Activation process for the China-made version of Alibaba Mail

The recommended activation sequence is as follows: Set the administrator password (you can skip this step if you set a password during purchase) → Assign employee accounts → Migrate mailboxes (to migrate emails from a previous mailbox) → Add DNS records (if your domain used another email provider, you must delete or pause the old DNS records before adding new ones).

1. Set the administrator mailbox password

When you log on to the China-made version of Alibaba Mail for the first time, you must set a password for the administrator account. If you already set a password during the purchase process, you can skip this step.

Log on to the Alibaba Mail console and navigate to the mailbox management page. In the list, click Manage to the right of your domain name, and then click Reset Password.

2. Assign employee accounts

Log on to the web client for the China-made version of Alibaba Mail. After the mail DNS record takes effect, you can also access the logon page at mail.yourdomain.com. Enter your administrator account and password to log on.

After you log on as the administrator, the domain management interface for the China-made version of Alibaba Mail appears by default. If you are on the Webmail interface, you can also click the Domain Management button in the upper-right corner to open the management interface.

In the navigation pane on the left, click Employee Account Management. You can create mailbox accounts manually by clicking New Account or in batches by importing a file.

New Account: Fill in the required information and click Save to create the account.

Import: Download the template, fill it out in the required format, and upload the file to create the accounts in a batch.

3. Migrate mailboxes

To migrate emails from a previous mailbox to the China-made version of Alibaba Mail, navigate to Mailbox Tools→Mailbox Migration to complete the migration. If you do not need to migrate emails, you can skip this step.

4. Add DNS records

Note: You must correctly configure domain name resolution to use the China-made version of Alibaba Mail. Incorrect DNS settings will prevent you from sending and receiving emails.

If you purchased both your domain name and mailbox subscription from Alibaba Cloud, see DNS resolution for the China-made version of Alibaba Mail for instructions on how to configure the DNS records.

The specific DNS records to add for the China-made version of Alibaba Mail are as follows:

The universal endpoint for the web client of the China-made version of Alibaba Mail is https://mail.xc.aliyun.com/. The recommended parameter settings are as follows:

The following MX records are required to send and receive email. We recommend that you also add the other records, especially the TXT/SPF record.

Managing domain name resolution	Record Type	Priority	Record Value
@	MX	5	mx1.xc.aliyun.com
@	MX	10	mx2.xc.aliyun.com
pop3	CNAME	-	pop.xc.aliyun.com
imap	CNAME	-	imap.xc.aliyun.com
smtp	CNAME	-	smtp.xc.aliyun.com
mail	CNAME	-	mail.xc.aliyun.com
@	TXT	-	v=spf1 include the following:spf.xc.aliyun.com -all

1. If your domain name is managed by Alibaba Cloud DNS, the records take effect in approximately 10 minutes after you configure them.

2. Descriptions of domain name resolution statuses:

Status	Description
Domain name resolution effective	You can send and receive emails and manage your mailbox services normally.
Domain name resolution not effective	Because the DNS records do not point to the mailbox correctly, you cannot use the web client or other clients to send and receive emails. However, other features, such as creating accounts and migrating mailboxes, are not affected.

After you add the DNS records, the system automatically refreshes the resolution status periodically. To check the status immediately, you can refresh it manually.

Manually refresh the resolution status

Log on to the Alibaba Mail console and navigate to the mailbox management page. In the list, click Manage to the right of the domain name for which you want to check the resolution.

Click Check Domain Name Resolution or Refresh Status. The system automatically checks whether your domain name resolution is effective. If the resolution is effective, the system updates the status to "Domain name resolution effective". If the resolution is not yet effective, wait for the DNS changes to propagate.