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We recently moved our DNS from GoDaddy to our own internal server, which implies all the necessary DNS records have also changed. We had an IT guy backup all Outlook files before we changed DNS hosts but he missed 3 mailboxes. We need to somehow download these files from webmail on a browser or through any other method because we can't waste time on reverting DNS to point to GoDaddy's servers, backup the files, and then changing DNS back to our own server. This would be a last resort scenario.

We obviously can't sync the account with any email client due to the DNS changes. Any ideas?

Carlo71
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  • Why don't you simply put the required records in your internal DNS? – Massimo Aug 20 '15 at 17:55
  • Wouldn't it conflict if I do this? (A little more detail would help, I'm not a networking guy!) Thanks. – Carlo71 Aug 20 '15 at 18:05
  • If you had a record for, say, "mail.yourdomain.com" and now you don't have it anymore because you are using a different (internal) DNS server, you can fix this by simply adding that record in the new DNS. – Massimo Aug 20 '15 at 18:13
  • What is missing here is, you didn't say anything about your mail server, and if/how you replaced it together with the DNS service. – Massimo Aug 20 '15 at 18:14
  • How is changing the DNS servers related to your email? Are you saying that along with moving your DNS zone from GoDaddy that you also moved your email server? – joeqwerty Aug 20 '15 at 18:29
  • `We obviously can't sync the account with any email client due to the DNS changes` - Why not? Get the ip address of the mailbox server you need to connect to and configure Outlook to connect to that ip address, then download the emails to a PST file. – joeqwerty Aug 20 '15 at 18:31
  • When he says DNS hosts, It's pretty obvious he means Mail Hosts. Was the email hosted with GoDaddy Office 365? If so, you need to simply manually configure the outlook to point to Godaddy's email solution, unless it is no longer there. – IceMage Aug 20 '15 at 19:15
  • To clarify, we are using GoDaddy's Hosted Exchange plan, but we moved everything to our own internal server (Exchange 2013). We managed to backup some of the .pst files and simply add them to new accounts on a new domain we created, which brings new DNS records. Is this clear enough? – Carlo71 Aug 20 '15 at 20:08

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If you have changed email services, and need to download the PST files from your old outlook, you may want to connect using IMAP to download your old emails. Some limitations exist, such as syncing contacts and calendar events, but connecting as an Exchange client will not yield you PST files (Exchange stores offline data in OST files, a little different).

https://www.godaddy.com/help/setting-up-your-hosted-exchange-email-address-as-pop-or-imap-4717

If you follow the godaddy instructions for setting up an IMAP account for the email accounts in question, you shouldn't need to modify any DNS settings locally, or externally, and you will be able to save the PST file outlook creates for you when it has finished syncing.

Original (Incorrect Answer) - You CAN sync on an outlook client, without changing the DNS, by using your computer's HOST file. - http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27350/beginner-geek-how-to-edit-your-hosts-file/ - This way, you don't have to update the public DNS records, you can establish connectivity for long enough to get the missing mailboxes, and then you can delete the records from your local computer, and move on!

IceMage
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  • Hmm, I tried this already. Maybe I used the wrong addresses? in theory, I should be able to add the old DNS records (OWA and Autodiscover) on the hosts file and it should work? Thanks. – Carlo71 Aug 20 '15 at 18:04
  • Yes and no - you will need to resolve everything to IP addresses - You can also manually configure your outlook client to point to the right server. The HOSTS file only supports Name > IP mappings, so you can't do fancy things like Autodiscover, and CNAMES, or different MX records (It's basically A records only) but to regain access, all you should need is the IP of the server, make a HOSTS file record for it, and manually configure outlook to use the specific server as your host (Don't use autodiscover). – IceMage Aug 20 '15 at 18:52
  • How to manually configure outlook - http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/manually-configure-outlook-2010-for-email-hosted-on-exchange-2013 – IceMage Aug 20 '15 at 18:53
  • Of course, that's assuming it's hosted exchange - if it's not hosted exchange, there are easier ways to do this. – IceMage Aug 20 '15 at 18:53
  • It's GoDaddy's hosted exchange plan. So I should be able to ping their server name, get an IP, and use that in the hosts files correct? – Carlo71 Aug 20 '15 at 20:15
  • Hey @IceMage, this almost worked because as soon as I clicked on the Check Name link, the prompt for the credentials popped up, meaning it's communicating correctly now correct? However, the credentials don't work, and they're identical to the credentials used when logging into webmail. A colleague said it's because GoDaddy runs the credentials through their DNS records? What do you think is going on? Thanks! – Carlo71 Aug 21 '15 at 16:49