Incoming Email Delivery Failure After Nameserver Change

Amala Sebastian 0 Reputation points
2026-10-05T12:03:48.6166667+00:00

We recently changed our domain nameservers from Wix to GoDaddy. After the change, the MX records were not properly updated, and as a result, we have not received incoming emails for approximately the past five days.

The email account is still active, but emails sent during this period may have been rejected, delayed, or routed incorrectly.

We have now identified the MX record issue and need assistance with:

  1. Confirming and correcting the MX/email DNS configuration.
  2. Determining whether emails sent during the affected five-day period can be recovered or are still being held/queued.
  3. Checking whether any messages were rejected or bounced back.
  4. Confirming that email delivery is fully restored after the DNS correction.
Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For business | Other
0 comments

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Julie Huynh 3,850 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-10-05T13:18:04.59+00:00

    Dear @Amala Sebastian,

    Good day! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum!

    First of all, I would like to clarify one point: this forum is intended for users to assist one another. No one, including myself, has the authority or the tools to resolve this issue on your behalf.

    Regarding your situation, in my experience, when a custom domain's DNS management is moved to a new provider, the Microsoft 365 DNS records (including the MX record) often need to be reconfigured to ensure mail delivery continues correctly.

    It appears the issue may have occurred because the Microsoft 365-related DNS configuration was not fully updated after the nameserver change, which could explain the email delivery problems you experienced.

    As this may require a deeper investigation into the Microsoft 365 backend to verify the domain configuration and mail flow status, I would recommend contacting Microsoft Support for further assistance. They have access to the diagnostic tools needed to investigate this scenario in more detail.

    Here’s what your Microsoft 365 Global Admin should do next:  

    Submit a Service Request: The Global Admin should create a service request with Microsoft support to get advanced technical assistance and diagnostics. For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to this article: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin. 

    Thank you for your kindness and understanding!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments

  2. AI answer

    2026-10-05T12:04:06.27+00:00
    1. Confirm and correct the MX configuration:
      • In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Settings > Domains, select the domain, and open Required DNS settings.
      • Select Check DNS.
      • Verify that there is only one MX record configured for the domain. Exchange Online does not support using more than one MX record for a domain enrolled in Exchange Online.
      • The MX record should typically point to the Microsoft 365 or Office 365 fully qualified domain name in the form <your domain>.mail.protection.outlook.com or <your domain>.subdomain.mx.microsoft.
      • If issues are detected, follow the recommended fix in the admin center. If DNS is hosted at GoDaddy, update the MX record there.
      • If needed, use nslookup.exe to verify that the MX record exists on the DNS server.
    2. What happened to messages during the five-day issue:
      • If no valid MX record existed, inbound SMTP mail may not have been delivered properly.
      • Sending servers usually retry delivery for a limited time, commonly around 1 to 3 days, and sometimes up to about 5 days.
      • After that retry window, undelivered messages are typically bounced back to the sender.
      • Because the outage lasted about five days, some messages might still have been retried if sent near the end of the incident, but earlier messages were likely already rejected or returned to senders.
    3. Check whether messages were rejected or bounced:
      • Ask external senders to check for non-delivery reports or bounce-back messages.
      • In the Microsoft 365 admin center, check Message Center for known configuration issues and Health > Service health for service issues.
      • Run the Mailflow Troubleshooter from Microsoft 365 to check for incorrect or stale MX records.
    4. Confirm delivery is restored:
      • After correcting DNS, allow for DNS propagation. Microsoft documentation notes this can take up to 72 hours worldwide, although some changes are recognized sooner.
      • In the Microsoft 365 admin center, use Check DNS again for the domain and confirm no DNS issues are reported.
      • Send a test message from an external mailbox and confirm it is received.

    Key point: mail sent while the domain had no working MX record is generally not recoverable from Microsoft 365 unless the sender’s mail system is still within its retry window. Messages that permanently failed are normally returned to the sender as NDRs.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

    Was this answer helpful?

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.