With Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, you can download the Office applications to five devices (PCs, Macs, mobiles or tablets) so you can work on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, even if you’re not online. Microsoft 365 Business Basic gives you access to Office applications through a web-browser and based in the Cloud. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, & Teams are all included. The BT Sport app on Xbox and Windows 10 The BT Sport app allows BT Sport subscribers to watch all our great live Sport content on BT Sport 1, 2, 3, BT Sport ESPN and BoxNation. BT Sport 1, 2, 3, and BT Sport ESPN are also available in stunning HD1080 at 50fps.
-->If you purchased a domain from a third-party hosting provider, you can connect it to Microsoft 365 by updating the DNS records in your registrar’s account.
At the end of these steps, your domain will stay registered with the host that you purchased the domain from, but Microsoft 365 can use it for your email addresses (like user@yourdomain.com) and other services.
If you don't add a domain, people in your organization will use the onmicrosoft.com domain for their email addresses until you do. It's important to add your domain before you add users, so you don't have to set them up twice.
Check the Domains FAQ if you don't find what you're looking for below.
Step 1: Add a TXT or MX record to verify you own the domain
Recommended: Verify with a TXT record
First, you need to prove you own the domain you want to add to Microsoft 365.
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and select Show all > Settings > Domains.
- In a new browser tab or window, sign in to your DNS hosting provider, and then find where you manage your DNS settings (e.g., Zone File Settings, Manage Domains, Domain Manager, DNS Manager).
- Go to your provider's DNS Manager page, and add the TXT record indicated in the admin center to your domain.
Adding this record won't affect your existing email or other services and you can safely remove it once your domain is connected to Microsoft 365.
Example:
- TXT Name:
@ - TXT Value: MS=ms######## (unique ID from the admin center)
- TTL:
3600(or your provider default)
- Save the record, go back to the admin center, and then select Verify. It typically takes around 15 minutes for record changes to register, but sometimes it can take longer. Give it some time and a few tries to pick up the change.
When Microsoft finds the correct TXT record, your domain is verified.
Verify with an MX record
If your registrar doesn't support adding TXT records, you can verify by adding an MX record.
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and select Show all > Settings > Domains.
- In a new browser tab or window, sign in to your DNS hosting provider, and then find where you manage your DNS settings (e.g., Zone File Settings, Manage Domains, Domain Manager, DNS Manager).
- Go to your provider's DNS Manager page, and add the MX record indicated in the admin center to your domain.
This MX record's Priority must be the highest of all existing MX records for the domain. Otherwise, it can interfere with sending and receiving email. You should delete this records as soon as domain verification is complete.
Make sure that the fields are set to the following values:
- Record Type:
MX - Priority: Set to the highest value available, typically
0. - Host Name:
@ - Points to address: Copy the value from the admin center and paste it here.
- TTL:
3600(or your provider default)
When Microsoft finds the correct MX record, your domain is verified.
Step 2: Add DNS records to connect Microsoft services
In a new browser tab or window, sign in to your DNS hosting provider, and find where you manage your DNS settings (e.g., Zone File Settings, Manage Domains, Domain Manager, DNS Manager).
You'll be adding several different types of DNS records depending on the services you want to enable.
Add an MX record for email (Outlook, Exchange Online)
Before you begin: If users already have email with your domain (such as user@yourdomain.com), create their accounts in the admin center before you set up your MX records. That way, they’ll continue to receive email. When you update your domain's MX record, all new email for anyone who uses your domain will now come to Microsoft 365. Any email you already have will stay at your current email host, unless you decide to migrate email and contacts to Microsoft 365.
You'll get the information for the MX record from the admin center domain setup wizard.
On your hosting provider's website, add a new MX record.Make sure that the fields are set to the following values:
- Record Type:
MX - Priority: Set to the highest value available, typically
0. - Host Name:
@ - Points to address: Copy the value from the admin center and paste it here.
- TTL:
3600(or your provider default)
Save the record, and then remove any other MX records.
Add CNAME records to connect other services (Teams, Exchange Online, AAD, MDM)
You'll get the information for the CNAME records from the admin center domain setup wizard.
On your hosting provider's website, add CNAME records for each service that you want to connect.Make sure that the fields are set to the following values for each:
- Record Type:
CNAME (Alias) - Host: Paste the values you copy from the admin center here.
- Points to address: Copy the value from the admin center and paste it here.
- TTL:
3600(or your provider default)
Add or edit an SPF TXT record to help prevent email spam (Outlook, Exchange Online)
Before you begin: If you already have an SPF record for your domain, don't create a new one for Microsoft 365. Instead, add the required Microsoft 365 values to the current record on your hosting providers website so that you have a single SPF record that includes both sets of values.
On your hosting provider's website, edit the existing SPF record or create an SPF record.Make sure that the fields are set to the following values:
- Record Type:
TXT (Text) - Host:
@ - TXT Value:
v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all - TTL:
3600(or your provider default)
Save the record.
Validate your SPF record by using one of these SPF validation tools
SPF is designed to help prevent spoofing, but there are spoofing techniques that SPF cannot protect against. To protect against these, once you've set up SPF, you should also set up DKIM and DMARC for Microsoft 365.
To get started, see Use DKIM to validate outbound email sent from your domain in Microsoft 365 and Use DMARC to validate email in Microsoft 365.
Add SRV records for communications services (Teams, Skype for Business)
On your hosting provider's website, add SRV records for each service you want to connect.Make sure that the fields are set to the following values for each:
- Record Type:
SRV (Service) - Name:
@ - Target: Copy the value from the admin center and paste it here.
- Protocol: Copy the value from the admin center and paste it here.
- Service: Copy the value from the admin center and paste it here.
- Priority:
100 - Weight:
1 - Port: Copy the value from the admin center and paste it here.
- TTL:
3600(or your provider default)
Save the record.
SRV record field restrictions and workarounds
Some hosting providers impose restrictions on field values within SRV records. Here are some common workarounds for these restrictions.
Name
If your hosting provider doesn't allow setting this field to @, leave it blank. Use this approach only when your hosting provider has separate fields for the Service and Protocol values. Otherwise, see the Service and Protocol notes below.
Service and Protocol
If your hosting provider doesn't provide these fields for SRV records, you must specify the Service and Protocol values in the record's Name field. (Note: Depending on your hosting provider, the Name field might be called something else, like: Host, Hostname, or Subdomain.) To add these values, you create a single string, separating the values with a dot.
Example: _sip._tls
Priority, Weight, and Port
If your hosting provider doesn't provide these fields for SRV records, you must specify them in the record's Target field. (Note: Depending on your hosting provider, the Target field might be called something else, like: Content, IP Address, or Target Host.)
To add these values, create a single string, separating the values with spaces and sometimes ending with a dot (check with your provider if you are unsure). The values must be included in this order: Priority, Weight, Port, Target.
- Example 1:
100 1 443 sipdir.online.lync.com. - Example 2:
100 1 443 sipdir.online.lync.com
When users report that they aren't getting email, it can be hard to find what's wrong. You might run through several troubleshooting scenarios in your mind. Is something wrong with Outlook? Is the Office 365 service down? Is there a problem with mail flow or spam filter settings? Or is the problem due to something that's outside your control, like the sender is on a global block list? Fortunately, Office 365 provides powerful automated tools that can help you find and fix a variety of problems.
First things first, check if there's a problem with Outlook or another email app
If only one user is reporting having trouble receiving email, there might be a problem with their email account or their email app. Have the affected user try the following solutions before you move on to admin-specific tasks.
Use Outlook on the web to look for missing messages - 5 minutes
If a user is receiving email in their Outlook on the web mailbox but not on the email app that's installed on their machine, that could indicate that there's an issue with the users machine or email app. Ask the user with the issue to sign in to Outlook on the web to verify that their Office 365 email account is working correctly.
Instructions:Sign in to Outlook on the web for business
Run Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant to fix Outlook problems or account issues - 10 minutes
If a single user in your organization is having trouble receiving email, it could be due to a licensing issue, a profile problem, the wrong version of Outlook, or a mix of other issues. Fortunately, Support and Recovery Assistant finds and helps you fix most issues with Outlook or Office 365. As a first step in troubleshooting email delivery problems for Office 365 for business, we recommend that you download and run Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant on the affected machine. Note that if you are experiencing issues with Outlook for Mac or are having mobile access issues, you can use the app to check your account settings, but you need to install it on a PC. After you sign in with the affected account, the app will check for issues. Users can typically download and run Support and Recovery Assistant without help from their Office 365 admin.
Let us fix your issueDownload and run Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant
If the Support and Recovery Assistant app doesn't fix the email delivery issue, try these admin tools
As an Office 365 for business admin, you have access to several tools that can help you investigate why users can't get email. The following video gives a brief overview of the tools available to you.
The following tools are listed from the quickest to the most in-depth option.
Check Office 365 service health for Exchange Online issues - 5 minutes
The service health page lists the status of Office 365 services and indicates if there have been any recent service incidents. Use the following steps to check the service health.
Where to sign in to Office 365 for business with your work or school account.
Select the app launcher icon in the upper-left and choose Admin.
Tip
Admin appears only to Office 365 administrators.
Can't find the app you're looking for? From the app launcher, select All apps to see an alphabetical list of the Office 365 apps available to you. From there, you can search for a specific app.
Under Service health, go to View the service health.
If there is an indication that ExchangeOnline service is degraded, email delivery might be delayed for your organization, and CompanyName service engineers are already working to restore service. Check the service health page for progress updates. In this case, you don't need to open a service request because CompanyName is already working to resolve the issue.
Use message trace for in-depth email delivery troubleshooting - 15 minutes
Add Device To Office 365
Sometimes an email message gets lost in transit, or it can take a lot longer than expected for delivery, and your users can wonder what happened. The message trace feature lets you follow messages as they pass through your Exchange Online service. Getting detailed information about a specific message lets you efficiently answer your user's questions, troubleshoot mail flow issues, validate policy changes, and can prevent you from needing to contact technical support for assistance.
Open the message trace tool
If you're an Office 365 Midsize Business, Office 365 Business, or Office 365 Enterprise admin, you access and run the message trace tool through the Exchange admin center. To get there, do the following:
Where to sign in to Office 365 for business with your work or school account.
Select the app launcher icon in the upper-left and choose Admin.
Tip
Admin appears only to Office 365 administrators.
Can't find the app you're looking for? From the app launcher, select All apps to see an alphabetical list of the Office 365 apps available to you. From there, you can search for a specific app.
Go to Exchange.
Under mail flow, go to message trace.
If you're an Office 365 Small Business admin, do the following to find message trace:
Go to Admin > Service settings > Email, calendar, and contacts.
Under Email troubleshooting, click Troubleshoot message delivery.
Run a message trace and view delivery details of messages sent in the last week
By default, message trace is set to search for all messages sent or received by your organization in the past 48 hours. You can choose Search at the bottom of the page to generate this report. This report can give you a general idea about what is happening with mail flow in your organization. However, to troubleshoot a specific user's mail delivery issue, you want to scope the message trace results to that user's mailbox and the time frame that they expected to receive the message.
From the Date range menu, choose the date range that is closest to the time that the missing message was sent.
Use Add sender and Add recipient to add one or more senders and recipients, respectively.
Click Search to run the message trace.
The message trace results page shows all the messages that match the criteria that you selected. Typical messages are marked Delivered under the status column.
To see details about a message, choose the message and select ( Details).
Details appear with an explanation of what happened to the message. To fix the problem, follow the instructions in the How to fix it section.
To search for a different message, you can click the Clear button on the message trace page, and then specify new search criteria.
View the results of a message trace that is greater than 7 days old
Message traces for items more than 7 days old are only available as a downloadable .CSV file. Because data about older messages is stored in a different database, message traces for older messages can take up to an hour. To download the .CSV file, do one of the following.
Click the link inside the email notification that is sent when the trace is completed.
To view a list of traces that were run for items that are more than 7 days old, click View pending or completed traces in the message trace tool.
In the resulting UI, the list of traces is sorted based on the date and time that they were submitted, with the most recent submissions appearing first.
When you select a specific message trace, additional information appears in the right pane. Depending on what search criteria you specified, this may include details such as the date range for which the trace was run, and the sender and intended recipients of the message.
Note
Message traces containing data that is greater than 7 days old are automatically deleted. They cannot be manually deleted.
Common questions about message trace
After a message is sent, how long before a message trace can pick it up?
Message trace data can appear as soon as 10 minutes after a message is sent, or it can take up to one hour.
Why am I getting a timeout error when I run a message trace?
The search is probably taking too long. Try simplifying your search criteria.
Why is my message taking so long to arrive to its destination?
Possible causes include the following:
Bt My Office 365
The intended destination isn't responsive. This is the most likely scenario.
A large message takes a long time to process.
Latency in the service is causing delays.
The message was blocked by the filtering service.