Why am I getting an error or seeing a 'Pending' status when adding CNAME records in Cloudflare for email verification?

If you are using Cloudflare to manage your DNS and are encountering errors or a persistent 'Pending' status after adding the CNAME records for email domain verification (DKIM), the issue is likely caused by Cloudflare's proxy feature.

By default, Cloudflare may proxy these records (indicated by an orange cloud icon), which can interfere with the verification process. To resolve this, you must set the records to be 'DNS Only'.

Follow these steps to configure the records correctly:

1. Log in to your Cloudflare account.
2. Navigate to the DNS settings for your domain.
3. Locate the CNAME records you added for the email setup. DKIM setup requires all four CNAME records.
4. For each of these CNAME records, click to edit them and change the Proxy status from "Proxied" (orange cloud) to "DNS Only" (grey cloud).
5. Save your changes for each record.

After you have updated the proxy status for all four records, the verification system will be able to detect them. Verification usually completes in about 5 to 10 minutes, but DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate, after which the status in your account should update to 'Verified'.