Custom domain stuck in deleted/inaccessible Entra tenant - need domain release

Hello Manish Bajaj,

Greetings! Thanks for raising this question in the Q&A forum.

Your situation has a specific technical nuance worth understanding: when a Microsoft Entra tenant is deleted, it enters a soft-delete state for up to 30 days before it is permanently purged. During this soft-delete window, the tenant still exists in Microsoft's backend systems and all its associated objects including custom domain registrations remain attached to it. This is why whatismytenantid.com is still returning a tenant ID for threatwatchers.co.in even though the tenant appears to have been deleted. The domain will only be automatically released once the old tenant is fully purged at the end of the 30-day soft-delete period.

Regarding the support access concern you do not need a paid Azure support plan to report a domain dispute. Microsoft provides free support paths for this type of case, and I will cover those below.

Check whether the old tenant is in soft-delete and how long ago it was deleted. If the deletion happened within the last 30 days, you have two options: wait for the 30-day purge window to complete (after which the domain is automatically released and you can verify it in your current tenant), or contact Microsoft Support to request an expedited purge of the deleted tenant, which they can perform once you prove domain ownership.

Confirm the tenant state using the OpenID Connect endpoint. Paste the following into a browser:

https://login.microsoftonline.com/threatwatchers.co.in/.well-known/openid-configuration

If this returns a valid JSON response with a token_endpoint, the old tenant is still in soft-delete and is not yet purged. If it returns a 400 error or no tenant found, the tenant may have been fully purged already — in which case, your TXT record conflict might have a different cause and you should open a support case directly.

1. Contact Microsoft Support by phone — this is free for domain disputes. Go to https://support.microsoft.com/contactus, select Microsoft Azure or Microsoft Entra ID as the product, and choose phone support. No paid plan is required for billing, subscription, or domain management issues. When connected, explain that your custom domain threatwatchers.co.in is stuck in a deleted tenant you no longer have access to, that you have full DNS control (evidenced by the TXT record MS=ms19296956 already being published), and that you need either an expedited tenant purge or manual domain release so you can verify it in your current tenant.
2. Use the Microsoft 365 admin centre support entry point as an alternative. Navigate to https://admin.microsoft.com and look for the Help and Support option. This path is available even without a paid support plan and is often the most accessible route for Entra ID and domain management cases. Describe the same details as above.
3. Prepare domain ownership evidence. Microsoft Support will need to verify that you legitimately own threatwatchers.co.in before taking any action on the old tenant. Prepare the following:
   • Your domain registrar account screenshots showing your name or organisation as the registrant
   • WHOIS records for threatwatchers.co.in showing your ownership details
   • Confirmation that you published the TXT record MS=ms19296956 (this alone is strong proof of DNS control)
4. As an interim workaround, consider using a subdomain. If you need to set up users or services in your current Entra tenant while the domain dispute is being resolved, you can add and verify a subdomain of threatwatchers.co.in — such as mail.threatwatchers.co.in or app.threatwatchers.co.in — in your current tenant. Entra ID allows a subdomain to be verified in a different tenant even when the parent domain is held by another tenant, so this gives you a functional path while the release is processed.

If this answer helps you kindly accept the answer which will help others who have similar questions.

Best Regards,

Jerald Felix.