Your company changed its name: moving every mailbox to a new domain without losing mail

The short answer: moving company e-mail to a new domain loses nothing if you follow this order: register the new domain, create the new mailboxes, copy the messages, forward the old domain to the new one and keep the old domain renewed for a long time. That last step is the one most often forgotten, and the one that costs the most.

Before you start

1	Register the new domain and make sure it is active: domain registration.

2	Add the new domain to the hosting that holds the mailboxes. On a hosting plan that takes more than one domain, you do this in cPanel; see how many domains your plan includes on hosting plans. On the Professional E-mail plan, talk to us first.

3	List the mailboxes you have today and who uses each one. You will need that list for every step that follows.

The move, step by step

1	Create the mailboxes on the new domain, with the same names (ana@, invoices@...) and new passwords. If there are many, use the Address Importer.

2	Check the new domain's deliverability under Email Deliverability in cPanel: SPF, DKIM and DMARC must be right before the first message goes out.

3	Copy the messages from each old mailbox to the new one. For a small mailbox, an e-mail program with both accounts on IMAP lets you drag folders across. For many mailboxes, there are proper tools: copying mailboxes with imapsync.

4	Forward the old domain. In cPanel, under Forwarders, you can forward a whole domain to another: mail sent to ana@ on the old domain then arrives at ana@ on the new one. Send a test message to confirm.

5	Set up the devices with the new accounts and remove the old ones, so nobody replies from the old address by mistake.

6	Change everything that shows the old address: signatures, website, invoices, business cards, social profiles, bank and supplier accounts.

You do not let go of the old domain

Do not let the old domain expire. Customers and suppliers will keep writing to it for years, and every online account you opened with that address sends its password resets there. If the domain expires, someone else can register it and start receiving that mail. Keep it renewed, with the forwarding on.

Give people time. For the first few weeks, always reply from the new address, even to people who wrote to the old one: that is how they update your contact. A line in your signature ("Our address has changed to ...") helps.

If the company is also moving its website to the new domain, there is a separate guide for WordPress; for anything else, talk to us before you touch the DNS records.

Moving your company to a new domain? Open a ticket and we will help you plan the mailbox move.

Open a support ticket

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