How to add Office 365 DNS Records

Overview

If you purchase Office 365 with us, you will need to add these records before emails will work correctly. 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.

Adding 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.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and select Show all > Settings > Domains.
2. 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).
3. Go to your provider's DNS Manager page, and add the TXT record indicated in the admin center to your domain.

Example:

• TXT Name: (Leave Blank)
• TXT Value: MS=ms######## (unique ID from the admin center)
• TTL: 3600‎ (or your provider default)

4. 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.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and select Show all > Settings > Domains.
2. In a new browser tab or window, sign in to your DNS hosting provider, and then find where you manage your DNS settings in this case it will be the Zone Editor.
3. Go to your provider's DNS Manager page, and add the MX record indicated in the admin center to your domain.

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.

Adding DNS records using cPanel

1. Log into cPanel and click on the Zone Editor icon.
2. Add the required DNS records using cPanel. You may be asked if you would like to add other records – you can do so if you wish, but the below three are all that are needed for emails to function.
3. Change the Type to CNAME, set the Record to autodiscover.outlook.com
4. Click Save Record.
5.  Click on the MX icon, then delete any MX records other than the Outlook one you added.
6. Click on the Home Button in the top left.
7. Click on the Email Routing icon.
8. Select the domain, Click Remote Mail Exchanger.
9. Click Change.

Adding DNS records using Plesk

You can add many different types of records to the DNS zone for a domain (for example, CNAME, MX, PTR, and more). The following procedure demonstrates how to add an A record to the DNS zone. An A record enables you to point a subdomain to an IP address:

1. Log in to Plesk.
2. In the left sidebar, click Websites & Domains.
3. Click DNS Settings.
4. Click Add Record.
5. In the Record type list box, select the type of record you want to create. In this example, select A.
6. In the Domain name text box, type the name of the subdomain.
7. In the IP address text box, type the IP address of the server.
8. Click OK. Plesk creates the DNS record but does not activate it.
9. Click Update. Plesk activates the new record.