Remove a Domain from TrekMail Safely

Removing a domain in TrekMail is a destructive operation. It removes the domain and its hosted mailboxes from TrekMail, so prepare a copy of anything you need first. This guide covers the safe order of work, the removal itself, and the DNS cleanup afterwards.

When you'd remove a domain

• You're migrating to a different email provider and TrekMail's role for this domain is ending.
• The domain itself is being decommissioned (you let the registration expire, or the business closed).
• You added the wrong domain by accident and want to clean up.
• You're consolidating domains and want to retire one.

If you're just consolidating mailboxes onto fewer domains, you can move mailboxes one at a time instead of removing the source domain entirely.

Before you remove: checklist

1. Export any historical mail you want to keep. Archive each mailbox in an IMAP client or another backup you control, and confirm the archive opens before continuing. A partially synced client is not a reliable backup.
2. Update MX records at your DNS provider to point at the new email host (or remove them entirely if the domain isn't going to receive mail anywhere). Without this, mail to your domain still comes to TrekMail and bounces with "550 User not found" because the mailboxes will be gone.
3. Confirm no critical aliases or forwards point at this domain's mailboxes. Other domains' configuration that references this one becomes broken.
4. Cancel any external services that send their notifications to addresses on this domain (Stripe, AWS, etc.). Update them with new email addresses on a domain you're keeping.
5. Tell relevant people (your customers, vendors, partners) about the upcoming change if they use these addresses.
6. Document the deletion for your team's audit trail, including which mailboxes were on the domain and where the export lives. Export any domain statistics you need as well.

How to remove the domain

1. Open Domains.
2. Find the domain in the list and select its delete action.
3. Read the confirmation message, including the number of mailboxes affected.
4. Confirm the removal.

TrekMail removes the mailboxes from the mail server and then removes the domain record. The request can take a moment, especially if the domain has several mailboxes. It does not change DNS records at your DNS provider.

Once removal is complete, hosted mailboxes for the domain can no longer receive or send through TrekMail, and the domain disappears from the Domains list.

What gets deleted

• The domain record itself.
• All hosted mailboxes on the domain. Their mail-server accounts are removed as part of the operation.
• Domain-level aliases and forwarding rules associated with the domain.
• Mailbox rules and filters associated with those hosted mailboxes.
• Catch-all configuration for the domain.
• Domain DKIM material, which is cleaned up as part of the deprovisioning work.
• Connected Drive data, which is queued for cleanup when mailboxes are removed. Do not use domain removal as an archive method.

Webmail and storage cleanup can include background work. Export mail and any important webmail data before removing the domain; deletion is not a recovery or backup feature.

What's NOT deleted

• Your DNS records at the registrar or DNS provider. You must change or remove them yourself.
• Stripe billing records: invoices showing what you paid for this domain stay accessible on the Billing page.
• Other domains on your account, they continue to work normally.

If you need domain-level delivery data later, export it before removal rather than relying on it remaining available after the domain is gone.

After removing: cleanup tasks

1. Verify MX records point elsewhere (or are removed)

Use dig MX yourdomain.com from a terminal, or a DNS lookup service. If your MX still says mail.trekmail.net, update it before relying on your new provider. To prevent mail being sent to the wrong place:

• Update your domain's MX records at your registrar/DNS provider to point at the new email host. OR
• If the domain is not going to handle mail anywhere, remove the MX records entirely.

2. Remove other DNS records pointing at TrekMail

After MX, also clean up:

• SPF, remove TrekMail's include or replace it with the value from your new provider.
• DKIM TXT, remove the TrekMail selector record or replace it with the record from your new provider.
• DMARC at _dmarc.yourdomain.com, keep but consider adjusting policy.
• TLS-RPT at _smtp._tls, remove or adapt.
• MTA-STS records, remove or adapt.
• Autoconfig / autodiscover CNAMEs, remove.

If you're moving to a new email provider, replace these with the new provider's equivalents.

3. Verify the new MX is live

After updating DNS, allow for the TTL and your provider's propagation time, then send a test email to a freshly created mailbox at the new provider. It should arrive there, not at TrekMail.

4. Check for forward loops

If you set up forwarding from another email account (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) to a TrekMail mailbox that's now deleted, the source generates bounces. Update those source accounts to forward to your new mailbox.

When the "Remove domain" button is greyed out

• You do not have permission to delete the domain. Ask an account owner or an administrator with domain-delete access.
• The domain is the primary domain for a connected domain alias. Disconnect or remove that relationship first.
• Removal reports an error. Do not assume the domain has been removed. Refresh the Domains page, check the mailbox list, and contact support with the domain name and the error if it persists.

What if you removed by mistake

There is no self-service recycle bin for domain deletion. You can:

• Re-add the domain in TrekMail and reapply DNS records. The system treats it as a freshly-added domain, no historical mail comes back.
• Recreate mailboxes with the same names. New, empty mailboxes.
• Use Migration tools if you have historical mail archived in an IMAP client, import from the local archive back to the new mailboxes.

If the deletion was accidental, contact support promptly, but plan on restoring from your own archive. Do not rely on an undelete window.

Common questions

Can I remove a domain that still has active mailboxes? Yes, the deletion handles cascade automatically. The confirmation modal shows the count of mailboxes that will be deleted.

Do I have to remove a domain to switch providers? No. You can first change MX records to point at a different provider. Keep in mind that a TrekMail domain record is not a backup of its old mail, so export what you need before the move.

Does removing a domain refund anything? TrekMail bills at the account level, not per-domain. Removing a domain reduces your domain count but doesn't change your subscription cost unless you also downgrade.

Can I remove just the DKIM key without removing the domain? That is not part of the normal Remove Domain flow. Contact support if you need a DKIM-specific change.

Does removing a domain affect my other domains? No. Each domain is independent. Other domains continue to receive, send, and be managed normally.