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Your Google Workspace email after Google Domains moved

Two wooden mailboxes on one post joined by a string carrying an envelope.

LoveItKeepIt · · 4 min read

If you use Google Workspace for email on a domain that was at Google Domains, your mailboxes did not move: they are still at Google. Only the domain moved to Squarespace, and with it the DNS records that tell the world to deliver your mail to Google. That is why your email kept working. It now depends on two companies at once, so a mistake or a missed payment at either one can stop it.

Two companies, one email address

Think of your business email as two parts.

  • The mailbox is where messages are stored and where you read them. That is Google Workspace: Gmail with your own domain, plus Drive, Calendar and the rest.
  • The domain is the address after the @ sign. It is registered at Squarespace now, and its DNS settings live there too. DNS is the set of records that says where your website and email are.

One set of DNS records, called MX records, says "deliver mail for this domain to Google". They were copied across when the domain moved, which is why most owners noticed nothing. If you want the background, what happened to Google Domains, and where did my domain go explains the move itself.

Who bills your Workspace now

This depends on how you signed up for Workspace.

  • You signed up directly with Google. Google still bills you, and you manage it in the Google Admin console at admin.google.com, under Billing.
  • You bought Workspace through Google Domains. Squarespace's help pages say it becomes the billing provider for these subscriptions. You may have been asked to confirm the change in the Squarespace Domains dashboard. Once confirmed, Google cancels its side and Squarespace takes over the billing, and a cancellation email from Google at that point is expected.

To check whether you still have a confirmation waiting:

  1. Sign in to Squarespace with Continue with Google, using the account you used for Google Domains.
  2. Open the Domains dashboard and click the domain your email uses.
  3. Click Email, then Manage plan.
  4. If you are asked to Confirm, read the screen and confirm. Squarespace's help pages describe this as the step that completes the move of billing.

If your Workspace is billed by Squarespace and a payment fails, Squarespace may suspend the account until it is paid. Keep the card on that account current.

What can break your email now

Someone edits the DNS

The most common cause. A new website company, a well-meaning helper or you yourself changes the DNS at Squarespace to point the domain at a new site and deletes the Google records along the way. Mail stops arriving within hours.

What to protect at Squarespace's DNS settings:

  • the MX records pointing to Google (either several records with names like ASPMX, or a single record pointing to smtp.google.com on newer setups);
  • the TXT record for SPF, which mentions google.com and helps your mail avoid spam folders;
  • the DKIM record from Google, a long TXT record that proves your mail is really yours;
  • any Google verification record.

Changing the records for your website (usually A and CNAME records) does not need these touched. MX records: why changing your website can break email explains how to tell them apart.

The domain expires

Your Workspace subscription and your domain renew separately. Squarespace's help pages note that if the domain lapses, Workspace can carry on billing while you cannot send or receive any mail, because without a live domain the MX records lead nowhere. So check the domain's renewal at Squarespace as carefully as the Workspace bill.

The domain moves to another registrar

If you ever transfer the domain away from Squarespace, the DNS records do not always travel with it. Copy every Google record to the new DNS company before the switch.

Where the MX records are now

  1. In the Squarespace Domains dashboard, click your domain.
  2. Open DNS, then the DNS settings page.
  3. Look for the Google records. Squarespace may show them grouped as a Google Workspace preset, or as individual MX and TXT lines.

If you use other nameservers, for example because a website host or Cloudflare manages your DNS, the records live there instead, not at Squarespace. The domain's page at Squarespace shows which nameservers are in use.

Google's own check is in the Admin console: it can tell you whether your MX records are set up correctly. The Google Workspace Admin Help center describes the checks.

Who to call for what

  • Messages not arriving at all, or bouncing: first check the domain at Squarespace (is it active, are the MX records there). That is Squarespace support's area if the records or the domain are the problem.
  • Cannot sign in to Gmail, a mailbox is missing, storage is full: Google Workspace support, through the Admin console.
  • A Workspace bill you do not recognize: check where you are billed. If it is a Squarespace invoice, ask Squarespace; if it is a Google invoice, ask Google.
  • Mail going to spam: usually the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. SPF, DKIM and DMARC for small business owners walks through them.

What to do this week

  • Find out whether Google or Squarespace bills your Workspace, and check the card there.
  • In Squarespace, open the domain's Email page and confirm the billing move if it is waiting.
  • Check auto-renew and the card on the domain itself.
  • Screenshot the DNS records and keep the picture with your business records.
  • Send yourself a test email from an outside address and reply to it.

If you are planning a new website on this domain, you can see your site rebuilt first; the Google records stay where they are when the site changes.

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