Help with Email & Changing Name Servers/Webhost?
Alright, time to ask for help. I designed a website for my cousin using Wordpress, hosted via BlueHost. It's 99% done.
The problem: she'd originally registered her domain through wordpress.com. She also has an email through that, which she accesses via Google Workplace. We've transferred the domain, but the nameservers are still registered to wordpress.com. I've found the guides for transferring nameservers on BlueHost and wordpress.com, but this is a step above what I've dealt with in the past.
My main concern and frustration are the email. She's already using it for work, and I want to make sure there's no downtime, but I... honestly have no idea how it's even set up, right now. Or how this would work when transferring hosts entirely. Attempts to search it haven't been too helpful for me.
So my questions: How will changing nameservers impact the email? Would updating them potentially just... break her email entirely? Need her to set up the email separately? And if she does, can it be kept through Google Workplace/Gmail since that's what she's already using? Is it fine to leave it as-is? I assume not but her wordpress.com account shows that it expires in 2027, so...?
Just, please help.
You should be able to cutover with minimal-to-no downtime (email is generally pretty smart; if the domain is unavailable, remote clients will retry a couple times before giving up). MX records are especially important here as they tell email servers where emails should go (TXT are also important as some of these are used to verify you are who you say you are when sending emails). Assuming you copy everything from the old DNS manager to the new one exactly, there should be no need to reconfigure anything on Google Workspace.
Once you have all the DNS records copied over from Wordpress to BlueHost, updating the nameservers to point at BlueHost should keep everything working consistently. Do double-check your configuration after updating the nameservers (then again after a few hours, it can take time to propagate across the internet).
This tool from Google Admin Toolbox is very useful for checking DNS configurations, it's essentially a web version of the
digcommand-line tool. If you put the domain in there, you should be able to validate that the MX records match what you expect, then check the NS records to make sure they point at BlueHost. If the NS records still point at Wordpress that probably just means it's still propagating and you should check back later.In the future, I'd suggest using a third-party service to manage your domains like Dynadot, Porkbun, or Cloudflare (no special love for any of the three, but I've used them all before. They all offer the same basic set of features). IMO it's just a good way to hedge your bets in case you want to quickly change from a bad webhost.
I don't know about BlueHost specifically, but generally, when transferring a domain name to a different provider, it has the option to keep your existing DNS records. You should make sure that the records are transferred, especially the ones that have the type
MXorTXT, as those are usually the ones needed for email to work.If you do that, nothing should break and she would be able to use her email through Google Workspace the same way she does. Domains and DNS are weird though, so while it should be fine, there may be a bit of downtime while the name is being transferred. There isn't anything you can do about that, DNS is a pretty janky system so it can sometimes be unreliable. Though most likely there will be no downtime, and even if it happens, it's going to be a few hours max.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by "transfer the domain"? Do you mean you've initiated a domain transfer from WordPress.com to bluehost?
That step is probably not, strictly speaking, necessary. You can purchase your domain through one entity and have everything else (even the DNS) running through another.
Quick primer:
You DNS provide is the place where a lot of this transition gets handled.
If you don't change DNS providers, you could leave the domain registration and DNS with WordPress come, and just go into WP's DNS configuration tool and point your A record to bluehost to get the domain live for the website hosted at bluehost. In that case, also you shouldn't need to do anything to the email. It will remain pointed at the gmail servers.
If you've already started transferring the domain to bluehost, you will need to use them as your DNS provider (or configure a third party once the transfer is complete). In either case, you should ASAP copy all the DNS MX and TXT records from the old DNS config to the new one.
During the transition from one DNS provider to another, there may be some time when people resolve the old server or the new one. If they are both configured for Google email, everything should go where it is supposed to. If any mail fails to deliver, most mail servers will hold it for a day the retry delivery. So you shouldn't lose much, if anything.
In the future, i would try to get your domains transferred to a reliable registrar and operate them from there. I have been using namecheap for years and been happy with them. Namecheap can also do the DNS, but I use cloudflare for DNS. It's free for the basic stuff, which is all you need. By having those parts separate from the host and email provider, it's easier to make changes to the hosting and email provider as needed.
Aside from
MX, you'll need to copy theSPF,DKIM, andDMARCrecords. As long as both nameservers are serving the same content then there will be no downtime when switching to the new nameservers.One thing to note: eg. if you are sending mail from a server like self-hosted wordpress, and you are migrating that to a new server you'll want to switch that over in the
SPFrecord. This might show up as anip4:169.254.0.0or something like that, if169.254.0.0is the old server IP address then replace that with the new IP address.Are those ever separate record types? I know that there are SPF records, but I've never actually seen them, almost all mail providers just use TXT
Edit: Wikipedia says that SPF records are discontinued due to the lack of support
I wrote records not record types. You still very much need
SPFinformation but yes, most DNS information is stored asTXTrecord types. I hadn't heard of theSPFrecord type before but SPF records are still very important to email systemsSo, due to various events after posting I was unable to do anything until today. And... I am now banging my head because I may or may not have screwed up. I genuinely cannot tell.
First, the big problem that started this all: I cannot figure out how to access the original DNS records. I can view them on cPanel on BlueHost, but I can't figure out how to access the ones for the WordPress.com servers. We transferred the domain registration before I learned we needed to change the DNS as well. Every single guide I find has you log into WordPress, and click the domain. However, since the domain is no longer registered via WordPress.com, that option is just... not there.
That said, when I looked at the Zone Editor via CPanel, it... seemed to be filled out? Everything was filled in, and it looked okay? So, I decided to first add the domain to it under Hosting > Domains. Then, it encouraged me to change the nameservers to point at ns1.BlueHost/etc instead of NS1.Wordpress/etc. It also suggested I log into the registrar to check the records there. ICANN shows that the registrar is FastDomain Inc, but I have no way or any idea on how to access that because my cousin registered the domain directly at/through Wordpress.com long before I entered the picture, so... yeah.
So... Since I couldn't access the original record on Wordpress and the records on BlueHost seemed to be filled out, I thought "Maybe the records were part of the transfer?" And just... did it. Changed the nameservers under the Domain page. (I blame sleep deprivation. I have NOT gotten nearly enough sleep this week and my brain has been mushy as a result, today is the sharpest I've felt since posting.)
So! Now the BlueHost panel has changed. Where it used to say something about "not connected to nameservers", it now shows "Not connected to any services". And this new section popped up for Domain Connections, like email. Which was my whole primary concern in the first place. Again, my cousin registered everything through wordpress.com (domain and email) LONG before I entered the picture, so yeah.
I can also now access a new area to edit DNS records which was previously unavailable since the nameserver was set to wordpress.com, and it does NOT use the same format as CPanel. It asks for me to identify a mail server, which I'm hoping is just the domain because that is NOT included on the MX records on CPanel. So, I did that. Alternatively it might mean we have to register a new email service, since she originally got it through WordPress and I'm not sure how that works? On that note, the CPanel records are totally unchanged right now, they just... don't match up with THAT management panel.
Also, ICANN currently shows that the nameserver is NS1.wordpress.com, ns2, and ns3. That may change in the next few hours, because that stuff can take time to switch over. On that note, that might mean my cousin's email works now, but will suddenly stop very soon.
And last but not least: I still can't see the site because the SSL is linked to the temporary URL, so it refuses to load to being insecure. At the very least, the domain no longer tries to redirect me to Wordpress.com with a "[domain].wordpress.com does not exist" so I guess that's maybe positive...? I hope?? I have learned my lesson and will NOT do anything else right this second though.
So to conclude: I may or may not have broken my cousin's work email. Genuinely hoping I get input that I did not, and everything will be A-OK. And if I did, hoping for input on next steps to rectify that ASAP. Until then, going to just bang my head on a wall.
I've skimmed a little bit because there's a lot written here and you need a quick fix, but here's what I understand:
Is that right so far? Let's fix it. First, the email.
From your screenshot, it looks like Bluehost is providing a default/nearly blank set of DNS records. It doesn't include Google Workspace, or anything that used to be in wordpress.com. So it's unlikely that it imported those records after a transfer. Since you seem unable to recover the original records, we need to rebuild it.
First, you need to add an MX record for Google Workspace. This used to require 5 separate records, but it looks like they've recently simplified it to just 1. If it's not present, add
SMTP.GOOGLE.COMas an MX record as described in that article. As long as there's been a minimum interruption of service, any email clients will retry failed messages and she shouldn't suffer lost messages.Next, the website. From your description of the error, "Not connected to any services", it sounds like Bluehost recognizes the nameservers point to them but they have nothing to serve. Was the original website not created at Bluehost on that same account? It sounds like there should be a service, but it's not recognized. You may need to clarify that point, but it sounds like website hosting and the domain are disconnected somehow.
SPF and DKIM records were mentioned elsewhere and are a good idea, but they can wait until after restoring service.
In the worst case, you may be able to change the nameservers back. If wordpress.com still has all the old data from before, they may continue to work if nameservers are pointed there. However from your description it sounds like they've effectively "closed out the account", so this may not work.
Hopefully this all makes sense, but feel free to ask if I've been unclear about anything. Note that any DNS changes will take a few hours to take effective, and theoretically up to a full day.
Edit: I updated a couple points after reading through everything more thoroughly. Sorry for the quick skim, was trying to respond to the panic in your
voicetext.Edit 2: I asked a friend who's more familiar with wordpress.com, and he confirmed those zone records were likely removed once the domain was transferred. However, he suggested support may be able to recover them for you, should you have trouble rebuilding them from scratch.
Thanks for replying so fast! Was definitely panicking just a bit when I posted, and I'm already feeling a bit more reassured. I just added an MX record for SMTP.GOOGLE.COM. There is still no connected email.
About the website: I do have a temporary domain set up via BlueHost, which I used to edit it. Since I posted, something changed on the backend. Under the "Connected Domains" panel, the DNS now shows "Pointed" instead of a button, though it shows No SSL. I can now see an "Under Construction" page when I view it on my phone or Safari. Weirdly, FireFox opens the generic "Unable to connect" page.
I'm assuming/hoping that, when I click "Set as Site URL", it will swap that out on the temporary URL for the official domain with the hosting plan we have. Which I think would resolve the "Hosting" under Domain Connections. I'm not going to do that yet though, because do NOT want to risk making any irreversible moves until I know for sure what I'm doing.
Worst case scenario, ICANN still shows WP as the nameservers. So, it might be possible to revert it if it's not too late. Though again, I can't seem to access those records via WordPress anymore, since access is apparently tied to having a domain there... And I have no idea how else to access them, either. At the very least, my cousin was able to use the email this past week, so... Fingers crossed this move hasn't somehow shut down those currently-inaccessible nameservers?
I'm not a Bluehost user, so I can't provide any specific instructions for their interface, but I can probably help some on the general DNS side of things. For specifics, you can always try Bluehost's support or documentation features though.
I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "connected email". Is that an indicator in their control panel, or do you mean that it's not working yet? It may be a little early to tell if you just made the change, so give it a few hours.
The basic idea is that you're publishing an MX record, and when others try emailing to/from that domain, they look up where the MX records are pointed to. In this case, you're saying "Google is handling all of our mail". Doing this for every single request would be prohibitively expensive, so the records are cached at varying network levels for a certain amount of time. "Propagation" is basically just letting those caches expire, and having the source looked up again. That's why it can take a few hours.
So long story short, the nameservers point to the server that holds the authoritative zone records for a domain, and the MX record specifically points to the authoritative source for email. In this case, Google.
Assuming the MX records are right, it's time to think about improving them with SPF and DKIM. These add extra security, and verify you are who you say you are. Both are entered in the zone editor, just like the MX record, though it may be under a slightly different interface.
SPF is a little easier. It's a TXT record, and is the same for everyone uses Google Workspace. Here's Google's instructions, but basically you just create a TXT record with the following:
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~allDKIM is a little more technical, because it requires a unique key generated from within Google Workspace. So your cousin will need to generate this first, then send it to you to enter. Here's Google's instructions. However, let me simplify them:
From the Google Admin Console, navigate to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Authenticate email. Alternatively, search DKIM from the search bar. Generate a key on that page and copy the record name and value provided. Create a new TXT record in your zone editor with those values. At this point, you may need to wait a bit for propagation, but you can then click the "Start Authentication" button on the same page. Workspace will then validate that DKIM is set up.
These two additions aren't urgent, but will greatly improve mail delivery. They're strong anti-spam signals.
You will definitely need to get your cousin to test sending/receiving. I've been doing this for a while, and I always test after making DNS changes. There's a lot of moving parts and it's easy to miss a step.
It sounds likely, but again I'm not a Bluehost user and can't comment on specifics. It makes sense that the SSL/TLS certificate won't be generated until the nameservers are propagated and the domain is pointing at the new host though. It's possible you need to invoke AutoSSL in your cPanel to generate a cert, but I would think that Bluehost takes care of that for you after a migration. Sorry I can't be of more help there.
I'd say give it a try and see what happens. Can't be any worse than a broken page. If you still need assistance and feel comfortable sharing more details, you can send me a PM and I'll see if I can provide more direct assistance. Otherwise, Bluehost support or documentation may be your best bet.
Changing nameservers at Bluehost likely hasn't done anything permanent. Transferring the domain away from wordpress.com in the first place though may have nuked them. That'd be unfortunate, but if it's only Google Workspace that needs to be added it's not such a big deal. Actually, having email at a remote provider probably made things a lot simpler than they otherwise would have been.
In the screenshot in my initial reply showing the "Domain Connections", it shows no email. On that note, I just checked with two email verifiers, and: the email is showing up as blocked. I am sincerely hoping it will sort itself out in the next few hours, because it's currently 10 PM on a Sunday night so no getting through to support.
That said, more records have been added? There were originally just three A records on the page from the third panel, and now more sections. CNAME, SRV, etc., have all appeared where they definitely didn't exist before. The record I added for SMTP.GOOGLE.COM is also apparently gone...
A big part of the problem is that the email was also obtained through WordPress.com, so... I have no idea how or where it's hosted, just that she could, indeed, access it. She was able to use it just this past week. And I'm not sure how to change back the servers to WP, because now ICANN has updated to show it as BlueHost.
And now, it gets weirder: the site loads in a broken state on Chrome and Firefox on mobile. The text and images load, a lot of the styling doesn't. It has also gone back to the security error on FireFox on desktop for me. So, my confusion grows, but that is secondary to the fact that her work email is currently nonfunctional. Restoring her email is 100% the priority right now.
Okay, I think I'm seeing the problem here (or at least one of them). When you said that she used Google Workspace for email, I took that to mean that it was a separately configured account. I now understand that wordpress.com acts as a reseller for Google's services, and her email may still be "managed" through them. In this case, it may be necessary to also migrate billing over to Google, which can apparently be done simply by removing the subscription on wordpress.com.
That may have already happened as part of the process of transferring the domain, but I'd make sure her Google Workspace is entirely separate from wordpress.com at this point.
This seems to be the largest point of confusion right now, so I'd say the focus should be here.
Okay, I see. I don't know if Bluehost will recognize a remote MX record as "connected" or not, but that's honestly not too important. As long as it works, that's all that matters.
It's possible that Bluehost's control panel separates MX records out for "convenience". If you're managing it in your cPanel's zone editor though, it should be visible in there. If not, you'd best add it back, along with the other records suggested above (SPF, DKIM).
It's strange that they'd add more records suddenly, but it shouldn't harm anything. I see a CNAME in the original screenshot you posted, which likely just makes
www.example.commap toexample.com.Not sure if you mean that a blacklist has been applied, or something else, but actually sending/receiving from the account would be the most important test. You won't be able to tell too much from the outside, other than checking where the MX records point.
If you need to, you could swap the nameservers back to their previous values at your registrar (presumably Bluehost). However, since the domain was transferred away from wordpress.com, it's probably no longer a valid hosting environment for the site. I'm unsure about email, unfortunately. This is operating a little off the happy path.
Just as a side note, I know you're feeling stressed out about this, but it's a solvable problem and you will get it. Even in the absolute worst case, if it can't be worked out for a day or two, this is still only a small blip in the grand scheme of things. If emails begin to bounce back, at least the sender will know that something has gone wrong and can reach out through other methods, or they can try again later. It's not the end of the world, and people will understand. I've previously taken down 100+ websites in an instant by pushing the wrong button, and life went on. Most people didn't even notice.
So don't worry, you got this. If you have to take a breather for the night, that's okay too. You're doing your best to help your cousin, and I'm sure she'll understand that.
Hey @CannibalisticApple, just wanted to check in. Were you able to get this issue sorted? I'm happy to elaborate on any of my prior comments or resume troubleshooting with you, if the need is still there.
Was going to update today, the email was working by the time I woke up yesterday. Big relief. I just need to push the site live now and handle the SSL (brain was too fuzzy yesterday to dare touch anything), which will be much smoother with the email situation sorted. The email was the one area I wasn't confident about, I can sort the rest myself.
Thank you so much for all the help! Not just the advice, but the reassurances too. If there wasn't a live, active email tied to this, I feel like I would've been a lot calmer since mistakes wouldn't have as much impact. It adds an extra layer of pressure to troubleshooting. I'm just glad the worst of it is over, and I now know what to do if I get into this sort of situation again. So thank you again for the support and help!
I'm glad to hear that email is sorted. I agree, pushing the website live should be easier by comparison.
If you'd like a little more help on adding the SPF and DKIM records, those are optional but helpful steps to improve overall email deliverability. Let me know if you'd like me to elaborate on either of those steps. Of course, there's no rush in doing so, especially if everything is already looking good.
Best of luck with it in the future. Cheers.