How to set up a custom sending domain in TalentLMS

By default, TalentLMS sends notification emails from noreply@talentlms.com. If you have a custom domain mapped to your portal, you can configure a custom sending domain so that notifications are sent from your own domain instead. This improves email deliverability and gives your learners a more professional, branded experience.

This article covers the new TalentLMS interface. If you're using the legacy interface, see How to set up a custom sending domain in TalentLMS in the Legacy interface.

Before you begin

To set up a custom sending domain, you need:

- A custom domain already mapped to your TalentLMS portal (e.g., lms.yourdomain.com). If you haven't done this yet, see How to map a custom domain to TalentLMS.

- Access to your domain's DNS provider, where you can add TXT records.

- A Core plan or above.

How the custom sending domain works

Your custom sending domain is determined automatically based on the custom domain you have mapped to your portal. TalentLMS prepends “em.” to your custom domain. This prefix cannot be changed.

For example:

- If your custom domain is "mydomain.com", your sending domain will be "em.mydomain.com".

- If your custom domain is "lms.mydomain.com", your sending domain will be "em.lms.mydomain.com".

- If your custom domain is "learning.mydomain.com", your sending domain will be "em.learning.mydomain.com".

The part before the @ sign (e.g., "noreply") can be customized in the custom sending domain setup page, but the sending domain itself is always set automatically.

A. Enable the custom sending domain

1. Sign in to your TalentLMS account as an Administrator and go to Account & Settings and select the Portal tab.

3. Click Custom domain.

4. Click Send email notifications from your domain (1).

5. TalentLMS displays the SPF (2) and DKIM (3) record values you need to add to your DNS. Copy these values from each, both hostname and value; you will need them in the next step.

6. Click Save (4) to enable the option.

B. Add DNS records at your hosting provider

Go to your hosting service's admin dashboard, find the DNS editor, and add two new TXT records using the values provided by TalentLMS:

- SPF (Sender Policy Framework) — This record tells receiving mail servers which servers are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain.

- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) — This record adds a digital signature to your emails to prove they have not been tampered with in transit.

Note: Some DNS providers automatically append your root domain to each record you create. TalentLMS provides the full domain value (e.g., em.lms.mydomain.com), and your DNS provider also appends mydomain.com; the resulting record becomes em.lms.mydomain.com.mydomain.com — which will not work. If your DNS provider appends the root domain automatically, enter only the subdomain portion (e.g., em.lms) without the root domain.

C. Wait for DNS propagation

DNS changes can take up to 24–48 hours to propagate. During this time, your sending domain may not yet appear as verified in TalentLMS.

D. Verify the setup

Once DNS records have propagated, go back to Account & Settings > Portal > Custom domain in TalentLMS to check the verification status (5):

- Green ticks next to the SPF and DKIM records mean your DNS records have been accepted and are matching correctly. Notification emails will now be sent from your custom sending domain.

- Red exclamation marks mean the records have not yet been detected, or the values do not match. See the troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting

If the red exclamation marks persist after 48 hours:

1. Double-check that both the SPF and DKIM TXT records are present in your DNS and that the values match exactly what TalentLMS provided.

2. Check for a double root domain. This is the most common issue — if your DNS provider automatically appends the root domain, you may have created a record like em.lms.mydomain.com.mydomain.com instead of em.lms.mydomain.com (see the note in section B above).

3. If you recently added or changed the records, allow the full 24–48 hours for DNS propagation before troubleshooting further.

4. If the issue persists after confirming your DNS records are correct, contact the Support team.