Mailboxes moved to Google Workspace with the DNS to match

A customer's mail moved off shared hosting onto Google Workspace, including addresses that were separate mailboxes on one side and aliases into a single inbox on the other.

The objective

The client is an agency moving a customer's site and mail together. The mail was the harder half.

On the old host, several addresses everyone assumed were forwarders turned out to be separate mailboxes with their own stored messages. In Google they were going to be aliases on one account. That means a decision about what happens to the mail sitting in the second inbox, and it's not one to make quietly on someone else's behalf.

There was also a control panel system account holding automated server notices that nobody could give a reason for keeping.

What I did

I asked what should happen to the alias inboxes before migrating rather than after, and merged them into the primary account once the customer had decided.

I showed what the system account actually received, so the decision to drop it was made on evidence instead of an assumption.

I set SPF and DKIM records for the new mail path so outgoing mail is authenticated, and recommended DMARC on top of them, with a link to the wizard that produces the record correctly.

And I worked through the customer's desktop mail client, which kept asking for a password because it wasn't being offered the option to sign in through Google, and pointed them at the connector Google publishes for it.

The result

The mail moved with its stored messages intact and its sending records in place, so mail from the domain authenticates rather than depending on the receiving side being lenient. Eight orders with this client across two years.