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Connect your domain to your existing Microsoft 365

Angus
Updated

You can add your domain to your Microsoft 365 and send its email to Microsoft 365 from the IT Solver dashboard. Your current email keeps working until you apply the email DNS changes in the last step.

Before you start

  • You must be an owner or IT manager of your business in the dashboard.
  • The domain must be registered with IT Solver and must not be in transfer.
  • If your domain already uses Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 email, the dashboard does not show Set up business email. Contact IT Solver to plan the move. Also read Move your email to IT Solver: what moves and what you do.
  • Your business must have Microsoft 365 that is connected to the dashboard. If it is not connected, do the steps in Connect the dashboard to your Microsoft 365 first. If you do not have Microsoft 365 yet, read Create a new Microsoft 365 account with IT Solver.
  • Make a list of the email addresses that people use on this domain now, for example jane@ and info@. You create them in Microsoft 365 before you switch.

Open the setup page

  1. Sign in at dashboard.itsolver.net.
  2. Select Domains.
  3. On the row for your domain, select Set up business email. If you started before, the button is Continue email setup. If neither button shows, the domain is registered elsewhere or already has Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace email. Ask IT Solver.
  4. The Set up business email page opens. Find the Connect to existing Microsoft 365 section. It shows your domain and the name of your Microsoft 365.

If the page shows Connect Microsoft permissions, select it. Sign in with a Microsoft 365 admin account and approve the access. The dashboard then brings you back to this page.

If the page shows a message above the cards, read the examples at the end of this article. If the page shows only Business email with Microsoft 365 and Business email with Google Workspace, and no Connect to existing Microsoft 365 section, the dashboard cannot find a connected Microsoft 365 for your business. Read Set up business email on your domain.

Step 1: Connect your domain

  1. In 1. Connect your domain, tick the box that starts with I confirm: add your domain to your Microsoft 365.
  2. Select Continue. The dashboard adds the domain to Microsoft 365 and asks Microsoft to check that you own it.
  3. If the page shows Waiting for Microsoft, wait a minute or two, then select Check again.
    • If IT Solver manages your DNS, the dashboard adds the Microsoft check record for you.
    • If your DNS is with another provider, open Technical details. Add the TXT record that it shows at your DNS provider, then select Check again.
  4. When the page shows Domain connected, go to the next step.

Step 2: Create the email addresses

When you switch, all new email for the domain goes to Microsoft 365. Email to an address that does not exist in Microsoft 365 is not delivered. Create every address first.

  1. Select Manage Microsoft 365 users.
  2. For each person, add a user or change their sign-in email to the new domain. See Add a new staff member in Microsoft 365 and Rename a Microsoft 365 user or hand their account to someone else.
  3. For extra addresses that go to one person, add an alias. See Forward email and add email aliases in Microsoft 365.
  4. For an address that several people read, such as info@, create a shared mailbox. See Create a shared mailbox and give people access.
  5. Go back to the Set up business email page for the domain.

Step 3: Set up email DNS

  1. In 2. Set up email DNS, if the dashboard asks you to prepare email, tick the box that starts with I confirm: prepare email for, then select Continue. This turns on email for the domain in Microsoft 365. It does not change your DNS.
  2. Select Review email DNS. The dashboard reads your current records and gets the records that Microsoft 365 needs.
  3. Read the Current and proposed email DNS records table. It shows the MX, SPF and Autodiscover records, with the current value and the proposed value of each record.
  4. If the page shows Now and After you apply, select each one to see what changes. Now shows where new email goes today. After you apply shows that new email goes to Microsoft 365.
  5. Tick All required email addresses are ready in Microsoft 365. I confirm the shown DNS changes.
  6. Select Apply email DNS changes. Wait until the page shows Email DNS is on Microsoft 365.
  7. If the page says that public DNS may take a few minutes to match, wait, then select Refresh public DNS status.
  8. Send a test email from an outside address, for example a personal Gmail address, to one of your new addresses. Then reply to it. The dashboard checks DNS, but only a test email proves that email arrives and leaves.
  9. Select Set up DKIM and DMARC and do the steps in Turn on email authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) in the dashboard. Without these, some mail providers reject your email.

If the page says to review a new preview, or that the preview is no longer current, select Refresh preview. Read the new table, then apply again.

If your DNS is with another provider

The dashboard cannot change records at another provider. After Review email DNS, the page does not show Apply email DNS changes. Instead:

  1. Make sure all the email addresses are ready in Microsoft 365.
  2. At your DNS provider, change each record to the proposed value in the table.
  3. In the dashboard, select Refresh public DNS status.
  4. Under DNS propagation, look for Expected records observed in public DNS. This tells you that the records are in place. The page does not show Email DNS is on Microsoft 365 on this path. If it shows Public DNS may take a few minutes to match, wait, then refresh again.
  5. Send a test email from an outside address to one of your new addresses, then reply to it.
  6. Select Set up DKIM and DMARC and do the steps in Turn on email authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) in the dashboard.

If the page says that Microsoft changed the proposed DNS records, contact IT Solver before you change more records.

To let the dashboard make these changes for you, move your DNS to IT Solver first. See Change nameservers or move your DNS to IT Solver.

If the domain has no email yet

If IT Solver manages the DNS and the domain has no email records, step 3 is shorter. After Domain connected, the page shows Set up Microsoft 365 email DNS.

  1. Create the email addresses, as in Step 2.
  2. Select Set up Microsoft 365 email DNS. The dashboard adds the MX, SPF, Autodiscover, DKIM and DMARC records for you.
  3. Keep the page open. The dashboard shows each part as it finishes. Microsoft can take a few minutes. If you leave, come back to the page later and the dashboard continues.
  4. If the page shows Connect Microsoft permissions, select it and approve the access. The dashboard needs this to turn on DKIM.
  5. When the page shows Email DNS setup is complete., send and receive a test email.

On this path the dashboard sets DMARC to reject straight away, because nothing else sends email from the domain yet. Mail providers reject email that fails the check. Before another service sends email from this domain, such as a website form, an invoicing tool or a newsletter tool, contact IT Solver so we can add it first.

If a part stops, the page shows Setup stopped. Open technical details. Open Technical details to see the reason, then select Try again.

Examples

You move from your old email host to Microsoft 365

Your team uses email from your website host. You bought Microsoft 365 licences and want to use them.

To fix it: do Step 1. Then create a Microsoft 365 user for each person and a shared mailbox for info@. Then do Step 3. Until you select Apply email DNS changes, email still goes to your old host. This page changes where new email goes. For help to move old email, read Move your email to IT Solver: what moves and what you do.

Microsoft does not confirm the domain

The page still shows Waiting for Microsoft after you select Check again, or it says that Microsoft cannot confirm the domain yet.

To fix it: wait a few minutes and select Check again. If your DNS is with another provider, check that the TXT record from Technical details is there. If the domain was used in another Microsoft 365 before, remove the domain from that Microsoft 365 first. Then try again.

The page says email is already detected on this domain

The Set up business email page shows Email is already detected on this domain and names the current provider.

To fix it: do not start a new platform yet. A second platform can interrupt your email. Contact IT Solver and we plan the move with you.

The page says email DNS actions are on hold

The page shows Email DNS actions are on hold. Review the hold before setup continues.

To fix it: IT Solver has paused email DNS changes for this domain. Contact us and we review the hold with you.

A staff member stops getting email after the switch

Most people get email in Microsoft 365, but email to one address bounces.

To fix it: the address does not exist in Microsoft 365. Select Manage Microsoft 365 users and add the address to the right user as an alias, or create a user or shared mailbox for it.

Still have a problem?

Questions? Email support@itsolver.net or phone 07 3123 6000.

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