How to Change Office 365 Domain – An Expert Guide

Are you thinking of rebranding your business or are you switching to a more professional domain? If that is the case, then you have to also change Office 365 domain. Some users may have issues doing this. Therefore, I am here to help you. Here, I will explain a step-by-step guide to add a domain in Microsoft 365.

By default, Microsoft provides you ‘yourtenantname’.onmicrosoft.com domain when you first purchase the Office 365 subscription. But, later on you can customize your domain. Although this is only allowed in Microsoft 365 business and enterprise level.

The role of domain in Microsoft 365 is important because of this anyone can easily identify your email address, manage your users within Office 365, recognize your brand, you can also tie your account with other Microsoft 365 services. Thus, building your brand and trust in the Microsoft 365 domain take a big role. But, you may have a question of why change Office 365 domain.

Reasons to Switch Microsoft 365 Domain

Changing one’s domain in Office 365 is not an easy job. It is a big job that impacts the data, configuration settings and mail flow in Microsoft 365. Therefore, following are the scenarios where you need to replace your domain.

• Rebranding your company is a most common case to ensure that all the communications will be consistent.
• Your business is merging with others or acquiring. In both cases you need to replace your old domain with a new one. For a unified management.
• Till now you were using the default Office 365 domain but now you want to change it to the new one to make it professional.
• Big companies with multiple branches have multiple domains. Sometimes, this causes you several confusion. But, to make it easier, merging your domains to one is best.
• Business expanding to new regions, changing their domain to more region-specific domains.

Thus, there could be many reasons to switch Microsoft 365 domain. So, I am going to help you in the process. But, before that read this important notice first.

Expert Tip: Save Office 365 Data Before Changing Domain

Before you change your Office 365 domain, you have to also keep in mind your important data. Because, in some cases, misconfiguration during the process of changing your domain can lead to data loss or interruptions in services.

So, in order to avoid this, use SysTools Office 365 Backup Tool to save your complete Microsoft 365 data. Using this utility will not only protect your data but it also keeps you mind relaxed when you are adding your domain. Now, let’s see what other precautions you should take before changing the process.

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Preparations for Switching Microsoft 365 Domain

Not only backup your data, there are other prerequisites that you must do before you replace your domain.

• Inform all the users about removing the old domain and replacing it with a new one.
• Make sure you properly verified your Microsoft 365 and DNS records for the new domain.
• It will be nice to check the Microsoft 365 license of the new domain. Also, make sure that your new domain is not under another tenant.
• Keep a record of all the documents, data in your Microsoft 365.
• Also, make sure the new domain does not violate any compliance standards, and rules that are tied to the current domain.

After fulfilling the above precautions. Now let’s go through the process of changing your domain.

How to Change Office 365 Domain? Step-By-Step Process

The process of switching your domain can be difficult for non-technical users. So, we divide the process into simpler parts to easily understand. So, without wasting the time, let’s go through the first part.

Part 1: Add New Domain in Office 365

1. Log in to your old domain Microsoft 365. Then, go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
2. Click on the Settings option on the left panel. Then, select the Domains.
3. Press the + button to add the domain.
4. Type the name of your new domain. Then, hit the Next option.

Part 2: Verify Domain Ownership & Set Up Required DNS Records

1. After adding the new domain. Choose the verification process.
2. If you use the TXT record option, Microsoft will give you TXT records.
3. Go to your domain registrar’s where your new domain is originally registered.
4. Add the TXT file that you have given. Now, in the admin center, press the Verify button.
5. Now, we are going to configure the required DNS. Microsoft will give your MX records, CNAME, SPF/DKIM/DMARC.
6. Add these records in your registrar and wait to complete the setup.

Part 3: Change Users Primary Email Address

Once you have set up your new domain. Now, set your primary email addresses of all the users. Follow the steps for this.

1. In your Microsoft 365 admin center, go to the Users section.
2. Select the Active users option. Then, choose a user you want to update.
3. Click on the Manage username and email option. Press the + button to add the email alias.
4. Choose your new domain and set it as a primary.
5. Lastly, save the changes.

Remove Old Domain (Optional)

After you have updated your all users, groups, and resources to the new one. You can easily use the steps below.

1. Go to the Settings of your admin center. Click on the Domains.
2. Select the old domain and ensure that this domain is no longer available.
3. Click on the Remove button.

This is the proper step-by-step of changing your old domain into a new one. If you properly follow them then you can easily get your data.

Read More: How to Move Domain Between Office 365 Tenants?

Concluding Words

Whether you want to change your default domain to custom domain or you are rebranding your business. You can easily change Office 365 domain by following the above steps. But, make sure that you first store your data. To prevent any data loss during the process.