GoDaddy to Microsoft 365: 7 Proven Steps to Move Your Email

By Claudia Sterling · 27 October 2026

If your company email was set up through GoDaddy, you’re probably already using Microsoft 365, just through GoDaddy’s version of it. Moving from GoDaddy to Microsoft 365 directly gives you the full admin centre, more licence choices and Microsoft’s security tools. This month we at ZSI did exactly that with our own email, so this guide is based on what actually happened, including the parts that didn’t go to plan.

Why move from GoDaddy to Microsoft 365 directly?

When you buy “Microsoft 365 Email” from GoDaddy, GoDaddy creates and manages a Microsoft 365 account (a “tenant”) on your behalf. It works, but it’s GoDaddy’s account, not yours. In practice that means:

• Limited control. You manage email through GoDaddy’s dashboard, without full access to the Microsoft 365 admin centre.
• Limited plans. You choose from the bundles GoDaddy sells, rather than Microsoft’s full range, such as Business Premium with Intune device management and advanced threat protection.
• Two bills, two support desks. Problems often bounce between GoDaddy and Microsoft.

The good news: your domain name can stay registered at GoDaddy. Only the email service moves.

The 7 steps we followed

1. Take stock before you touch anything

List every mailbox, every alias (info@, accounts@ and so on), mailbox sizes, and where your DNS is actually hosted. That last point catches people out. Our domain is registered at GoDaddy, but our DNS is managed by our website host, so every record change happened there, not at GoDaddy. Take a screenshot or export of your current DNS records as a rollback reference.

2. Turn off auto-renew, and note the dates

In your GoDaddy account, switch off auto-renew on the email plans (not the domain). Write down each expiry date. That’s your hard deadline: the whole migration must be finished before the first plan expires.

3. Set up your own Microsoft 365 account and licences

Create your own Microsoft 365 tenant (or use one you already have) and buy licences directly from Microsoft or through a Microsoft partner. We chose Microsoft 365 Business Premium for staff and the cheaper Business Basic for shared mailboxes such as sales@ and support@. Create a separate admin account, turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for everyone, and create the users before cutover day.

4. Back up every mailbox, and check the backup

Export each mailbox to a PST file from Outlook. Check the file size and item count against the mailbox. Our first exports from the new Outlook app were silently incomplete: one came out at a third of the mailbox size. Re-exporting from classic Outlook, with Cached Exchange Mode turned off, gave full copies. Take a final backup just before cutover.

5. Cutover day: release, verify, rename

This is the part GoDaddy controls. In our case, GoDaddy required the old mailboxes to be deleted before it would remove the domain from its tenant. It told us the release could take anywhere from 90 minutes to 24 hours; ours was done in about an hour. Then:

• Add and verify the domain in your own Microsoft 365 admin centre straight away (see Microsoft’s guide to adding a domain). Until it’s verified, incoming mail can bounce.
• Change each user’s address to @yourcompany.com and re-create the aliases.
• Pick a quiet time, such as a weekend afternoon, and tell staff and key clients in advance.

6. Fix your DNS records

Many records may already point to Microsoft, because GoDaddy’s service runs on it. Check each one anyway:

• MX record: the address Microsoft 365 gives you (ending in mail.protection.outlook.com).
• SPF: replace GoDaddy’s entry (secureserver.net) with include:spf.protection.outlook.com. A wrong SPF record is a common reason mail lands in spam.
• DKIM: add Microsoft’s two CNAME records, then switch DKIM on in Microsoft Defender (Microsoft’s DKIM guide).
• DMARC: start with a monitoring policy (p=none), then tighten it after a few weeks.
• Keep records for other services, such as your newsletter platform or website host.

Test by sending from and replying to an outside address such as Gmail.

7. Reconnect Outlook and phones, then import the mail

Add the new account in Outlook and import the PST files. One-at-a-time imports, with the PC kept awake, worked best for us. For bigger or shared mailboxes, Microsoft’s Purview PST import service lets you upload the file and import it on Microsoft’s side.

The Outlook sign-in error that cost us an evening

After cutover, Outlook refused to add the account, with error AADSTS50020. Microsoft’s side was set up correctly. The problem was the PC: Windows and Office still remembered the old GoDaddy sign-in for the same email address, and kept sending Outlook back to the old tenant. Removing one cached entry didn’t help, because the others rebuilt it.

What fixed it was clearing all of the cached sign-in data in one go (Office’s OneAuth and IdentityCache folders, the new Outlook settings file and the Windows work-account records), backing them up first, then restarting and signing in fresh. On phones, remove the old account from Microsoft Authenticator. We also found that some built-in phone mail apps failed to connect, while the Microsoft Outlook app worked straight away.

Don’t forget the hidden senders

Email doesn’t only come from people. Before your old plan expires, check:

• Website contact forms that sent through GoDaddy’s mail servers
• Scanners and copiers that “scan to email”
• Accounting, booking or ticketing systems that send notifications

Your GoDaddy to Microsoft 365 checklist

• ✅ DNS host identified, records backed up
• ✅ GoDaddy email auto-renew off; expiry dates noted
• ✅ Own Microsoft 365 tenant, licences bought, MFA on
• ✅ Full PST backups, sizes checked
• ✅ Domain verified; users and aliases renamed
• ✅ MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC correct; Gmail test passed
• ✅ Outlook and phones reconnected; mail imported
• ✅ Contact forms, scanners and systems updated

How ZSI helps

Zenith Services Inc. moves businesses in Georgetown and across Guyana from GoDaddy to Microsoft 365 directly: licensing, backups, DNS, cutover and the clean-up afterwards. We’ve done it on our own email, so we know where the traps are. Learn more about our Microsoft 365 and Azure services and managed IT services, or read our Fortinet firewall update checklist.

Thinking of moving from GoDaddy to Microsoft 365? Talk to our team and we’ll plan your move with you.