KoltrixMoving from Google Workspace: the DNS cut-over checklist
The exact order of operations for moving a domain's email off Google Workspace without losing a single message, plus what Koltrix does not import yet.
On this page(4 sections)
This is the guide G3 in our launch plan asks for: what to do, in what order, to move a domain's email onto Koltrix. It assumes you own the DNS for the domain and have a Workspace account you are leaving.
Read this first: Koltrix does not import your existing mailbox in v1. There is no IMAP importer yet; it is planned for the release after launch. Until then, keep the old mailbox alive and read-only for as long as you need the archive, and export it from Google Takeout before you cancel.
Before you touch DNS
- Export the old mail. Google Takeout produces an MBOX per mailbox. Do this while the account is still paid for.
- Write down every system that sends as your domain. Your invoicing tool, your CRM, your helpdesk, your newsletter. If you have DMARC reports, read them — the list is longer than you think.
- Lower your MX TTL to 300 seconds at least a day beforehand. This is the single step that turns a bad cut-over from an eight-hour problem into a five-minute one.
- Add the domain in Koltrix and publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC. These are safe to publish while Workspace is still live, as long as your SPF record includes both.
- Create the addresses you need, including the shared ones, and confirm a test send arrives in an inbox.
The cut-over
- Pick a quiet morning. Not a Friday.
- Replace the MX records with ours. Remove Google's — leaving both in place splits your mail across two systems, which is worse than either.
- Watch for the first inbound message. With a 300-second TTL this is usually within a few minutes.
- Send a test from an outside address to each address you created, and reply to one of them.
- Tighten SPF. Once nothing sends through Workspace, remove its
include:and move DMARC fromp=nonetowardsp=quarantine.
For a week afterwards
- Keep the Workspace account active but stop using it. Late-arriving mail from a resolver with a stale cache still lands somewhere.
- Read your DMARC reports. Anything failing is a system you forgot.
- Check your bounce and complaint numbers. A new sending setup with an old list is where reputation problems start.
What to keep Workspace for
Calendar, Drive, Docs and Meet are not part of Koltrix, and a Workspace account without mail routing is still a valid account. Many teams move only email and keep the rest. That is a perfectly sensible end state and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Start with Koltrix
Your domain, one inbox, and an API that sends.
A team inbox where AI sorts and drafts (nothing is sent without your click), plus the transactional API and SMTP relay your product sends with. 7 days free, no card.
