Work with domain names and DNS records in Office 365
When your company signs up for Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises, you’re given an initial domain name that looks like the following: contoso.onmicrosoft.com. In this example, contoso is the name that you chose when you signed up. As a global administrator, you can add your own domain names for your company to use with the services as well, or remove domains that you’ve added previously.
Tip
To manage your domains, on the Admin page, in the left pane, click Domains. On the Domains page, you can view and manage the domains associated with your account.
What do you want to do?
Learn about your onmicrosoft.com domain
Use your own domain in Office 365
Learn about domain status
Change your default domain name
Remove a domain
About your onmicrosoft.com domain
You can use your onmicrosoft.com domain with most Office 365 services. For example, you can use the domain with Microsoft Exchange Online and Lync to create distribution lists and sign-in accounts so users can access SharePoint Online and site collections.
You cannot, however, host SharePoint Online on a onmicrosoft.com domain. SharePoint Online can only be hosted on your SharePoint domain, such as contoso.sharepoint.com, or with a custom domain, such as www.contoso.com, that you add to Office 365. For more information about using your own domain name with SharePoint Online, see Use a custom domain name for your SharePoint Online public website address.
If you add your own domain names to Office 365, you can continue to use your onmicrosoft.com domain.
Note
After you choose the name to use with Office 365 during signup, such as contoso.onmicrosoft.com, you cannot change the name.
Use your own domain in Office 365
If you want your hosted email or other services to use a domain name that you own rather than the one that you were given at signup, you can add the domain name to Office 365. After you add the domain to Office 365 and Office 365 verifies that you own it, you can set up email, create Lync Online accounts with the domain name, create distribution lists that include the domain name, and use the domain name for your SharePoint Online hosted website by changing DNS records at your DNS hosting provider. For more information, see Create DNS records for Office 365.
Important
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You must own a domain name before you can add it. If you don’t yet own the domain name that you want to add, register the domain by using a domain registrar.
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You cannot add domains that you’re already using in Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite.
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Before you can verify a domain that you’ve added, you must have the sign-in credentials for your domain registrar or DNS hosting provider, unless the name server for your domain is on premises. If you don’t remember where your DNS records are hosted, see Locate your domain services or buy a new domain.
If your company is already using your Internet domain name to send and receive email, and you want to use that domain with Microsoft Exchange Online, there are several ways for you to start using your domain name with Exchange Online. For example, you can set up Exchange Online to coexist with your current email management system. Another option is to migrate your current email system to use Exchange Online. For more information about setting up and using email with your domain name, see Exchange Hybrid Deployment and Migration with Office 365.
Note
If you plan to use single sign-on with Office 365, we recommend that you help prepare your Active Directory environment by running the Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises Deployment Readiness Tool. This tool inspects your Active Directory environment and provides a report that includes information about whether you are ready to set up single sign-on. If not, it lists the changes you need to make to prepare for single sign-on. For example, it inspects whether your users have UPNs and if those UPNs are in the correct format. To download the tool, see Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises Deployment Readiness Tool.
About domain status
On the Domains page, you can view the status of each of your domain names in Office 365. The following table lists the status options for domains.
Note
If this information doesn’t match what you’re seeing, you may be using Office 365 after the service upgrade. Try What do domain statuses mean in Office 365? to find the information that applies to you.
Am I using Office 365 after the service upgrade?
| Status | Definition |
|---|---|
Click to verify domain |
The domain has been added to your account, but Office 365 has not yet verified that you own the domain. You cannot use the domain with any of the services until verification is complete. Click the status to go verify your domain, or for more information about verification, see Add your domain to Office 365. |
Active |
The initial onmicrosoft.com domain that is created when you open your account has this status. |
Verified |
The domain has been successfully added and Office 365 has verified that you own it. |
Pending deletion |
Office 365 has started removing the domain, but the removal process isn’t complete, or there is an issue with removing the domain. For more information, see the section later in this article: Remove a domain. |
If your domain status is Verified but you still aren’t receiving email on the domain in Office 365, try troubleshooting the problem. For more information, see Troubleshoot issues after changing your domain name.
Change your default domain name
After you add your domain name to Office 365, you can change the default domain name for new email addresses. To do this, follow these steps.
Note
If this information doesn’t match what you’re seeing, you may be using Office 365 after the service upgrade. Try Change your default domain to find the information that applies to you.
Am I using Office 365 after the service upgrade?
On the Admin page, in the top left corner, click your company name.
Click Edit.
Choose a new default domain name, such as the custom domain name that you added.
Remove a domain
Before you remove a domain name, consider the following:
You can’t remove the original contoso.onmicrosoft.com domain name that was provided for your account when you signed up.
Have you activated directory synchronization? If so, a domain was automatically added to your account that looks similar to this: contoso.mail.onmicrosoft.com. This domain name can’t be removed.
Before you can remove a domain name, you must first remove the domain name from all user, email, or Office 365 accounts associated with the domain. You can remove all of the accounts, or you can bulk edit user accounts to change their domain name information and email addresses. For more information, see Create or edit users and Add multiple users with bulk import.
If you are hosting a SharePoint Online site on a domain name that is being used for a SharePoint Online site collection, you must delete the site collection before you can remove the domain name.
To remove a domain name, follow these steps.
On the Admin page, in the left pane, click Domains.
On the Domains page, select the domain name that you want to remove, and then click Remove.
On the Remove domain page, click Yes.
If your domain name can’t be removed at this time, the status for the domain name is shown as Pending deletion on the Domains page. If you continue to see this status, try again to remove the domain name. For more troubleshooting suggestions, see the video Troubleshooting Removing Domains in Office 365. To track down the cause of a specific error number, see the information in You receive an error message when you try to remove a domain from Office 365.
See Also
DNS basics
Create DNS records for Office 365
Add your domain to Office 365