Generally no, its pretty instant (though some services may be screwy for 48hrs or so). as long as your DNS is correct and active for both domains, you won't lose any email! Few vidoes published here covering the considerations and strategy, and I've got a new technical walkthrough being published in the next week or so: https://www.youtube.com/@itGenius_/search?query=change%20domain Answer from PeterMoriarty on reddit.com
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Google Support
support.google.com › a › answer › 7009324
Change your primary domain for Google Workspace - Google Workspace Admin Help
Set up Gmail by updating the new domain's MX records. The setup won't affect or change your current email. For the steps, go to Set up MX records for Google Workspace. Click I have completed these steps. (Optional) To prevent spoofing (spammers sending messages that appear to be from you), set up SPF and DKIM. Setup takes a few minutes, but really helps your email from being blocked as spam. For the steps, go to Set up SPF and DKIM. Step 3: Switch to new primary domain
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/gsuite › changing primary domain on google workspace
r/gsuite on Reddit: Changing Primary Domain on Google Workspace
May 18, 2023 -

Hi guys,

I've found a lot of information online about changing the primary domain of a Google workspace. However, I can't find any information regarding emails with the change of primary domain.

On this Google workspace account, there are active emails where the primary domain will be changed. I understand that domain aliases will be created from the old domain automatically.

Will the emails within the mailboxes be as they were before the primary domain change? Or, with the new domain, does it mean they will have new inboxes?

Thanks!

Top answer
1 of 4
1
Nothing changes. Mailbox stays the same, emails stay the same, email address changes.
2 of 4
1
I did this recently-ish for a business, it went better than expected, no real consequences for the change and everyone carried on as normal.
Discussions
Changing Google Workspace primary domain - does it really take up to 48hr?
Generally no, its pretty instant (though some services may be screwy for 48hrs or so). as long as your DNS is correct and active for both domains, you won't lose any email! Few vidoes published here covering the considerations and strategy, and I've got a new technical walkthrough being published in the next week or so: https://www.youtube.com/@itGenius_/search?query=change%20domain More on reddit.com
🌐 r/gsuite
13
5
April 29, 2025
How to change the primary domain if account was purchased via Google?
This seems easy to test with little risk. Add your secondary domain Rename any user from Atom to Honey (the Atom alias should get added automatically… and you can rename back if needed verify that the Shared Drives are still accessible. Maybe rename them if the Drive names include “Atom”? When adding new users in the future, you’ll need to manually select “Honey” since the default will be “Atom”. Relevant thread: https://reddit.com/r/gsuite/comments/s879k6/not_possible_to_change_primary_domain_for_domains/ TLDR: I wouldn’t worry about not being able to change the primary domain More on reddit.com
🌐 r/gsuite
6
1
June 10, 2022
Changing primary domain in G suite and access to other Google services - Web Applications Stack Exchange
There is a similar unanswered question ... made big changes to primary domain transfers since then. ... I'd appreciate feedback if you think this is not a good question for this SE... ... Some people could argue that the question is on topic on this site as most of the G Suite administrator tasks are done through admin.google.com (a web ... More on webapps.stackexchange.com
🌐 webapps.stackexchange.com
August 3, 2018
Changing Google Workspace Primary Domain to one I have as a Secondary Domain
You can change the primary domain without affecting anyone, this only changes what is the primary domain for your account, but users will remain the same. If you want to change the primary email of the users, you have to rename them. Since they already have the email they need as alias, you would need to delete the alias and then rename the users Beware of the impact of renaming a user before you do any changes More on reddit.com
🌐 r/gsuite
10
2
January 4, 2022
Videos
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🌐 YouTube
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🌐
Google Support
support.google.com › a › answer › 54819
Alternatives to changing your primary domain - Google Workspace Admin Help
For details, go to Contact Google Workspace support and Google Cloud support information. To send and receive mail using an address at a new domain, add the domain as a domain alias. Users still sign in to their account at the old domain, but they can send and receive mail with addresses at either their new or old domain. To get started, follow the steps at Add a user alias domain or secondary domain. Review the requirements and follow the steps in Change your primary domain for Google Workspace.
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Facebook
facebook.com › groups › sydneystartups › posts › 25971643922450209
How to change primary domain in Google Workspace and ...
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Name.com
name.com › support › articles › 1500004354262-changing-your-primary-domain-for-google-workspaces-formerly-g-suite
Changing your primary domain for Google Workspaces (formerly G Suite) - Name.com Knowledge Base
July 31, 2025 - Now, assign a user for the new primary domain. Select the menu option on the top right side of your Admin Console and click Users. ... The final step is to contact name.com customer support so we can update the new domain name within our system.
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Squarespace Help Center
support.squarespace.com › hc › en-us › articles › 360044914952-Managing-domains-for-Google-Workspace
Managing domains for Google Workspace – Squarespace Help Center
October 14, 2025 - Set your primary Google Workspace domain. Confirm you changed the primary domain by going to your Google domains settings.
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itGenius
itgenius.com › home › news › changing primary domain in google workspace (formerly g suite)
Changing Primary Domain in Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) - itGenius
September 7, 2022 - Click the new primary domain on the Update User window then click Update User. Make sure that your MX records and DNS records are setup correctly! Learn how to check your MX and DNS records.
Find elsewhere
🌐
Populi
support.populiweb.com › hc › en-us › articles › 23145088807707-Moving-to-a-new-domain-on-an-existing-Google-Workspace
Moving to a new domain on an existing Google Workspace – Populi Knowledge Base
This will require access to your Google Admin console. Go to Menu > Account > Domains > Manage Domains. Click Add a domain. Enter the domain name. Select Secondary domain as the domain type.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/gsuite › changing google workspace primary domain - does it really take up to 48hr?
r/gsuite on Reddit: Changing Google Workspace primary domain - does it really take up to 48hr?
April 29, 2025 -

Hi all, we're rebranding the name of our company, including a change of our website domain, and as a result will be changing our primary domain in Google workspace.

I've connected the NEW domain to G-suite, currently setup as a secondary. When we're ready to update it to become the primary domain, google says it could take up to 48hr.

In your experience, did it take that long?

Top answer
1 of 5
2
Generally no, its pretty instant (though some services may be screwy for 48hrs or so). as long as your DNS is correct and active for both domains, you won't lose any email! Few vidoes published here covering the considerations and strategy, and I've got a new technical walkthrough being published in the next week or so: https://www.youtube.com/@itGenius_/search?query=change%20domain
2 of 5
2
It didn't for me, I think the worst I've seen is like an hour or so. If it took a lot longer then I usually did something wrong lol. All depends though
🌐
K12TechPro
k12techpro.com › home › google workspace primary domain change
Google Workspace Primary Domain Change - K12TechPro
September 7, 2023 - A new custom domain, like Libertyschools.com or Libertyedu.org, is much shorter and easier to remember. All Google Workspace for Education plans are unable to change their primary domain. However, there is another way.
🌐
Reddit
reddit.com › r/gsuite › how to change the primary domain if account was purchased via google?
r/gsuite on Reddit: How to change the primary domain if account was purchased via Google?
June 10, 2022 -

I need to change the primary domain of company "Atom" to a newly purchased domain "Honey", including all accounts, drives, and shared drive.

It's a pretty straightforward process as described here. All you do is add the new domain as a secondary domain and once added switch it to primary. However, this is apparently not available for Accounts that included the purchase of your domain when you signed up. I verified this was the case for domain Atom, as the Registrar is: Google LLC.

I need to:

  1. Change all accounts to new domain ([email protected] --> [email protected]) with all previous emails and drive files kept.

  2. Move all content of Atom's Shared Drive to Honey's Shared Drive

  3. Allow emails still sent to [email protected] to be received by [email protected]. Essentially have the old domain be a user alias domain.

Switching the primary domain as described by google would have easily allowed me to accomplish 1-3. However, with that route not being possible, I now need to figure how to do it some other way. Adding the new domain simply as a user alias domain wouldn't work, I confirmed, as they want to get of the old domain Atom eventually.

The only thing I came across that seems to come close to what I'm trying to do is this article on transferring data between workspaces, which would be a lot more manual and tedious process.

Any advice on how I can go about accomplishing 1-3 given the (seemingly arbitrary) restriction?

Is there any straightforward way to migrate in this scenario?

Thank you

Top answer
1 of 1
1
This seems easy to test with little risk. Add your secondary domain Rename any user from Atom to Honey (the Atom alias should get added automatically… and you can rename back if needed verify that the Shared Drives are still accessible. Maybe rename them if the Drive names include “Atom”? When adding new users in the future, you’ll need to manually select “Honey” since the default will be “Atom”. Relevant thread: https://reddit.com/r/gsuite/comments/s879k6/not_possible_to_change_primary_domain_for_domains/ TLDR: I wouldn’t worry about not being able to change the primary domain
🌐
Google Workspace
workspaceupdates.googleblog.com › 2016 › 08 › change-your-primary-domain-name-in.html
Google Workspace Updates: Change your primary domain name in the Admin console
August 30, 2016 - ... If you’ve recently rebranded ... the Admin console.* Simply follow the instructions outlined in the Help Center to swap your existing primary domain name with any verified secondary domain name....
🌐
Stack Exchange
webapps.stackexchange.com › questions › 119369 › changing-primary-domain-in-g-suite-and-access-to-other-google-services
Changing primary domain in G suite and access to other Google services - Web Applications Stack Exchange
Top answer
1 of 1
9

Since I'm doing this, I'll provide an answer to help others. I'll update as I go through the process.

Before you start

  • To be safe, I added my personal gmail as a full admin user to every service I use. This is easy to do for a lot of Google services like Analytics and Webmaster Tools.
  • Go to your Google Account page to see where you are using your account for login and other things (https://myaccount.google.com/u/1/permissions). To be safe, switch from OAuth to password login where you can. Changing your primary domain could break OAuth logins.
  • This is a good resource.

Testing

I tested out accounts with multiple domains before doing the switch. I created [email protected] (the current primary domain) and [email protected] (a secondary domain). When I login to Google Analytics (GA) with [email protected], it is a different GA account than the one at [email protected].

For another test, I created a [email protected] account, sent an email, and created a GA account with that email. I then used the G Suite rename feature to rename [email protected] to [email protected]. After renaming, (1) the [email protected] account had the emails from [email protected], and (2) when I logged into GA with [email protected] it had automatically converted the GA account I created before the rename. This is a good sign!

Changing the Primary Domain

I pulled the trigger yesterday, and it worked very well. Almost flawlessly. Here are the steps I took to change my primary domain from old.com to new.com.

  1. new.com was a domain alias of old.com To make it the primary domain, you need to remove it as an alias and add it back as a secondary domain. The only (very small) hitch is that you need to explicitly remove new.com as an alias of all your users and groups. I have just a few users so it wasn't a big deal for me. Mail sent to new.com likely stopped working for a bit, but the rest of the process was so quick that it doesn't really matter.
  2. Now, I held my breath and clicked the button to switch my primary domain to new.com. old.com became a secondary domain. This happened instantaneously.
  3. I logged in to Analytics under old.com and it still worked.
  4. I "renamed" (that's what Google calls it) users from old.com to new.com. This basically switches the accounts from one domain to the other.
  5. I then logged in to Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Google Cloud Console, and Blogger under new.com and they all worked and carried over all the info from the old.com account. This was my biggest concern so I was very pleased that this just worked!
  6. The last step is to change old.com from a secondary domain to a domain alias of new.com. This was the one flaw of the process. The groups for abuse@ and postmaster@ are stuck with old.com and I am not able to move them to new.com. Because of this, I cannot remove old.com as a secondary domain. I contacted G Suite support and they were quite helpful, and I hope to hear back from them soon.

Overall, a remarkably easy process for a fairly big change. Kudos to Google for making this so easy.

🌐
JD Stride
jdstride.com.au › home › changing google workspace primary domain
Change Primary Domain in Google Workspace - JD Stride
August 15, 2025 - The ‘primary domain’ in Google Workspace is the default domain used for email address, Calendar invites, Meet and Drive sharing links. If you have a new domain name, we can help seamlessly change all usernames to the new domain (e.g.
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
How to switch domain in Google Workspace - YouTube
18:36
This video will show you the steps to switch domain in Google Workspace and make a smooth transition.You can change domain for example when your business is ...
Published   April 25, 2023
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AODocs
support.aodocs.com › hc › en-us › articles › 210350173-What-is-the-impact-of-changing-your-primary-domain-for-Google-Workspace
What is the impact of changing your primary domain for Google Workspace? – AODocs Knowledge Base
October 9, 2025 - When you change your primary domain, user email addresses change. This breaks the link with AODocs. To ensure that AODocs can correctly authenticate your end users after your domain is changed, make sure you apply the following measures: ... If the two conditions above are not met, your end users will not be able to sign in to AODocs after the domain change, and AODocs will not be able to access your domain’s Google Drive.
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Host4Geeks
host4geeks.com › host4geeks llc › customer spotlight › announcements › business › general › guides › technology › tips & tricks › google workspace change primary domain
Google Workspace Change Primary Domain
August 6, 2023 - In this article, we’ll provide you with a detailed guide on how to change the primary domain in Google Workspace, including preparation, step-by-step instructions, and best practices for a smooth transition.
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Dropbox Community
dropboxforum.com › the dropbox community › english › help › settings and preferences
Google Workspace Primary Domain Change | The Dropbox Community
September 27, 2021 - We are going to be changing our Google Workspace primary domain from domaina.com to domainb.com.
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