I'm a Linux admin, and I've recently been tasked with handling the IT side of our company's rebranding after some layoffs left us short on M365 knowledge. We've worked out most of the internal and external services that need updates, but I'm mainly concerned about the Microsoft 365 side of things. I have some specific questions: what should I verify or check before we start the rebranding on M365? Is there a correct and supported method to rename our tenant? What are some potential traps or things you wish you had known earlier? Also, what changes tend to cause unexpected issues? We have around 100 users, multiple domains, and rely on Intune, Entra ID, Exchange Online, and Teams, among others. Any checklists or useful documentation would be greatly appreciated!
4 Answers
When renaming your tenant, it's best not to go all out on renaming the actual tenant itself since that can lead to a host of issues, especially if you're dealing with a mature tenant. Instead, focus on changing the public-facing things like branding, logos, and tenant display names. You can add a new onmicrosoft.com domain for internal use, but end users won't see that. One major thing to address is the email address and UPN changes; you'll want to add the new domain to user accounts and ensure everything is synced properly before changing the primary email. I updated 150 user accounts recently, and while a few Outlook profiles needed rebuilding, overall it went smoothly after we prepped everyone. Just keep in mind, some apps might prompt reauthentication due to the changes.
One thing that’s key but not often mentioned is the use of aliases. When I've handled similar transitions at larger organizations, having the previous email address set up as an alias for the new one was crucial to ensure continued email flow and avoid confusion during the changeover. This can really help smooth out the transitional period for team members.
There's a guide available specifically for the tenant rename process, which highlights a lot of potential break points, especially if you're changing the primary UPN domain. For example, if you change your organization name, new SharePoint sites synced with OneDrive will follow the new naming structure but could leave some old name references hanging around, leading to confusion. If you're also planning to change the UPN for users, be aware that they might need to sign in as a different user afterward to avoid login failures.
You'll want to be mindful of what you can really change when it comes to the tenant itself. You can only do a one-time change for SharePoint. This means picking the new name is critical since old URL links will stop working after a year. Be sure to check your login settings across domains and update the branding in Entra for a consistent experience through the change.
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