Restore emails after defederation

Question

I recently defederated my email from GoDaddy to Microsoft and was misguided by GoDaddy's customer service, and now none of my old emails have migrated over to the new tenant.

Godaddy says the only way to get them back is to defederate back and then upgrade my previous plan so that htey can migrate everything for me.

Does anyone know how I can solve this asap? I really need my old emails!

Answer 1

Hi @Justine Chang | Red Balloon Station,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum and for sharing the details of your situation, and I’m really sorry you’re dealing with this. I understand how urgent it can be when important business emails don’t appear after a migration.

To clarify what’s happening: when an email domain is defederated from GoDaddy and moved to Microsoft 365, existing emails do not automatically migrate into the new tenant unless a migration process is explicitly run. In many cases, only new mail flow is redirected, while historical emails remain in the original mailbox or in a local Outlook profile. This is why your older messages are not currently visible in the new tenant.

The good news is that you do not necessarily need to defederate back or upgrade your GoDaddy plan to recover your emails. There are a few practical ways to move your data into Microsoft 365, depending on your setup and urgency.

1/ First, confirm what already exists in Microsoft 365:

Sign in to Outlook on the web for your new Microsoft 365 mailbox and check whether any older messages appear there. Also look for an In‑Place Archive folder, as some messages may have been archived automatically.

2/ If emails still exist in your old mailbox or Outlook profile:

If you can still access your old emails through your previous Outlook profile or GoDaddy‑connected mailbox, the quickest and most reliable option, especially for a small number of users, is a manual PST migration:

• Open Outlook connected to the old GoDaddy mailbox
• Export the mailbox data to a .PST file
• Set up Outlook with your new Microsoft 365 account
• Import the PST file into the new mailbox

This method is free and avoids re‑defederating, though it can take time if mailboxes are large.

3/ If you need to migrate directly from GoDaddy mailboxes:

If the old GoDaddy mailboxes are still active, you can also run an IMAP migration from Microsoft 365. This pulls email data directly from GoDaddy into Microsoft 365 without changing federation again. Please note that IMAP migration moves emails only, contacts and calendars would need to be handled separately.

In most cases, defederating back and upgrading a GoDaddy plan is not required unless you no longer have access to the original mailbox data. The key factor is whether the old emails still exist somewhere (GoDaddy mailbox or Outlook profile). If they do, they can be migrated without reversing the defederation.

If you’re blocked or unsure which option fits your setup, I strongly recommend opening a support case to the Exchange team for guided, step‑by‑step assistance. You may also need GoDaddy Support involved only to confirm access to the old mailbox data.

You can create a support ticket by signing in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and following the steps in this link: Get support for Microsoft 365 for business to create a support ticket from the admin center or by calling phone support to contact Microsoft Support: Customer service phone numbers. If you don't have admin privileges, you can ask your IT admin to do it on your behalf.

If needed, this article may also help you identify your Microsoft 365 administrator: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin?.

Note: We appreciate your understanding regarding the scope of support available through this forum. As moderators, our role is to provide general guidance and assist with common troubleshooting steps. While we do not have access to internal systems or administrative tools necessary to resolve specific account or backend-related issues, we will continue to do our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.

I hope this information helps move things forward. Please feel free to let me know how it goes or if you need any further assistance. I’ll be happy to help.

I look forward to your reply.

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