Administration limitations for M365 subscriptions purchased through GoDaddy

Question

I have purchased my M365 subscriptions for my business from GoDaddy, but I'm hitting problems with getting access to some Microsoft Admin consoles (especially my ability to enable IRM. When I try to access the M365 Admin Centre, it recycles me back to the GoDaddy dashboard which is my starting point! I'm caught in a loop).

I've spoken to GoDaddy at length and apparently this limitation (or feature of their hosting or provisioning of M365 licences!!). Apparently also, based on their advice, the only way to be able to get access to the full administration modules is to migrate away from them to be directly with Microsoft! This is super disappointing and I'm lost at what to do next?!

Can someone help with giving some straight forward advice and guidance or whether there is a service provider out there who can help do this?
My main objective is to be able to implement IRM on the Tenant and ability to use privacy / confidentiality labels on documents in SharePoint and have tighter controls on who can view / download some of our documents on our SharePoint site

Answer 1

Hi Nader Hosni, 

Thank you for reaching out to us. I'm glad to help you! 

First, as I understand it, the core issue you're facing is the difficulty accessing the full Microsoft 365 administration tools. Your goal is to implement advanced security features like IRM (Information Rights Management) and use privacy/confidentiality labels on documents in SharePoint to gain tighter controls over who can view or download your documents. This is a crucial objective for your business's data security. 

You've noticed that whenever you try to access the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, you're redirected back to the GoDaddy dashboard. This indicates that while you have Microsoft 365 subscriptions, your full administrative access is limited by how GoDaddy provisions these services. 

When you purchase Microsoft 365 through GoDaddy, they act as a reseller. To simplify management for their customers, GoDaddy provides their own custom administration panel. However, this also means you don't have direct access to the comprehensive Microsoft administration portals where the critical settings for enabling IRM and managing sensitivity labels reside. To achieve your objective you need Global Administrator rights. 
The only way for you to gain full administrative control and enable these desired security features is to migrate your Microsoft 365 management from GoDaddy directly to Microsoft. This process is known as "defederation" and is recommended by Microsoft in their official documentation. 

Defederation Process for Microsoft 365 Admins Using GoDaddy - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn 
To help you navigate this process effectively and ensure your data security goals are met, your first and most important step is to contact GoDaddy support. Inform them that you wish to "transfer management" or "defederate" your Microsoft 365 tenant from their platform. They will provide you with their specific instructions and the necessary steps from their end. (You can follow to the instruction above) 

Once GoDaddy completes their defederation process, you'll need to migrate your existing data (emails, SharePoint documents, OneDrive files) to your new tenant directly managed by you. With the migration complete and you having full administrative control, you'll then be able to configure and deploy IRM and sensitivity labels within the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. 

Finally, I want to express my sincere understanding for the inconvenience this situation is causing you. This is a common challenge when managing Microsoft 365 through a third-party provider, and it does require patience. I truly appreciate the time and effort you've put in to address this important matter. 

If I've misunderstood your situation, I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide more details so I have the opportunity to offer further support. I'm very eager to assist you. 

Please understand that our initial response may not always resolve the issue right away. But with your help and a bit more detail, I'll try my best to help you.

Looking forward to your reply!

Sincerely,  
Jeanie-H - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.