SharePoint Tenant Rename (Domain Change): What You Need to Know

A Microsoft 365 account requires a custom onmicrosoft.com domain name. Even after you add a custom domain, all SharePoint and OneDrive URLs will still use the original onmicrosoft.com domain.

If your firm has undergone a rebranding, merger, or acquisition, and the new name does not match the old domain in your SharePoint and OneDrive URLs, you may now use PowerShell to change it. If your business' name has changed, for example from Contoso to SharePointGuruji, you can update your SharePoint URLs to reflect the new name, such as sharepointguruji.sharepoint.com.

Please refer to the instructions below to change the domain name of your SharePoint tenant.

Add the new domain name

1. First, see if the new domain you're considering is already taken. If you want all of your SharePoint and OneDrive links to begin with https://sharepointuuruji.sharepoint.com, then you can verify this by visiting this URL in your browser. If you get a 404 error (this site can’t be reached), that means the address is probably available.
   
   
   
   
2. The domain is already in use if you are sent to a sign-in page or given an error message stating that your username could not be located in the sharepointguruji.sharepoint.com directory.
   
   
3. You'll need to delete the tenant domain in Azure AD for another subscription's domain to become available. This process usually takes three days.
   
   
4. Now, go to https://aka.ms/SPORenameAddDomain. (In the Azure AD admin portal, go to https://aka.ms/SPORenameAddDomain to get to the page about custom domain names. If you go to the page instead of using the link, you won't be able to create your own onmicrosoft.com domain.
   
   
5. Choose ‘Add custom domain’
   
   
   
   
6. Enter the full new ".onmicrosoft.com" domain in the Custom domain name box, and then click Add domain. (When adding the domain, it must be a "onmicrosoft.com" domain. For example, if you want to change the name of your tenant to sharepointguruji.sharepoint.com, set the domain to sharepointguruji.onmicrosoft.com. You don't have to buy the "onmicrosoft.com" domain, and you don't have to register it with the public DNS to use it.
   
   
   
   
7. If you get an error message saying that the domain is not available, try a different one.
   
   
8. After getting confirmation that the domain was added successfully, you may get a message that says the properties could not be found. Choose the message to refresh domain references.
   
   
9. To go back to the Custom domain names page, choose your tenant's name from the menu at the top of the page.
   
   
   
   
   
10. Check to see if the onmicrosoft.com domain you added is listed and that the Status is set to Verified (If the status is NOT "Verified" then you will NOT be able to perform a rename).
    
    
    

To change the name of your tenant's domain, run Microsoft PowerShell script.

1. The PowerShell script requires the newest SharePoint Online Management Shell in order to function properly. (If you've already got a version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell installed, remove it from Add or Remove Programs by typing "SharePoint Online Management Shell" into the search bar.)
   
   
   
   
   
2. Log in to Microsoft 365 through PowerShell with your global admin or SharePoint admin credentials.
   
   For instance, here's how to connect to SharePoint Online:
   Connect-SPOService -Url https://tenantdomain-admin.sharepoint.com
   
   
3. Use the following command to enter a new domain name.
   
   Start-SPOTenantRename -DomainName <DomainName> -ScheduledDateTime <YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS> [-WhatIf] [-Confirm]
   
   
4. Where "DomainName" is the portion of the URL before "sharepoint.com" or "onmicrosoft.com," and "ScheduledDateTime" is at least 24 hours in the future and no more than 30 days in the future. The time you enter will be calculated from the system's current date and time.
   
   Example:Start-SPOTenantRename -DomainName "sharepointguruji" -ScheduledDateTime "2021-12-31T10:25:00"
   
   
5. Check that you have the most recent version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell installed if the PowerShell command Start-SPOTenantRename does not provide any results. You may need to run an uninstaller on all prior versions before installing the latest one.
   
   Uninstall-Module Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -Force -AllVersions
   
   
   
6. By executing Get-SPOTenantRenameStatus, you may find out where the renaming process stands. Please sign in again by opening a new PowerShell window. The time and date displayed by this command are in Coordinated Universal Time.
   
   
7. Get-SPOSiteRenameState can be used to find out a site's current status at any time during, or after the renaming process.
   
   
8. You can cancel a rename that hasn't begun yet by executing Stop-SPOTenantRename.

Note

• This change affects only SharePoint and OneDrive URLs. It doesn't impact email addresses.
• This feature isn't available for organizations that have set up multi-geo.
• If your organization uses special clouds or government clouds (GCC, GCC High, DoD, etc.), your domain name can't be changed.
• When you rename your SharePoint domain, we create a redirect at the previous address which will expire 1 year after the rename.
• You can only rename your SharePoint domain once.
• Changing your SharePoint domain name back to the original name after you rename it isn't supported. For example, if you change your SharePoint domain from contoso.sharepoint.com to sharepointguruji.sharepoint.com, changing it back to contoso.sharepoint.com isn't supported.