Mailbox access after domain deletion

Copper Contributor

We have acquired a company who will be deleting their email domain( XXX@company.ca) by Jan 2020. Is there any way to still access/forward emails that are sent to some of the company mailboxes after the domain is deleted?

6 Replies

Office 365 will only accept messages if the domain is verified within the tenant, if you remove it you will have to handle mail flow and the forward process via some external service.

@sachin_ms You may add the old domain to outlook/exchange online, and all emails will come through to the new one automatically, as long as the names are the same - if not, you can still do it but users will need to add aliases.

This is done by editing the MX records, so I'm not sure if you still need the old domain to exist by itself or not.

Hello @Vasil Michev ,

 

Thank you for the response. Do you know about some reliable external services to do the same?

 

Thank you,

Sachin MS

We don't usually recommend third party products on these boards, just look them up on the net.

@wsantos 

We won't have access to the domain. The company who owns the domain will delete it before completing the transition.

@sachin_ms 

 

The key element to achieving your goal is to gain ownership of the domain. 

 

You cannot add the domain to an Office 365 Tenant as the setup process requires that you prove ownership of the domain and to do that you need to be able to modify DNS records of the domain, both require ownership. 

 

1. Have a conversation with the current domain owners and ask that they transfer domain ownership to you.  This is essential! If they don't transfer ownership then its game over, full stop.  Considering that the current domain owners are going to "delete the domain", there shouldn't be any reluctance by them in transferring domain ownership to you.  

2. If they agree to transfer the domain, then setup a hosting account with a provider of your choice, then either add the domain to a current O365 Tenant or use the hosting providers email service via SSL IMAP.

  

There are a few reasons that the current domain owners would be reluctant to transfer the domain.  They may be protecting proprietary information, trade secrets, intellectual knowledge and the like all of which may flow to the domain for the foreseeable future.  If you purchased full rights to the business then that would include the domain, but I don't know the details of the acquisition agreement.  A domain always has value and when purchasing a business that value is typically factored into the purchase price.  

 

Again, you will need to obtain domain ownership to achieve your goal.  Once that is done the rest of the steps are simple to complete.

 

Good Luck! :)