How to Transfer A Domain With Minimal Downtime

As a website owner, there will come a time when you may need to transfer your domain or a number of domains from one registrar to another.

And given that your business depends on its ability to stay online, here is how to move a domain name with minimal impact to the website uptime.

Transfer Requirements for Top-Level Domains

• Expired or suspended domain names cannot be transferred. However, if the domain expires after the transfer has been completed at the new registrar, then the old registrar is not allowed to deny the transfer for non-renewal.
• If the registration for a domain name expired and had to be restored, it must have been restored at least 60 days ago.
• You must have either registered the domain with the current registrar or transferred registration for the domain to the current registrar at least 60 days ago.
• If the current registrar for the domain has outstanding administrative action against the domain, you cannot transfer it until the matter ha been resolved.
• In some cases, renewing the domain for the required one additional year causes the domain to exceed the maximum registration period. In these cases, you must wait until renewing for one year does not extend the total registration period beyond the maximum allowed.
• The domain cannot have any of the following domain name status codes: clientTransferProhibited, pendingDelete, pendingTransfer, redemptionPeriod, serverTransferProhibited.
• Some registries may not allow the transfer of a domain name until changes such as changes to the domain owner are completed.

Unlock the Domain

A locked domain cannot be transferred to another registrar or account.

Whenever you need to make changes to a domain’s settings, such as updating nameservers or contact information, we automatically unlock and re-lock the domain name.

To transfer your domain name, you must first unlock it.

Disable WHOIS Privacy

While it may be possible to transfer domains with this enabled, double-check to ensure that you can accept emails from the private email address before initiating a domain transfer.

Reduce TTL

Time to live (TTL) determines how long a DNS cache server can serve a DNS record before reaching out to the authoritative DNS server and getting a new copy of the record.

Set the TTL times on your DNS to a short value (something like 300 seconds) 12-24 hrs before DNS changes.

Transfer DNS Service

If the registrar for your domain is also the DNS service provider for the domain, transfer your DNS service to our DNS systems before you continue with the process to transfer the domain registration.

If you don’t transfer DNS service to us, your website, email, and the web applications associated with the domain might become unavailable.

EPP Authorization Code

EPP Code (also known as Transfer secret) is a randomly generated complex code that contains numbers, letters, and special characters.

Domain name registrars are only permitted to provide the code to the registered owner of the domain as it appears on a WHOIS query.

The code helps identify the domain name holder; it does not constitute transfer approval.

If the code is not provided, then those domains generally cannot be transferred.

Request and get your EPP authorization code (a string of characters) from your registrar’s dashboard.

You can see this feature under your domain’s management section.

Initiate Domain Transfer

Visit https://dashboard.webhostingmagic.com/cart.php?a=add&domain=transfer

Enter in your domain name to transfer, followed by the EPP Authorization Code and click “Add To Cart“.

Follow the process to completion.

Approve The Domain Transfer

We will confirm that the domain is eligible for transfer, and send an email to the registrant contact for the domain to request authorization to transfer the domain.

Click the link to initiate/approve the transfer.

If the domain registration is not available for transfer, our system will list the reasons.

Do contact your registrar for information about how to resolve the issues that prevent you from transferring the registration.

Verify The Domain Transfer

Check to verify that the transfer has been initiated.

If the registrant contact authorizes the transfer, we start to work with your current registrar to transfer your domain.

This step might take up to ten days, depending on the TLD for your domain:

• Generic Top-Level Domains – take up to seven days
• Geographic Top-Level Domains (also known as country code top-level domains) – take up to ten days

Complete Domain Transfer

Once all messaging between us and your old registrar is completed, our system will send you an email informing you of a successful transfer.

You will now be able to see the domain under My Domains at https://dashboard.webhostingmagic.com/clientarea.php?action=domains

Click to manage.

That’s it, folks!