Add your domain to Office 365

Article
07/22/2014

If your company already has a custom domain name, as an administrator, you can add it to Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises to use with your services.

After you’ve added your domain name to Office 365 to use with SharePoint Online and Lync Online, you can create email addresses, Lync Online accounts, and distribution groups that use your custom domain name. You can also use your domain name for a public website hosted on SharePoint Online but there are some additional steps you need to take. See Use SharePoint Online on a custom domain together with other services.

What do you want to do?

Prepare before you add your domain name
Add and verify a domain name
Set the domain purpose for your domain name
Edit DNS records for your Office 365 services

Prepare before you add your domain name

Before you add your domain name, keep in mind the following.

To add a domain name, you must have already registered a domain name and have the sign-in credentials needed for your domain registrar.
- If you don’t have a custom domain name, you can buy one from a domain registrar.
- If you already have a domain name but you don’t have the sign-in credentials at your domain registrar, contact the person who registered the domain name.
For more information, see Locate your domain services or buy a new domain.
If you are currently using custom domain names in Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, you cannot add the same domains to Office 365.
You can add multiple domains to Office 365. However, you can’t add the same domain to different Office 365 accounts. So, for example, when you add your domain to Office 365, you can't create another Office 365 account and add the same domain name to that account.
You can add a domain name to Office 365 by using any of the following:
- The Add your domain wizard.
- The Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell. For more information, see Install Windows PowerShell for single sign-on.
- A Windows PowerShell cmdlet. For more information, see Manage domains.

Add and verify a domain name

To add a custom domain name to Office 365, use the Add domain wizard as follows.

On the Admin page, in the left pane, click Domains, and then click Add a domain.
On the Add a domain page, under Specify domain, type the domain name that you want to add, and then click Next.

Note

If this information doesn’t match what you’re seeing, you may be using Office 365 after the service upgrade. Try Add your domain to Office 365 to find the information that applies to you.
Am I using Office 365 after the service upgrade?
Follow the steps in the wizard to verify with Office 365 that the domain name you have added belongs to you. For step-by-step directions to confirm domain ownership at several popular domain registrars, see Create DNS records for Office 365.

After your domain ownership is confirmed, you specify the services with which you plan to use the domain name in Office 365, and then set up the domain name to use it with Office 365, as described in the next sections.

Tip

After you add your domain name to Office 365, you can change the default domain name for new email addresses. For more information, see Change your default domain name. You can also update your own email address (which is also your user ID) to use your custom domain name instead of the onmicrosoft.com domain. For more information about working with user accounts in Office 365, see Create or edit users.

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Set the domain purpose for your domain name

When you’re adding your domain to Office 365, you have to set a domain purpose for the domain. This is a selection of services that you plan to use with your domain. Later, Office 365 uses this to show you the list of just the DNS records (such as an MX record) that you’ll need to create or update at your DNS hosting provider website, so that Office 365 services will work. By knowing the purpose, Office 365 can show you only the DNS records that apply to you, keeping the list shorter and less confusing.

The Add a domain wizard steps you through setting the domain purpose. If you need to change it later, do the following.

On the Admin page, in the left pane, click Domains.
Click a domain name, and then click View DNS settings. page, click Edit domain services.
Under Domain purpose, click Change domain purpose.

Edit DNS records for your Office 365 services

After you add and verify your custom domain name, the next step is to edit the DNS records at your domain registrar or DNS hosting provider that point traffic to your Office 365 account. Office 365 provides the DNS information that you need.

If you’ve just completed the Add a domain wizard, click Configure DNS records. Otherwise, follow these steps.

On the Admin page, in the left pane, click Domains.
Click the domain name that you want to set up, and then click the DNS settings tab. The DNS settings page lists the DNS records for your Office 365 services.

Note

If you want to configure a service that you don’t see on the DNS settings tab, check your domain services selections to make sure you’ve chosen that service for this domain name. To change the settings, for example, to add Lync Online, see Specify the services you’ll use with your domain name.
At your DNS hosting provider website, add the required records to your DNS file. To learn how, see Create DNS records for Office 365.

Note

Typically it takes about 15 minutes for your changes to take effect. But it can take up to 72 hours for the DNS record that you created to propagate through the DNS system. If you need to view these record settings again, on the Domains page, click the domain, and then, on the Domain properties page, click the DNS settings tab.

To check the status of your domain, on the Domains page, click the domain, and then, on the Domain properties page, click Troubleshoot domain.

If you have any problems, see Troubleshoot issues after changing your domain name. If your changes still aren’t working properly, see Get support for Office 365.