no longer need to rewrite your sender address, and your clean, custom domain address will be visible to your subscribers.

Summary of the solution:

• Problem: Sender address is rewritten to a @#####.replies.sendingservice.net address.
• Cause: A free email address (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) is used as the "From" address without domain authentication.
• Solution: Use a custom domain email address (e.g., [email protected]) and authenticate it by adding SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to your domain's DNS settings. The official MailPoet documentation provides a detailed guide on how to complete this setup.