How to Move Domain Between Office 365 Tenants? Step-By-Step Complete Guide

Mohit Jha | Modified: August 7, 2023 | Office 365 | 8 Minutes Reading

Office 365 is being used by a lot of organizations in the current scenario. There can be many situations where a company might need to move Office 365 domain to another tenant. Some of the situations are if a company is undergoing a merger, acquisition, or rebranding or a part of the company is being divested. The process of moving a domain from one tenant to another can be a complex task and a professional tool is a must to complete this task. Hence, in this article, we are going to cover the complete steps required to perform this operation without any hassle.

How to Move Office 365 Domain to Another Tenant?

There are several steps involved in completing the task:

Step 1. Move the user mailboxes of the domain to the destination tenant.

Step 2. Remove the domain that has to be migrated from the source tenant.

Step 3. Add that domain to the destination tenant.

Step 4. Migrate the data from the destination tenant to the destination domain.

Preparing for the Migration

Before starting the migration process, there is a multi-step preparation process to make sure the migration is completed smoothly and without failure.

The user needs to make sure there is enough space on the destination domain for the data that has to be transferred. The storage limit for a primary mailbox is 50GB, if the data in the source mailbox is more than that, the user might need additional licenses.
Admin accounts for both, the source tenant and destination tenant are needed to move Office 365 domain to another tenant.
A list of user mailboxes has to be generated for migration and a CSV file is generated for user mapping.
Note the least value of Time To Live (TTL) on the MX record of the primary mail domain. By default, the value of TTL is 86400 seconds, but for the migration process, it will be set as 3600 seconds. The lowest value of TTL is required to transfer the most recent data possible
The inflow of emails has to be stopped by changing the MX record value of the source tenant.
Before transferring Office 365 mailbox to another account, all objects are to be erased from the primary mail domain of the source tenant.
End users are to be trained for the use of Office 365 post-migration.

Sadly, Microsoft does not provide a direct way to move Office 365 domain to another tenant.

Best Way to Move Office 365 Domain Data to Another Tenant

Now, to move forward with the process, you would need a professional tool. For the sake of this process, we would like to suggest the SysTools Office 365 to Office 365 Migration Tool. This is an automated tool that helps in migration without loss of data while saving time and effort for the user.

Advantage Of Using A Professional Tool

This is an advanced migration tool that provides a way to migrate domain from one tenant to another without data loss. It also allows you to perform bulk Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migrations.

Some features of this tool are:

This tool can migrate emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, and documents.
Provides the option for Concurrent migration
This tool stores no admin credentials or user information.
It provides the facility of using CSV files for source and destination user mapping.
This tool can help you migrate data between two domains in the same tenant.
It can use the date range filter for selective data migration.
Provides the option to Re-Run migration:
- Retry Failed Items – Retry the items that did not migrate
- Re-Run Full migration – Starts the migration process again.
- Delta Migration – Migrates items that were changed since the last migration.

Note: Concurrent Migration is the process of migrating more than one mailbox at a time.

Now, let’s start the process.

Also Read: How to Connect GoDaddy Domain to G Suite Via A Guided Tutorial?

Stage 1. Move The User Mailboxes Of The Domain To The Destination Tenant.

In order to transfer domain from one Office 365 tenant to another first, we need to migrate the user mailboxes to the destination tenant.

Step 1. Download the tool and install it.

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Step 2. In this case, select both the source and destination as Office 365 as the migration is from one Office 365 tenant to another.

Step 3. Under the “Resource and Workload” section, the items the user wants to migrate can be selected like Emails, Contacts, Calendars, and Documents. Given below is an option for new Users and Groups Creation.

Step 4. Date filter can provide the facility of selective migration according to the date range provided. Now click “Next”.

Step 5. On the next page, Admin Email ID and Application ID can be entered for the source account, and then click “Validate” to validate all the required permissions.

Step 6. Click on the “Next” button after the validation completes.

Step 7. Now, perform the above-mentioned steps for the ”Destination” tab also.

On the “Users” tab, there are three methods provided for adding user accounts from the source.

Fetch Users – It can fetch all user accounts from the source into the tool.
Download Template – It provides a sample CSV file to input user accounts manually.
Import Users – This method imports user accounts through a CSV file.

Now, use any the above method to create user mapping and add users into the software panel.

Step 8. After selecting the users, click on “Validate” to validate the permissions.

Step 9. Once the permissions are validated, select Start Migration to move domain between Office 365 tenants.

After this process, the user mailbox will be transferred to the destination tenant.

Stage 2. Remove The Domain That Has To Be Migrated From The Source Tenant

This is the next step to transfer domain from one Office 365 tenant to another.

Because we cannot have the same domain in two different tenants, we have to detach the domain from the source tenant.

But, before removing the domain, we need to move groups and users that are associated with the domain.

Move Users From The Domain

Log in to the Office 365 account, click on “Users” and then select “Active Users”.
Select the users you want to move.
Then, go to the bulk actions panel and click on “Edit Domains”.
Now, choose a different domain to move the users.
Now, select “Set as primary”
Then, click on “Save”.

Move Groups From The Domain

Now, come to Groups and click on the Group Name.(Groups linked with the source domain have to be selected)
Then, click the Edit option given next to the group name.
In Group ID, select another group from the given drop-down menu.
Click on “Save” and then close.

Remove The Domain From The Source Tenant

Click on “Setup” and go to “Domains”.
Then, select the domain that needs to be removed.
Now, click on ”Remove” and click Close.

Stage 3. Add The Domain To The Destination Tenant

Now, to move Office 365 domain to another tenant we need to attach the domain to a different Office 365 tenant. The domain will be added to the tenant where we migrated the user mailboxes in the first step.

Go to the “Admin Center” and find “Setup” .
Then select “Domains” and now, click on “Add Domain”.
Enter the domain name and select “Next”.
Now, from the given options, choose one to verify that you are the owner of the domain.
- Option 1: Sign in to GoDaddy (or your preferred registrar)
- Option 2: Verification Email
Now, there are two options to make the DNS changes that are required for the Office to use the domain.
- Option 1: Add the DNS records for me
- Option 2: I’ll add the DNS records myself

(Here, we select Option 2)

Now, click on “Next”. Here, you can see all the records that are needed to set up a domain.

Users can skip this step and complete it later by clicking on Skip this step.

Now, click on Finish.

Stage 4. Migrating The Data From The Destination Tenant To The Destination Domain

Now, we have to transfer the mailboxes stored in the temporary domain to the destination domain. In order to do this task, we will require the above-mentioned tool. Now, we need to repeat the steps performed in the first stage for the destination domain to transfer domain from one Office 365 tenant to another.

To migrate the data into the destination domain, we would need to create user mailboxes in the new domain. This can be done using the tool by selecting the “Create User” option on the “Resources” tab or users can be created manually one by one.

Conclusion

Since there is no direct solution provided by Microsoft to move Office 365 domain to another tenant, the process explained above is one of the easiest. Moreover, using this professional tool makes this task somewhat easier to perform. This tool can make the process much more secure and prevent data loss, which greatly helps users move domain between Office 365 tenants.