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BlogDomain expired, what to do

Domain expired, what to do

Sign in at the registrar you already use and renew the domain if it is still in the account. ICANN lets registrars delete a generic domain any time after it expires. A redemption restore is 30 days after deletion, through that same registrar.

Your domain has expired when the registration period ended and you have not renewed it. The website and the email on that name often stop together. Sign in at the registrar you already use, and renew the name if it is still in the account. Type the registrar’s address yourself. Pay on that site. A link in a renewal email can be a fake page that only looks like the bill.

The rules below come from ICANN, and they apply to generic top-level domains, such as .com. A country-code domain, the kind that ends in a country abbreviation, follows that country’s registry. The grace period and the dispute process can be different. Read the registry’s own page before you assume these deadlines.

The longer checklist is Domain expired or lost. After the name is yours again, compare the DNS records with a copy you trust. That work is DNS change takes the business offline. If the site comes back with pages you did not publish, switch to Website hacked.

See who has the name

Open ICANN Lookup. ICANN’s lost-domain page tells you to run a WHOIS search at whois.icann.org, and that address now redirects to Lookup. Search the exact domain. Write down the registrar, the dates, and any status the result shows. Save a screenshot. Save the renewal emails and the last invoice too.

Lookup is how you tell expiration apart from a transfer. A changed registrar, or a registrant you do not recognise, is a different job from an unpaid renewal. Do that check before you change nameservers, and before you pay a stranger who offers to “recover” the name.

If you can still renew it

ICANN’s Expired Registration Recovery Policy, updated 21 February 2024, says a registrar may delete a generic domain at any time after it expires. There is no guaranteed waiting period.

ICANN’s page for registrants describes the window you might get. If the registrar does not delete the name immediately, it may offer an auto-renew grace period of 1 to 45 days. The length and the fee are in that registrar’s terms. During the period, the name may be available for someone else to register, if the terms allow it. The registrar may also auction it, if the terms allow that. Renew before you are guessing which of those is about to happen.

While the name is still renewable, you are allowed to renew it. The policy calls you the registrant at expiration, meaning the holder who could renew immediately before the name expired.

The site goes down on purpose, as a last warning.

  • If the registrar deletes the name within eight days of expiration, DNS has to be interrupted from expiration until deletion, where the registry allows it.
  • If the registrar waits longer than eight days, DNS has to be interrupted for at least the last eight days in which you can still renew.

If the registrar sends visitors to a web page during that time, the page has to say the registration is expired, and it has to give renewal instructions. So a parking page on your own domain can be legitimate. The renewal itself still happens in the registrar account, not on a link you have never used.

When you renew, the registrar has to put back the DNS path you had set. They must do it immediately, or as soon as is commercially reasonable. ICANN’s note says that phrase covers a manual restore, or a renewal that lands on a holiday. Leave the nameservers alone while you pay, unless you already know they are wrong. A renewal that restores the old DNS, plus an edit you make in a hurry, can fight each other and keep the outage going.

The fee for a normal renewal, a higher fee after expiration if they charge one, and the redemption fee have to be on the registrar’s website and in the registration agreement. Resellers have to show them too. ICANN does not publish a standard price. If the number on the invoice is new to you, read the fee page you already know, on the registrar’s site, before you pay.

If it was deleted

After deletion, generic domains other than sponsored ones enter a redemption grace period of 30 days. Sponsored generic top-level domains do not have to offer it. During those 30 days:

  • The registry disables DNS. The site and the domain email stay down.
  • Transfers are prohibited, aside from bulk transfers ICANN has approved.
  • The registration data result has to say the name is in its Redemption Grace Period.
  • You restore it through the registrar that deleted it. Another registrar cannot sell it to you as a fresh registration while this period runs.
  • The registrar may charge a redemption fee. That fee is one of the prices they have to publish.

Ask the registrar to restore it, and ask them for the last moment the restore is still possible. Keep the case number.

When the redemption period ends, the name can be released for a new registration. ICANN says a domain is generally registered first-come, first-served, through an accredited registrar. A service that promises you will catch the name is promising an outcome ICANN does not offer. If you want it back after release, use a registrar you already trust, and be ready for someone else to get there first.

If the transfer was not yours

ICANN’s lost-domain page says an unauthorized transfer can come from a break-in, including access to your email or to the registrar login. Contact the previous registrar immediately and ask them to review an unauthorized-transfer claim. Keep the invoices, the account notices, and the transfer mail.

Registrars may reverse the transfer. ICANN says that decision depends on the circumstances and on the law. ICANN cannot instruct them to reverse it, and ICANN does not investigate the crime.

If the WHOIS details changed and you did not do it, contact the registrar the same day. Someone may be inside the account. ICANN cannot edit WHOIS for you.

Secure the email address that receives registrar mail before you request another reset. If that mailbox is not yours, the next transfer notice goes to the other person. Use Personal email account hacked.

If someone else registered it

Confirm the new registration in ICANN Lookup. Then stop and get advice before you write to the new holder. ICANN says it has no authority to transfer a domain back to you.

ICANN lists these paths.

  • Agree something with the current registrant.
  • Wait, and see if they let it expire.
  • Sue in a court that can hear the case, if you believe the name was obtained unlawfully.
  • Where a trademark is infringed, start a case under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), or file under the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS). ICANN describes both as limited to trademark cases.

Those last two are legal proceedings. The page tells you to consider legal advice. This site cannot pick the filing for you.

If the registrar suspended it

Two common causes are contact checks and the registrar’s own abuse rules.

ICANN’s lost-domain page says the 2013 registrar contract requires action when you do not answer a WHOIS accuracy inquiry within 15 days. The registrar may suspend the name, lock it, or delete it, until the contact data is verified or corrected. Reply to the registrar, or to the reseller if that is who wrote to you, and give accurate contact details.

If the name was deleted under the registration agreement or an anti-abuse policy, read that policy on the registrar’s site. If you think they broke the agreement or the law, ICANN says to raise it with the registrar and to consider legal advice.

While the name is down

Tell customers on a channel that does not use this domain. Say the website and the domain email are unavailable. Tell them to ignore payment instructions and password resets that claim to come from the domain until you confirm the name is yours again.

Mail sent to addresses on the expired domain will fail while DNS is interrupted. ICANN’s suggested practice is a second contact email that is not on the domain, so renewal notices still arrive. If your only mailbox was name@yourdomain, you will not see the five-day notice the registrar must send after expiration. That notice has to include renewal instructions, and it goes to the registrant email on the domain.

The two earlier notices are required as well. One about a month before expiration, and one about a week before. ICANN treats 26 to 35 days before, and 4 to 10 days before, as meeting that rule. Notices have to be in the language of the registration agreement, by a method that does not make you click something just to receive them. Email counts. If those notices never arrived, the contact email on the domain is probably wrong, or a spam filter ate them. The policy suggests saving the registrar’s sending address as a safe sender.

After the name is yours again

Check ICANN Lookup. The registrar and the expiration should match what you just paid for. In the registrar account, confirm the contact email, turn on the lock if the registrar offers one, and turn on two-factor authentication.

Compare nameservers and DNS records with an export you made before the outage. The renewal should have restored the path you had set. Change a record only when you know it is wrong. A short TTL is useful later, when you know you control the zone and you know which record you are about to edit.

Send a real email in and out, from an address on the domain. Open the website and read a page you recognise. If the certificate warns, or the page is not yours, treat that as a separate incident and use Website hacked. Password resets and payment mail that arrived while you did not control the name should be treated as suspect.

The steps for a name that was transferred, auctioned, or pointed at the wrong DNS are in Domain expired or lost. Do the prepare list there once the site answers again. The item that matters most is auto-renew, on a card that still works, with a reminder that does not live only in mail on this domain.

  • Domain expired or lost. Your domain no longer resolves, has left your registrar account, or is registered to someone else.
  • DNS change takes the business offline. Incorrect nameservers or DNS records make the website, API, email, or verification services unreachable.
  • Website hacked. An attacker may have altered your site, stolen data, installed persistence, or gained access to connected systems.

Questions

My domain expired. What do I do first?

Sign in at the registrar's own website and renew the name if it is still in your account. Type the address yourself. A link in a renewal email can be a fake. Then look the name up at lookup.icann.org and write down the registrar, the dates, and the status. These ICANN rules are for generic domains such as .com. A country-code domain follows that country's registry.

How long do I have after a .com expires?

There is no single number of days you can count on. ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy says a registrar may delete a generic domain at any time after it expires. If they do not delete it immediately, they may offer an auto-renew grace period of 1 to 45 days. During that time the name can be offered to someone else or auctioned, if the registrar's terms say so. After deletion, most generic domains enter a 30-day redemption period. Sponsored generic domains are the exception.

The website is down but I have not paid a restore fee. Can I still renew?

Often, yes. ICANN requires the registrar to interrupt DNS before deletion, so the site and domain email stop while the name can still be renewed. A parking page the registrar puts on the name, while you can still renew, has to say the registration is expired and has to include renewal instructions. When you renew, the registrar has to restore the DNS path you had set, immediately or as soon as is commercially reasonable.

The name was deleted. Can I buy it again at any registrar?

During the 30 days after deletion, you restore it through the registrar that deleted it. The registry disables DNS and blocks transfers in that period. The registrar may charge a redemption fee. The fee has to be published on the registrar's site and in the registration agreement. ICANN does not set the price. After that period, the name can be released, and a new registration is generally first-come, first-served.

Someone else owns it now. Can ICANN give it back?

ICANN says it cannot transfer or return a domain. Contact the previous registrar at once if the transfer was not yours. The registrars may reverse an unauthorized transfer, based on the circumstances and the law. ICANN cannot order them to. If a trademark is involved, ICANN lists the UDRP and the URS as options, and says to get legal advice.