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Moving a website to Shopify should be the exciting part of growing an online business. For one of our clients, it turned into nearly two weeks of broken systems. The new shop went live, and straight away the business lost access to its webmail and its CRM. The developer who built the Shopify store didn’t know what had changed, so they couldn’t undo it. We were brought in to find the cause and put everything back.

The cause is very common, it’s easy to avoid, and it has nothing to do with Shopify itself. Here’s what happened, why it happens, and the checklist we now give every client before they connect a domain to Shopify.

What happened

The client’s domain had been in use for years before the new shop. Alongside the main website it had several subdomains, the parts of a web address in front of the main name:

• a webmail address the team used to read email in a browser;
• a CRM on its own subdomain, used every day by staff;
• the hosting control panel and mail server addresses.

All of these pointed at the business’s existing hosting. When the Shopify developer connected the domain to the new store, the DNS settings (the address book that tells the internet where each part of a domain lives) were changed in a way that wiped out the records for those subdomains. The main website now pointed at Shopify, as intended, but nothing told the internet where the webmail, CRM or control panel lived any more. They simply stopped loading.

Email kept arriving, because the record that routes incoming mail (the MX record) survived. That made the problem confusing to diagnose: “email works but webmail doesn’t” sounds like a mail problem, when it’s really a DNS problem.

Why it took so long to fix

Once the cause was clear, the repair itself was quick. Finding out what to repair was the slow part:

• Nobody had a copy of the old DNS settings, so there was no list of what had existed before.
• The developer didn’t know which change caused it, so they couldn’t say what to put back.
• Each subdomain needed its own fix. We had to work out where each service actually lived, recreate its records, and wait for the changes to spread across the internet.
• Security certificates had to be reissued. Once the subdomains pointed at the right server again, their SSL certificates had to be renewed before browsers would trust them.

Once we’d rebuilt the picture of what the domain used to do, the business had its webmail and CRM back. But the team had worked around missing systems for almost two weeks, and that’s the real cost.

Why connecting Shopify can break subdomains

There are two ways to point a domain at Shopify, and they carry very different risks.

Safe: change only the records Shopify needs

Shopify only needs two records changed: the main domain (an A record pointing at Shopify’s IP address) and www (a CNAME pointing at Shopify). Shopify’s help centre lists the exact current values. Everything else, including mail, webmail, CRM and other subdomains, stays exactly as it was.

Risky: moving the nameservers or deleting records

Problems start when someone changes the domain’s nameservers to a new DNS provider without copying every existing record across, or “tidies up” records they don’t recognise. Every subdomain that isn’t recreated stops working. If the mail records are lost too, incoming email stops as well.

Checklist: before you connect your domain to Shopify

1. Export or screenshot your current DNS records from your domain registrar or host. This one step would have turned our client’s two weeks into ten minutes.
2. List every subdomain in use, e.g. webmail, mail, CRM, booking system, client portal, intranet, and note where each one is hosted.
3. Change only the main domain and www records to Shopify’s values. Don’t change nameservers unless you’re copying every record across.
4. Leave email records alone: MX, plus the SPF, DKIM and DMARC TXT records that stop your emails going to spam.
5. Test everything the same day: the shop, webmail, sending and receiving email, the CRM and every other subdomain.
6. Ask your developer for a written note of every DNS change they made. If something breaks, that note is the fastest route back.

If it’s already broken

• Don’t keep changing settings at random. Each change takes time to spread and can hide the original cause.
• Find out where each service lives: your old host’s control panel, or your CRM provider’s documentation, will show the address each subdomain should point to.
• Recreate the missing records for each subdomain, then reissue its SSL certificate.
• Check your email records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are still in place and correct.

If you’d rather not untangle it yourself, get in touch. Restoring DNS after a platform move is exactly the kind of job we’re glad to help with.

Is Shopify still the right choice?

Yes. None of this was Shopify’s fault. Shopify is an excellent platform for online shops: hosting, security, payments and checkout are all handled for you, and it scales from a first product to a large catalogue. The lesson is about how you connect a domain, not which platform you choose.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my email stop working after moving to Shopify?

Usually because the domain’s DNS records for email (MX, and sometimes the webmail or mail subdomains) were removed or changed when the domain was connected to Shopify. Shopify doesn’t host email, so those records must keep pointing at your email provider.

Why did my subdomains stop working after connecting Shopify?

Their DNS records were lost, most often because the nameservers were changed without copying every record across. Recreate each subdomain’s record pointing at the server it actually lives on.

Which DNS records does Shopify need?

Only the main domain’s A record and the www CNAME record. Check Shopify’s help centre for the current values. Every other record should stay as it is.

How long does it take to fix?

If you know what the records used to be, under an hour plus a few hours for changes to spread. Without a record of the old settings, it can take days to piece together, which is why exporting your DNS first matters so much.