Move your website without losing your email

  1. Lizard Hill
  2. Move your website without losing your email

A self-service migration checklist with DNS, mail, testing, and rollback steps.

Keep the old hosting account active until the new website and email are tested. This is a self-service checklist, not an included done-for-you migration service.

  1. Inventory and export. Save website files, a database export, your current DNS zone, mail settings, scheduled tasks, and application configuration. Download copies outside either hosting account. Record the current A, AAAA, MX, TXT, and CNAME records.
  2. Decide where email will live. Keeping Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or another provider? Preserve its MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and autodiscovery records. If moving email here, create mailboxes first and copy mail with a trusted mail-migration tool or IMAP client.
  3. Prepare the new website. Add the domain in DirectAdmin; upload files and import your database. Update database credentials and server-specific paths. Do not put database exports or secrets in public_html.
  4. Test before switching. Use a local hosts-file override or your application’s supported staging workflow. Check pages, forms, logins, images, and database writes. A hosts-file override does not change DNS for other visitors.
  5. Prepare DNS carefully. If changing nameservers, recreate the complete zone first. If retaining your current DNS provider, change only the required website records. Review AAAA records too; an old IPv6 address can send visitors to the previous host.
  6. Switch and enable SSL. Apply the assigned server address from the welcome email, or use the assigned Lizard Hill nameservers when hosting your whole DNS zone here. Public DNS must resolve correctly for normal domain-validation SSL issuance.
  7. Verify externally. Test HTTPS and forms on another network. Confirm inbound and outbound mail. Allow cached records to expire; DNS changes are not instant everywhere.
  8. Retain rollback options. Keep the old host and backups while you verify the cutover. For stores or other write-heavy applications, plan a short maintenance window or final database sync so writes are not split across servers.

If mail remains elsewhere, set DirectAdmin’s local-mail delivery option appropriately for external MX records. Ask support before switching DNS if you are unsure. Do not cancel your domain registration.

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