The most common issue that I run into with Godaddy is their email system. For the lowest service you are only allowed to send out 250 emails a day, each email is considered a "Relay SMTP sent email". Once you go past that, well you can’t send out email again until it resets sometime in the evening. Another common issue is not being able to receive emails, and various pop3 and imap issues.
So to summarize what this article is about, it’s how to switch over to a much better email server, which is Google Apps which is free to use and easy to setup, effectively getting rid of Godaddys email relay problem and various issues with email receiving problems. I promise this fix does not mess with with php email script, such as Wordpress sending out user confirmation emails.
Here is the walk through - Complete with pictures. This is very easy to do just takes a small amount of time.
So lets start from the beginning. Registration
- Sign up for Google Apps
- Put in your domain Name - No you are not transferring your domain, this is just branding your email address to your website example - you@yourwebsite.com. You don’t have to feel in the organization info unless you really want to
Time To start with the pictures 1. Go to Godaddy.com - Log into your account 2. Next Mouse over Domains Then click my Domains

3. Click the name of your Domain 4. Locate and Click Total DNS Control

5. Change the Cname Records - Locate Host Email and click the Pen button next to the X on the right side. This will save time setting it up - it essentially makes it so that you can goto email.yourhost.com - And get to your email box, use this if you are not setting up Pop or Imap email access through outlook, Thunderbird, etc

6. Change the record to look like this - Then press ok

7. Locate the MX Records - Delete Any Records in here - Do this by pressing the X on the Far side under action

8. Add in New MX records - This makes it so that Google apps can receive Email using your domain name First Picture are the settings you need to use - Second Picture is how the MX input should look


Time to Start the Google Apps Setup
1. Log into your Google Apps Control Panel - You can either find this by going to your email to get the address where it is located at. The link should looks like this http://www.google.com/a/YOURHOST.com/ If you want to you can just copy the link change it to your host name - Don’t forget to change the .com if you domain is not .com, and don’t forget the trailing / at the end.
2. Verfiy Your Domain - You can skip this part until the end if you want to - At the top of the screen, under the Nav menu you will see this when you first log in
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3. The easiest way to verify is to upload a html file.
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4. One you are done Click on the Dash Board and Activate the email
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5. Since your have already done all the work just scroll down to the bottom of this page and click I have Completed these Steps.
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6. Click on Service Setting on the Menu Bar and goto Email
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7. On this screen you want to change your Url for your email account so you are not always having to type in the long address to get to your email online. In this area you can also set up a Catch all Email. (A catch all email will get any email that comes into your domain, even if you don’t have a email account for it. An example if someone sent a email to test@yourdomain.com it would goto this catch all. Or if the same person sent an email to 123@yourdomain.com you would get it all at one place)
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8. Click the Dot next to Http://________.yourhost.com/ Now type in email, Click Continue ( You changed this already at godaddy, it was one of the first changes in cname area.)
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You Are Now Done with Google Apps and Godaddy Setup
These next steps are to get to your gmail account and to setup your pop3 / imap with gmail so that Thunderbird, outlook, etc can access your email. 1. Go to your email inbox (if you are following from the last step for google apps setup, just look at the top right of the screen and click inbox.) 2. The screen will look like this when it comes up, just click Settings in the top right
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3. On the menu tab under settings, click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP, Select which one you want to use. I prefer Imap, but some people like pop3. Just enable it and then click on the configuration instructions and select what email program you use and follow the instructions.
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Alright now you no longer have to worry about relay and pop3 email access problems. See that was not to bad, its easy to do, seeing as I have set this up a few times I can get it done in a few minutes.
Update - Information Regarding Cname Records - If your curious what it is and how to use it
A cname functions as shortcuts, a good example would be if you have not yet setup the direct url to check your email within google apps, then you have to type in ww.google.com/a/yourdomain.com then you would log in to your account. But if you change your email cname to www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com, whenever you type in email.yourdomain.com it will instantly take you to the same place. I prefer to use ghs.google.com cname, but both links will take you to the same place.
Example & Use
Godaddy by default uses the cname records to shortcut you over to there mail server if you are using an email application such as outlook. Typically without the cname records being set by Godaddy there email settings look like this….
pop3 - pop.secureserver.net
smtp - smtp.secureserver.net
But with the use of the cname records you are able to use the these other settings, and they take outlook to the same place.
pop3 - pop.yourdomain.com
smtp - smtp.yourdomain.com
There has been a few times I have moved people over to Google apps, but when some people see a gmail account setting they think they have gmail email address and they will argue that they want their domain name in the email address ( even though with google apps this automatically happens ). So what I do if I am not setting up a email account for myself, I will have a tendency of changing the cname records to reflect there domain name; plus it adds a bit of a professional look when you send them the email account settings for outlook.
To do the change just open the cname record called pop and change it to pop.gmail.com and change the smtp to smtp.gmail.com. So now the pop setting would be pop.yourdomain.com and smtp.yourdomain.com. Note: You still have to use the same port settings from google.
Word of advice, the only cname record you do not want to mess with is www and ftp if you do change just keep a note somewhere that it’s suppose to be @
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16 Comments
Hmm an ip error? with the ghs google? That is the right cname. Let me see what I can find.
Are you able to log into google apps email? The mx name is just a shortcut to the google apps mail server to get email. So for example mail.yourwebsite.com would take you directly to google apps or if you leave it alone it will take you directly to your webhosters mail account. So as far as a ip error that is unusual but you can set it back to the standard if you want to and just change the web address to get the email box for google apps.
To change it just logged into google apps and then on the right hand side click email - beta, then look for the area that says web address and click change url. From there type in the web address you want to use to access your google apps mail server.
Thanks! You have solved my main issue with GoDaddy. Your tutorial was simple to follow.
It looks like a great tutorial, and i have been stressed out over this for a week. However, the ads on your page make the images all crunched up…can you email a copy of the directions to averytickets@gmail.com or repost?
Sound great but one question. I have multiple addresses setup for different portions of my site. Will I have to create a new google app for each one?
Within Google apps you can setup unlimited emails addresses, so you will not have to remake a google app for each one. Google apps also offers catch all accounts if you need them.
What about all of my current messages in my mailbox? How can I transfer them from the godaddy box to the new gmail box?
Man, i cant tell you how in debt i feel with you… You just made my day, this is awesome. You and google rock. Greetings.
This is a great post, I’ve always been curious about Google Aps in general, but hadn’t taken the time to explore them.
I am however still having trouble getting wordpress to Post via e-mail after following your instructions.
I setup the email box in Google Aps and tested it by sending an email to it and everything is working fine.
In wordpress however, the connection times out when I attempt to check the mail.
Wouldn’t the Mail Server, be pop.gmail.com at port 995?
Thanks for your help.
Chances are the reason wordpress post is not working is because you have not enabled the pop3 setting in the gmail account. If you haven’t activated it, it’s fairly simple and only takes a couple minutes.
Log into Google apps, goto your inbox and in the top right click settings. Then click the tab that says Forwarding and pop/imap.
Scroll down to pop download and enable pop for all mail. Then at the bottom of the screen click save changes.
Wordpress Settings - You are correct it is pop.gmail.com port 995
my domain registered @ yahoo and using google app for my email. Now, i want to transfer my domain to godaddy. What should I do to keep all my emails without delete my google app account and set it up again? thanks
During the domain transfer you will not lose your emails since the email is hosted on Google Apps and not on yahoos server. You will however have to set the MX records on godaddy, after the transfer is complete, if you do not set the records then google apps will stop receiving emails.
One note is that Google Apps can take up to 48 hours to verify your domain, so don’t get ahead of yourself like I did and change your mx records before you’re verified.
I too am interested to see if there is an easy way to take the mail off my server and put on the new google server. I have it all dled via Outlook anyway.
Your article has really helped me out with getting Google Apps email set up with GoDaddy. I’ve followed the steps that you’ve outlined. One question: GoDaddy has CNAMES for “mail”, “pop”, “smtp”, “pda” and “mobilemail” which point to godaddy by default. Do I also need to change these to ghs.google.com? Or maybe it doesn’t matter?
does changing the mx records change it for everyone. I have about 5 employees on godaddy email. I want to convert my one email to goggle apps without affecting the others. Can this be done?
thanks
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