How does a Domain Name change affect cPanel Email Accounts?

[CodyAE]

Hi there cPanel forum users!

Here's the problem:
I'm the systems administrator for a company that has a long-winded domain name. Recently, we have obtained a shorter, more suitable domain name, and I am now undergoing the process of making that domain name our primary one.

The transferring process, however, is not what confuses me. My problem is that we have our cPanel email accounts tied to the old domain name, and they must now be converted to the new domain name.

In other words, I want emails sent to "[email protected]" to instead be sent to "[email protected]".

How do I do this most effectively, without losing existing emails or losing incoming emails?

Should I setup a forward for each staff account, using cPanel's email forwarding? So "[email protected]" will forward to "cody@newdomain"?

I had someone at GoDaddy (our hosting provider) explain that simply changing the primary domain on our cPanel shared-server would change the email addresses too, but I'm not sure if I trust his word -- it seems too easy, and not backwards compatible (again, because our clients may accidentally address emails to the old emails/domain).

Let me know the best solution... Please note that because we are on a shared server that our access to WHM is limited/non-existent. (Eventually, I know I should bring things into a virtual server, dedicated server, or even a AWS environment, but that's a story for another day...)

Thanks!

 

[cPanelKenneth]

Setup a domain forwarder. That will ensure email to [email protected] are sent to [email protected] and vice versa.

You'll want the domain forward even if you have your hosting provider change the primary domain name on the account. The domain forwarder removes the need to create individual forwarders for each email address.

Some information about domain forwarders is found in our documentation: Forwarders - Version 64 Documentation - cPanel Documentation

 

[CodyAE]

Setup a domain forwarder. That will ensure email to [email protected] are sent to [email protected] and vice versa.

You'll want the domain forward even if you have your hosting provider change the primary domain name on the account. The domain forwarder removes the need to create individual forwarders for each email address.

Some information about domain forwarders is found in our documentation: Forwarders - Version 64 Documentation - cPanel Documentation

I took a look at that documentation. Will a domain forwarder still properly separate the incoming email though?

Like, for example, email addressed to [email protected] will go to [email protected]? And then also [email protected] will go to [email protected]?

So long as I create those new inboxes, correct?

 

[cPanelMichael]

I took a look at that documentation. Will a domain forwarder still properly separate the incoming email though?

Like, for example, email addressed to [email protected] will go to [email protected]? And then also [email protected] will go to [email protected]?

So long as I create those new inboxes, correct?

Hello,

You'd actually want to avoid creating new email accounts under the old domain name. Simply have your provider change the primary domain name associated with the account, add the previous domain name as an Alias or Addon domain name, and then setup the email domain forwarder. Here's a note from the Domain Forwarders document explaining how this works:

Domain forwarders only forward email when the system cannot deliver it to an address or autoresponder. For example, if a user sends an email to the [email protected] address, the following actions might take place:

• If a [email protected] address or autoresponder exists, cPanel will not forward the email.
• If a [email protected] address or autoresponder does not exist, cPanel will forward the email.

Thank you.