Change Primary Domain for Google Apps or G Suite Legacy Account

Google Apps a.k.a G Suite legacy account has always been a point of interest among all webmasters and website owners, as it allows users to have custom branded email id like contact@yourdomainname.com for free of cost. But unfortunately from December 6, 2012 mother Google has stopped providing this free service. So, if you no longer use the domain with which you have registered your Google Apps legacy account, the account itself become nothing but useless. Though initially Google allowed legacy users to add secondary domain within their Google Apps a.k.a G Suite legacy account, but later they stopped providing that too.

But this never stopped geeks to find a way around to add secondary domain within their Google Apps a.k.a G Suite legacy account with the help of a small loophole within the upgradation system. At the end of 2015, Google has patched that loophole too. So, literally if you use a Google Apps legacy account you cannot add secondary domain. Now this bold move by Google again made those Google Apps legacy account useless, unless you still use the primary domain. But as we all know in the tech world, nothing stays forever and there is always a work around to figure things out. So, today in this article I’m going to share the most anticipated thing about Google Apps legacy account i.e. how you can change your primary domain for your Google Apps legacy account.

Please Note as of 15^th March, 2016 the mentioned process does not work anymore. But I’ve figured out a loophole in Google Apps system to Swap Primary Domain or adding Secondary Domain for Google Apps a.k.a G Suite legacy account. To know more, jump to the updated section of this post.

Prerequisite

There are a few things that we must need to do and you must need to have before we go further down the rabbit hole.

You must need to have a Google Apps legacy account
Please upgrade your account to “30 days Free Trial” from the Billing tab of your Google Apps admin dashboard.
Please make sure that your Google Apps Legacy account is a normal Google Apps account is NOT a partnered account with Godaddy or any other Domain Registrar in Partnership with Google. If it still confuses you, take a look at the image below. The primary domain can’t be changed for those partnered Google Apps account.

Step 1 – The Upgrade

Google Apps legacy account has most feature turned off so you cannot do any complicated stuff. So, first go to your Google Apps admin dashboard and then click on the Billing icon. Here you will find a link to upgrade for 30 Days Free Trial. Fill up the details and click on upgrade.

Step 2 – Add Secondary Domain

Now go to the Domains tab from your Google Apps admin dashboard and click on “Add a domain or alias” button and then after the pop-up comes, click on “add another domain” option. Make sure that you do not click on “add domain alias”, otherwise the rest of the process will not work.

add-domain

Also after you add your secondary domain within your Google Apps account, Google will ask you to verify the domain ownership. Make sure you follow any of the instructions on that page to verify your domain ownership. This is very important for the entire process. If you do not verify your domain ownership, the primary domain will not be replaced with the secondary domain. So, make sure all verification are done before you proceed further.

Step 3 – Swapping Primary Domain

To swap your existing Google Apps primary domain with the secondary domain that you just have added, first you have to visit Google Developer Console Customer Update SDK and have to follow every single step below exactly as they are mentioned.

Within the textbox of customerKey, type: my_customer
Within the textbox of fields, type: customerDomain
Within the textbox of Request body, select customerDomain as the property (from the drop down menu). Then type your secondary domain name (that you wanna make primary) within the textbox besides it.

Please do not put the www part before your domain name within the Request Body section mentioned above. Just simply put your domain name without any suffix. So if you have a website www.exaple.com, you just type example.com and not the www part.

After you are done typing all these things exactly as I mentioned above (all texts are case-sensitive), it should look like the image below.

Now it’s time to click the “Authorize & Execute” button. As soon as you hit that button, Google will ask you for a bunch of permission and make sure you allow every single one of them. Another important thing to keep in mind before the migration is that, make sure you are logged into Google with your Google Apps super admin login credentials.

Otherwise you won’t be able to allow all the permission that Google will ask to you. So, this is very important stay logged into Google with your super admin email of that Google Apps account whose primary domain you are swapping.

Step 4 – Clean up the mess

After the above process is done executing, it will show you an HTTP response header just below the “Authorize & Execute” button. If you see the response code as 200, then your primary domain has been swapped with the secondary domain. If you see any other number on the HTTP header besides 200 e.g. 500, just click on the “Authorize & Execute” button to retry and it will be done within 2 seconds.

Now it’s time to clean up your mess and going back to Google Apps legacy (free) edition. To do that first you have to delete your secondary domain (which used to be your primary domain and after swapping has become secondary domain) from the “Domain” tab of your Google Apps Dashboard.

google-apps-03

After the deletion of secondary domain along with all email ids which were associated with that domain has been deleted, now it’s time for the downgrade. So, head over to the “Billing” tab and click on the three dots showing besides your Google Apps plan. From that drop down menu, select “Cancel Subscription” and as soon as you do that Google will redirect you to a page where Google will ask you whether you want to cancel your Google Apps account completely or wanna downgrade it back to the free version. So, select the “Downgrade” option and now you have a free Google Apps account with any domain as the primary domain.

Golden Days are Back Again (Updated – 15^th March 2016)

As you guys know on 15^th March, 2016 the above process has stopped working and if you try, you will be greeted with the error showing below. So, I started to do new experiment for a new loophole. After spending quite a lot of money and time at last I’ve figured out a new loophole in Google’s system using which now we can again swap our primary domain as well as add secondary domain (max 2 including existing secondary domain, if any) as we want.

Please note at any cost, I cannot share the process with you. If you want me to do it for you at a bare minimum price, please fill up the following order form and I will do it for you. I know you might be scared thinking how can you trust me with your logins? Well I can tell you this much, I have no intention to harm your account instead of helping you to keep your legacy account forever. If you still hesitate about it, read the comments before filling up the order form. 🙂 Trust me, I’m here to help you. 🙂

Satisfaction & Smile Delivered to: 708+ Orders

Google Apps Domain Change Order Form

Order form for Google Apps Primary or Secondary Domain Upgrade

General Information
Basic information about you
Your Name*
First Last
Contact Email*

Not necessarily your Google Apps email. Any email id which you check always so that if I email you, you can instantly get it.
Google Apps Admin Login Information
Please provide your Google Apps Legacy Account's Super Admin Login and Password. You can reset the passwords after the work is done.
Google Apps Super Admin Login Email*
Super Admin Login Password*
Please Note that, I do NOT need your login to do my work. If you are not comfortable with providing your own super admin login, don't share it, instead, create a new temp user for me and give it Super Admin Privilege so that I can do my work. In this way I will not have access to any other account but the temp one you have created for me.
👉🏽 Make sure that your account is NOT a Google Partnered Account 👈🏽
Make sure your Google Apps legacy account domain section looks like this, otherwise you can only add secondary domain but can't change primary
Please make sure your Domains section of your Google Apps account looks EXACTLY like this. If you see anything like this is a eNom, Godaddy, Google etc. partnered account, then only Secondary Domains can be added and Primary Domain cannot be changed.
👉🏽 Make sure that your legacy account has been obtained within the official Google time frame 👈🏽
Please make sure your Google Apps legacy Account was created before Decenber 6, 2012 and hasn't been obtained after that date using some loophole or tricks
Before you place the order, make sure that your Google Apps Legacy Account has been obtained in the proper way and was registered before December 6, 2012. Becasue as per Google, on that day they have stopped providing legacy accounts.
But even after December 2012, there was a Google App Engine loophole existed till mid 2013 to open a new 10 user legacy account. If you have obtained your legacy accounts using this unofficial loophole, please note that nothing can be done on your account. In fact if you ever upgrade your account, you won't be able to downgrade it back to Free Legacy Mode. So, if you have this kind of account, please don't place the order.
You can check your account creation date easily by doing the following:
1. Login to your Google Apps Admin
2. Go to the users section and click on the Send Feedback section at the bottom right corner (Check Screenshot)
3. Now click on the additional info link (Check Screenshot)
4. Checkout your TimeCreated value. If you see the month and year after 12-2012, then your legacy account has been obtained in an unethical way using loophole and nothing can be done in it (Checout Proper Legacy Account Screenshot & Loopholed Legacy Account Screenshot)
So, just make sure your Google Apps legacy account is a properly obtained account without using any trick or loopholes, otherwise Google will never allow you to downgrade your account back to free legacy mode after you upgrade it to the Trial Mode ever.
Things you want me to do
You can either request for swapping your primary domain or adding a new secondary domain name.
I want to:*
- Swap my Primary Domain
- Add a new Secondary Domain
After swapping your primary domain, do you want to keep your old domain as secondary domain?*
- Yes
- No
If you select "No", then we will delete your old domain and your account will have only one primary domain with no secondary domain.
Please Note If you are requesting for keeping your old primary domain as secondary domain, then I have to rename your existing users to the new primary domain and then in the end after I add your old primary domain as secondary domain, you can rename them back to the old primary domain.
How many Secondary Domains do you wanna add?*
Please enter a value between 1 and 2.
Do you have existing Secondary Domain in your Google Apps account?*
- Yes
- No
Please note that I'm only asking about "Secondary Domain" and not about "Domain Alias"
Please Note that if you have any secondary domain associated with your Google Apps account and you wanna keep them, I have to delete and re-add those secondary domains in order to get the work done. So, if your have any users associated with that secondary domain, please note I'll rename it to @primary domain. Also if you account already have 3-4 secondary domain, nothing can be done on that account. I can handle 1 or 2 existing secondary domain but not more than that. But even then also I've to delete the secondary domains and re-add them. If you are still confused, you can drop me an email at support[at]isaumya.com to clear your doubts.
Do you have phone number associated with your Google Account?*
- Yes
- No
Please provide your phone number associated with this Google Account*
Please Note if you have enabled 2 Step Verification for the Google Account login details you are providing above, please DISABLE 2 Step Verification before placing the order. It makes the entire workflow extremely complicated and time consuming. After I'm done, you can re-enable it.
New Domain Name*
Any Extra Note ?
if there is anything else you want to request/mention.
Total Payable
$0.00
All payments are done through PayPal.
Please Note: If you are from INDIA and you are having any difficulty to complete the order through PayPal, please do send me a message at support[at]isaumya.com and I will guide you though the alternate payment method.

Some FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions by most of the people on whose Google Apps legacy account I’ve already worked on. Hope this will help you to get your required answers easily.

What is a Domain Alias in Google Apps ?

As the term “Alias” suggests, Domain Aliases are the domain name which will not be used to create new separate emails ids, rather it will link to the email ids you already have with your primary domain.

As an example lets say in your Google Apps account you have primary domain named example.com, but as you have a multinational business, you have country specific domains too, like example.co.in, example.fr, example.tk etc. Now if you create 3 separate email ids for each of your employee, say jhon@example.com, jhon@example.co.in & jhon@example.tk. That person (Jhon) has to maintain all three email accounts daily and it would become a nightmare.

Now if you add example.com as primary domain of your Google Apps account but example.co.in, example.tk as domain aliases, then even if someone sends an email to jhon@example.tk it will still go to jhon@example.com and the person has to maintain only one email id.

What is a Secondary Domain in Google Apps ?

Unlike Domain Aliases, secondary domain will allows you to create separate email ids with separate domain name. So, if you have example.co.in and example.tk added as secondary domain in your account, you will be able to create two separate email ids, i.e. jerry@example.co.in and jhon@example.tk – which is something you won’t be able to do with Domain Alias.

My primary domain of Google Apps is showing eNom Partnered. Can I change my primary domain ?

No. As shown in the screenshot above, in the Domain section of Google Apps If you see that your primary domain is associated with Google Partners like eNom, Godaddy etc. there is no way to change primary domain in that account, but I can ADD SECONDRY DOMAINS in that account. It’s just they won’t be primary domain.

Do you provide Google Apps legacy account ?

Yes I do. Just drop me an email to support[at]isaumya.com with the user limit you wants to have in your new Google Apps Legacy account and I will let you know the pricing of it.

Is it possible to reduce the price from 30$ ?

If there is a way, I would have done it. I hate overcharging people. The loophole I use is needs to be handled very precisely and delicately to make sure no harm comes to your legacy account. As a Google Apps legacy user myself, I understand the importance of your account and I make sure no harms comes to your account.

Now to do this, I have to work really hard on each and every single one of the accounts. I’m more than proud to say that I’ve already worked on more than 300 accounts and not a single one of them has ever faced any single issue. So, trust me when I say this 30$ is a very reasonable price that I’m asking from you considering the amount of work I’m putting in each account.

Do you provide discount on bulk order?

Well, as I’ve already explained in the previous question that it is really hard to provide discount considering the efforts, but still of you want to place order for 10 or more account, I can provide you 20% discount on the total price. Drop me a mail at support[at]isaumya.com before placing bulk orders.

Why my emails are not getting sent properly after domain change ?

A lot of people have asked me this question after changing their primary domain. Please note just because your domain is added in the Google Apps account as primary domain doesn’t mean that your emails will start working at that very moment. To make sure your emails gets send amd received properly you have to add Google MX records in your primary/secondary domain’s DNS. After the MX records are updated, your emails will fly like an eagle.

Can I upgrade my account after you change my domain?

I will not suggest you to do that especially if your account has secondary domain associated with it. Because if you upgrade, you won’t be able to downgrade. But if I change your primary domain and then you delete your old primary domain (becomes secondary domain after primary domain swap) from your account, so that your account has only 1 primary domain and no secondary domain, then you can upgrade and downgrade back without any issue. But again this is something I will not recommend anyone to do.

Is this process still working?

If any day Google patches the loophole that I use and I’m unable to provide this service for any given time, I will update that in the article. Then after I find a new loophole in Google’s system again, I will mention that in the article too. So, if nothing is mentioned like that in the article that means the process I’m using is working fine and you are good to place your order.

Conclusion

So, even if you have a Google Apps account associated with a very old domain which you do not own/use anymore and you cannot use the account for good, but now you can change the primary domain and start enjoying the goodies of Google Apps. Please note this is not any kind of illegal thing. Google allows their Google Apps users to swap their primary domain if they need it. So I do not thing they are going to ban this in future for legacy users. But I will definitely suggest you to read this Google support article before you swap your primary domain, in case you have important things associated with your existing primary domain.

Feedback

So, have you guys ever used this Google Apps primary domain swapping process before or this is completely new to you? I would love to hear your feedbacks about the Google Apps legacy account primary domain swapping process in the comment section below. So, feel free to share your comments and findings.

You can also connect with me via twitter @iSaumya. If you like this post, please don’t forget to share it with others who might enjoy reading it. Also if you have any other ideas or request about future posts, you can let me know in the comment section below or via twitter.

Published by Saumya Majumder

Passionate, Hard Worker. Love to develop new things, Singing Songs, playing computer Action Games, tweaking with computer languages, Riding Bikes, Love long driving, love books, web & Photography. You can follow me on twitter @iSaumya

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How To Change Primary Domain for Google Apps or G Suite Legacy Account

Prerequisite

Step 1 – The Upgrade

Step 2 – Add Secondary Domain

Step 3 – Swapping Primary Domain

Step 4 – Clean up the mess