Releasing a Domain from Microsoft 365 After Cancellation

If you have cancelled Microsoft 365 provided by IONOS and would now like to use your domain for other email services, such as Mail Business or Microsoft 365 from an external provider, you will need to release the domain. This article will show you how to do it.

Please Note

When using Microsoft 365, your domain will be connected with Microsoft. Unless you remove this connection, you cannot use this domain with another Microsoft 365 provider. The use of Mail Business or Mail Basic is also initially blocked. You have to delete both the users at IONOS and the aliases at Microsoft.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Log in to your IONOS account.
Click Menu >Microsoft 365 in the title bar. If you are also using other IONOS Office products, then click on Menu > Office.
Select the contract with your Microsoft 365 domain (if necessary).
Click on the Gear symbol in the Actions column.

Proceed to the next step if you want to delete the user. If you want to keep the user for another use, skip to Step 7.
Select Delete user in the drop-down menu. A message box opens.
If you are sure you want to delete the user, click on Delete user. This also deletes the user in Microsoft 365 and the data stored in the cloud.

If you want to continue using the user in Microsoft 365 with a different e-mail address:
Select Edit user from the drop-down menu.
Click on the user name row.
Click Select another domain.
Select the domain ending with .onmicrosoft: This is a system domain from Microsoft that was created automatically during setup.
Log into Microsoft 365 and follow the instructions in this Microsoft help article to delete the released alias.

Once you've made all the adjustments, you can use your Office-365 package with another provider under your usual domain or with Mail Business.