Migrating email and web from domainz and O365 Business Essentials

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martyyn

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#248822 11-Apr-2019 14:50

I have a situation where a client has their domain name with Domainz who also provide an exchange Business Essentials plan. Domainz appear to be charging them twice for the one domain and one email address but getting anything out of Domainz is like pulling teeth. They had no email for three weeks recently and they've had enough.

So they've asked me to look at dropping everything and starting again with their own exchange online plan.

My understanding of O365 is a domain can only be active on one account at a time so I'm wondering how this might work.

Is there anything stopping us from exporting their email to pst, transferring the domain elsewhere (we can access the UDAI code), creating a new microsoft account for the existing domain and setting the DNS records to a new website and the new MS account ? Then I assume importing the email into the new account is easy enough, otherwise they can just create a new account in Outlook.

They've been given an admin@domain.onmicrosoft.com login but it doesn't work, so can I create another using the same domain name ?

Or is there a better way ?

Patching it up with Domainz is not an option !

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#2215062 11-Apr-2019 14:57

Unfortunately, in our experience of trying to help a client recover a stolen domain name, no you cannot have two Office 365 Tenancies with the same domain. The domain must be removed from the old tenancy first.

If the email is working again now, work some more on getting Admin access to their 365 account so you can remove the domain. You *may* need to set up email with a temporary provider, which would be a massive PITA.

Intermedia is a reputable Hosted Exchange provider, if you want a good alternative and just move them back to 365 in the medium term after the domain has been purged from the old tenancy.

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martyyn

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#2215064 11-Apr-2019 15:02

We have admin access to the domain and my client is the registrar if that's what you mean by stolen.

It's the O365 account he wants to cancel and set up separately. If we were to go to a temporary provider (or even Gmail) do we know how long it takes for a domain to be purged from an old tenancy ?

Dynamic

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#2215065 11-Apr-2019 15:04

Sorry... in our case it was a domain that had been swiped and ordered returned by the courts. We never got it into 365 (though we gave up trying after a month, the other party was uncooperative). SO i can;t give any guidance as to the time it takes moving a domain from one tenancy to another.

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engedib

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#2215072 11-Apr-2019 15:11

martyyn:

We have admin access to the domain and my client is the registrar if that's what you mean by stolen.

It's the O365 account he wants to cancel and set up separately. If we were to go to a temporary provider (or even Gmail) do we know how long it takes for a domain to be purged from an old tenancy ?

It can take up to 24 hours to purge the old domain from the tenancy, but you can speed it up by logging a support case with MS.

Have you checked BitTitan for migrating?

MCSE+M/S, MCITP

martyyn

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#2215081 11-Apr-2019 15:20

Thanks @Dynamic.

Just found BitTitan now, might be the easier than getting too involved myself.

What I was confused about though is how I create a new O365 account with the same domain name for the .onmicroft.com bit.

But then the admin@domain.onmicrosoft.com name is meaningless after the domain is attached isn't it, so it can be anything can't it ?

engedib

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#2215085 11-Apr-2019 15:28

martyyn:

Thanks @Dynamic.

Just found BitTitan now, might be the easier than getting too involved myself.

What I was confused about though is how I create a new O365 account with the same domain name for the .onmicroft.com bit.

But then the admin@domain.onmicrosoft.com name is meaningless after the domain is attached isn't it, so it can be anything can't it ?

You won't be able to create the same .onmicrosoft.com domain.

With the tenant to tenant migrations, you create a new one (xyzltd.onmicrosoft.com is the new and xyzlimited is the old for example), then migrate to this new tenancy using PSTs, bittitan, whatever.

Once the content migration is done, you trash everything at the source tenant including deleting the domain. After that you can add the domain to the new tenant but you might need the MS support case logged to speed up the process. I have seen it was deleted from one tenant, and was unable to add to the new tenant because it was still hanging around at the back-end.

MCSE+M/S, MCITP

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mattwnz

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#2215086 11-Apr-2019 15:29

I would be surprised if you couldn't transfer a domain and email accounts between accounts with O365 automatically. Guess it is one of the problems with cloud based email storage.

engedib

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#2215087 11-Apr-2019 15:37

mattwnz:

I would be surprised if you couldn't transfer a domain and email accounts between accounts with O365 automatically. Guess it is one of the problems with cloud based email storage.

You can't. The domain in O365 is tied into a lot of things.

MCSE+M/S, MCITP

CYaBro

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#2215103 11-Apr-2019 16:04

Why do you even need to move to another Office 365 tenant?

You could switch them to paying Microsoft directly, and remove Domainz access from the tenant so the billing with them will stop.

Or find another Office 365 provider who can give you their link to add them to the tenant, and do the billing through them.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

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#2215576 12-Apr-2019 10:28

CYaBro:

You could switch them to paying Microsoft directly, and remove Domainz access from the tenant so the billing with them will

This is what I helped to do for a client last year.

The O365 a/c (and email )stayed as is , just billed direct to/from MS .

Then transfer the Domain Name to another hosting provider : be aware that some arnt NZ based despite being setup to look as though they are.

You will need the 365 admin login & pass . If Domainz are stalling or wont co-operate, contact MS directly & put in a complaint .

martyyn

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#2215734 12-Apr-2019 13:33

CYaBro:

Why do you even need to move to another Office 365 tenant?

You could switch them to paying Microsoft directly, and remove Domainz access from the tenant so the billing with them will stop.

Or find another Office 365 provider who can give you their link to add them to the tenant, and do the billing through them.

I hadn't realised this was possible I just assumed Domainz would have it locked up to themselves.

I have an admin@domain.onmicrosoft.com password but it doesn't appear to work. I'll have them go through the recover options to do this instead.

Thanks everyone.

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CYaBro

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#2215748 12-Apr-2019 13:57

martyyn:

CYaBro:

Why do you even need to move to another Office 365 tenant?

You could switch them to paying Microsoft directly, and remove Domainz access from the tenant so the billing with them will stop.

Or find another Office 365 provider who can give you their link to add them to the tenant, and do the billing through them.

I hadn't realised this was possible I just assumed Domainz would have it locked up to themselves.

I have an admin@domain.onmicrosoft.com password but it doesn't appear to work. I'll have them go through the recover options to do this instead.

Thanks everyone.

None of the users accounts have global admin access?

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

martyyn

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#2215754 12-Apr-2019 14:08

CYaBro:

None of the users accounts have global admin access?

Don't appear to. The user login only gives me access to a page with Yammer and a whole load of other unused apps.

I've gone back through the email and found a password from two years ago for the admin@domain.onmicrosoft.com but it doesn't work and the password reset says the account doesn't exist, so we'll go back to Domainz to see what we can get.

martyyn

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#2218276 16-Apr-2019 15:40

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh....this is excruciating !

Three days of emails back and forth with customer support for them to end up saying "you'll have to call us".

So I call and spend 20 minutes on hold, then 20 minutes with a tech advisor and then I'm cut off. To his credit he calls me back but in the end says "the account is owned by a reseller, you'll have to talk to them". It's a name and number we've never heard of so I call it and it forwards directly to Domainz and the 0800 I've just been talking to !

So I spend another 20 minutes with a new bloke and then I'm cut off again.

How are these guys in business ?

[e] Now I've received an email from TPP Wholesale to assign a case number.

martyyn

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#2218285 16-Apr-2019 16:05

But, now I'm getting somewhere. I've found an old email with another username and that gets me into the O365 admin center I was looking for.

There are two users on O365 Business Essentials licences, neither of which are valid according to the Licenses page and nothing I can see is a delegated admin.

Does this mean I can just set a new admin person to run the account, buy new licences directly and then we are away from Domainz/TPP/MelbourneIT/whoever ?

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