Domain Transfer for Microsoft 365

Website, Application, Performance Registrar
1

Hi,

tl;dr - I desperately need to move my domain rebornonline.com from Cloudflare to GoDaddy, but it has a 60 day block as I only recently moved it to Cloudflare. I need this releasing and an auth code providing urgently, otherwise I’m going to lose access to email (which is tied to my medical prescriptions, for one)

FULL STORY

I recently moved all of my domains away from TSOHost to Cloudflare. I’ve been a big supporter of CF for many years, so I of course moved my domains to CF as soon as it was possible.

One of those domains has been used for many years for my Google Suite, in fact, I was an early adopter / beta tester, and as some of you may know, Google has started shutting these accounts this year. In fact - it’s happening right now to this domain.

I decided it would make much more sense to move the email and domain to Microsoft 365, as I can get heavily discounted licenses here due to the Home Use Program (more on HUP later if you’re interested).

I have now set up and paid for an M365 account (yay), and am ready to add the domain in, but it seems that Microsoft insists the domain is managed by GoDaddy. The domain registrar I hate more than any other in the world (in fact, I don’t particularly hate any others, just GoDaddy for cybersquatting my domain and holding me to ransom).

I really DON’T want to do this, but I have no choice.

I also need to do this urgently so that I do not lose access to my domain services (critically, email, this is the email address I’ve used for twenty years, so everything is tied to it, bills, accounts, online prescriptions etc.)

I hope someone can help.

HUP

Just to give a little back:

On “Home Use Program” - many companies who have a Microsoft estate, will enable “HUP” for their staff. You may already have this facility and not know. Or, you may need to ask HR and/or IT to enable it (it takes less than 5 minutes).

To check - Google for “Microsoft Home Use Program” and click the link that comes up. Pop in your work email address, and if you can validate the email, then you can get to the discounts.

1 Like
2

A requirement to use a specific DNS provider or registrar? That seems…… unlikely?

If you are signing up for Office 365 validation generally just requires that certain records exist…

1 Like
3

Unfortunately this currently is a requirement for using your own domain with the personal and family versions of Microsoft 365 that the HUP license provides. The Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise products referenced in your link have no such requirement.

Of course that doesn’t change ICANN’s domain transfer policy or Cloudflare’s policy, which has the 60 day freeze specified in section 4.4.

1 Like
4

Ahaha not enough money in the world for me to do that but yeah that sucks…. I suppose it saves $3 (total) in support costs for them.

1 Like
5

@RichardGriffiths , you aren’t going to get around ICANN or Cloudflare’s 60 day freeze policy so the domain must remain in Cloudflare for the short term.

A couple questions:

  1. Google announced this change 6 months ago. Why the rush to desperately move away from G Suite now?

  2. According to Link Removed and Link Removed, Google still offers a free tier. It may be an option for you to keep your email in G Suite for the next 2 months or permanently, whichever your preference.

  3. Depending on your use case, Cloudflare offers an Email Routing beta, where you can forward all email sent to your domain to a personal email address. This may also be a good solution for the next 2 months or permanently, whichever your preference.

For me, personally, I was also using the G Suite free edition but when Google made the announcement in January (6 months ago) I opted into the Cloudflare Email Routing beta and now forward all email sent to my custom domain to a personal Gmail address.

This information doesn’t solve your 60 day transfer issue but I hope it provides some other options for you to weigh against the benefit.

1 Like
6

To get to the link on G Suite’s free edition for personal user for individuals and families, search for “Upgrade from G Suite legacy free edition”

1 Like
7

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.