Moving a domain name from one registrar to another is supposed to take five minutes of clicking and a few days of waiting. In practice, most transfers stall for one of three reasons: a 60-day ICANN lock nobody warned you about, an expired or wrong EPP authorization code, or a hidden email service that quietly dies the moment the nameservers change.
This guide walks through the full process to transfer a domain to a new registrar, in the exact order the steps must be done, and flags every trap before you hit it. It applies to gTLDs (.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and most new extensions) governed by the ICANN Transfer Policy, with notes on country extensions where the rules differ.
First, understand what you are actually moving
Three things are often confused, and confusing them is the number one cause of downtime during a transfer:
- The registrar is the company that holds your registration (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, Porkbun, Squarespace, OVH, Gandi). This is what a transfer changes.
- The DNS is the zone file with your A, CNAME, MX and TXT records. It lives wherever your nameservers point, which may or may not be the registrar.
- The hosting is the server holding your website and mailboxes. A transfer does not touch it at all.
A registrar transfer is a billing and control change. Your website stays online as long as the nameservers and DNS records stay identical through the move. Problems appear when the new registrar helpfully applies its own default nameservers and wipes out records you never copied down. The piece FAQs for Registrants: Transferring Your Domain Name makes a good next read.
Pre-flight checklist: is your domain even eligible?
Run these five checks before you touch anything. A failed check means the transfer will be rejected, sometimes silently.
| Blocker | What it means | Fix / wait time |
|---|---|---|
| 60-day new registration lock | Domain was registered or transferred in the last 60 days | Wait it out, no exceptions |
| 60-day change of registrant lock | Owner name, organization or email was changed recently | Wait 60 days, or ask the registrar if opt-out was applied |
| Registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) | Standard anti-hijacking status flag | Unlock in your dashboard, effective immediately |
| Pending expiry or redemption | Domain expired or is in the 30-day redemption grace period | Renew or restore first, then transfer |
| Unverified or stale contact email | You cannot receive the approval message | Update the admin email (careful, this can trigger the 60-day lock) |
You can check the lock status yourself with any public WHOIS or RDAP lookup. Look at the Domain Status line. If it says ok or clientUpdateProhibited only, you are clear. If it says clientTransferProhibited, you must unlock. If it says serverTransferProhibited, the registry itself is blocking the move, usually because of the 60-day rule or a dispute.
The 60-day lock rule, explained properly
ICANN’s Transfer Policy imposes two separate 60-day windows, and people routinely mix them up.
1. The 60 days after registration or a previous transfer
A domain cannot move to another registrar within 60 days of being newly registered, or within 60 days of a completed inter-registrar transfer. This one is enforced at registry level and no support agent can override it. If you just bought a domain and immediately regret the registrar, note the registration date and count 60 days forward.
2. The 60 days after a Change of Registrant
If the registrant’s name, organization or email address is modified, the domain is locked for 60 days. This is the trap that catches most people: they “tidy up” their contact details on the way out, and instantly block the transfer they were preparing.
The rule to remember: never edit registrant contact fields in the weeks before a planned transfer. Some registrars offer a checkbox to opt out of the 60-day lock at the moment of the change. If you must edit contact data, look for that option first.
What is NOT locked
- Renewing the domain does not lock it.
- Changing nameservers or DNS records does not lock it.
- Toggling WHOIS privacy on or off does not, at most registrars, trigger a change of registrant lock (but check, since some implementations rewrite the registrant email).
How to transfer a domain to a new registrar in 6 steps
Step 1: Unlock the domain at your current registrar
Log in to the losing registrar, open the domain settings and turn off the transfer lock (labelled “Domain lock”, “Registrar lock” or “Theft protection”). The change is instant and reflected in WHOIS within minutes.
While you are there, confirm the expiry date. A transfer adds one year to the current expiry at most gTLD registrars, so transferring a domain that expires in three weeks is safe. Transferring one that expires tomorrow is not: renew it first.
Step 2: Disable WHOIS privacy and check the admin email
Privacy protection masks your registrant email behind a proxy address. Many registrars route proxy mail correctly, many do not, and the transfer approval message is exactly the one you cannot afford to lose. Turn privacy off temporarily, then verify that the registrant and admin email shown in WHOIS is a mailbox you can actually open right now.
Critical: if that mailbox uses the domain you are transferring, use a different address, such as a Gmail or company address on another domain. Do not change the registrant email if you are within days of the transfer, because of the 60-day change of registrant lock covered above. If the mailbox is dead and editing it triggers the lock, you have to wait 60 days. Plan accordingly.
Step 3: Get the EPP authorization code
The EPP code (also called auth code, authorization code, transfer key or transfer secret) is the password that proves you control the domain. Find it under the domain’s settings, usually behind a link named “Transfer out”, “Get authorization code” or “Transfer key”.
Points that trip people up:
- Some registrars display it on screen, others email it to the admin contact, which can take up to a few hours.
- Codes are case sensitive and often contain characters like % ! ^ that break when copied with a trailing space. Paste into a plain text editor first.
- At several registrars the code expires (commonly after 14 days, sometimes less) or is regenerated whenever you request it again. If your transfer fails with “invalid authorization code”, request a fresh one instead of reusing the old one.
- ICANN requires the current registrar to provide the code within 5 calendar days of your request. If they stall past that, you can file a complaint with ICANN.
Step 4: Export your DNS records before anything moves
This is the step that separates a boring transfer from a two-day outage. Open your current DNS zone and save a copy of every record. If your DNS is hosted at the registrar you are leaving, this is non-negotiable, because the zone will disappear when the domain leaves.
Record everything, not just the obvious entries:
| Record type | What it controls | If you lose it |
|---|---|---|
| A / AAAA | Website IP address | Site goes down or shows a parking page |
| CNAME | www, CDN, SaaS subdomains | www version breaks, tools disconnect |
| MX | Incoming email routing | Mail bounces, messages lost permanently |
| TXT (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) | Email authentication | Outgoing mail lands in spam |
| TXT verification | Google Search Console, Microsoft 365, SSL validation | Services silently unverify |
| SRV / CAA / NS delegations | VoIP, certificate authorities, subdomain delegation | Phone systems and cert renewals fail |
The safest strategy: move your DNS hosting to a neutral provider (Cloudflare, your web host, a managed DNS service) a week before the registrar transfer. Once the nameservers point somewhere independent, the registrar change becomes a pure paperwork operation with zero DNS risk. Lower your TTLs to 300 seconds a day before that switch, then raise them again afterwards.
Step 5: Start the transfer at the new registrar and pay
At the gaining registrar, enter the domain name, paste the EPP code, and complete checkout. Expect to pay for a one-year extension, which is added on top of your existing expiry date, so you lose nothing. Prices in 2026 range roughly from 10 to 15 USD per year for a .com at wholesale-style registrars, and considerably more at premium brands or for niche extensions.
The new registrar sends a Form of Authorization (FOA) to the registrant contact. You must click the confirmation link. Some registrars also require identity or contact verification before the transfer is submitted to the registry.
Step 6: Approve the transfer and let the 5-day clock run
Once submitted, the losing registrar emails you a “transfer out” notice. You have two options:
- Approve it explicitly in the losing registrar’s dashboard, which usually completes the transfer within minutes to a few hours.
- Do nothing, in which case the transfer auto-completes after 5 calendar days.
Never click “reject” or “cancel” by mistake, and check the spam folder for both messages. A rejected transfer means starting over, and in some cases waiting again.
After the transfer: the 10-minute verification routine
- Confirm the domain appears in the new registrar’s account and WHOIS shows the new sponsoring registrar.
- Check the nameservers are still the ones you intended. Fix immediately if the new registrar substituted its own.
- Compare the live DNS zone against the copy you exported in step 4, record by record.
- Send a test email to and from an address on the domain.
- Load the site over HTTPS and confirm the SSL certificate is valid.
- Verify the expiry date includes the extra year you paid for.
- Re-enable WHOIS privacy.
- Re-enable the registrar lock.
- Set up auto-renew and confirm the payment method on file.
The traps that actually stall transfers
Losing email in the middle of the move
If your mailboxes were bundled with the old registrar (a free or cheap mailbox tied to the registration), the transfer usually terminates that service. Mail sent during the gap bounces and is not recoverable. Migrate mailboxes to an independent provider first, keep the MX records identical, and only then transfer the domain.
The auth code that keeps failing
Request a fresh code, paste it without whitespace, and check that the domain is unlocked at the moment the transfer is submitted. Some registrars re-lock automatically after 24 or 48 hours of inactivity.
Transferring too close to expiry
A domain in redemption cannot be transferred, and restoring it costs 80 to 200 USD depending on the registry. Renew first, transfer second.
Country extensions play by different rules
ccTLDs are not bound by the ICANN Transfer Policy. Examples worth knowing:
- .uk uses an IPS tag change instead of an EPP code, and is normally instant and free.
- .de uses a KK request with an AuthInfo code.
- .fr, .be, .eu, .nl use auth codes with their own validity windows, often short.
- .ca requires the losing registrar to send an approval email to the registrant.
- Several ccTLDs do not add a year on transfer, so verify before assuming.
Bulk transfers
Moving 10 or 50 domains at once? Most registrars accept a bulk upload of domain and auth code pairs. Unlock everything first, request all codes in one session, and stagger the transfers so a rejected batch does not hide among the successful ones.
Realistic timeline
| Phase | Typical duration |
|---|---|
| Unlock, privacy off, get EPP code | 5 minutes to a few hours |
| Order and FOA confirmation click | Same day |
| Registry processing after explicit approval | Minutes to a few hours |
| Registry processing without approval | 5 calendar days |
| Full DNS propagation if nameservers changed | Up to 48 hours |
FAQ
How long does it take to transfer a domain to a new registrar?
Usually 1 to 5 days. If you approve the transfer manually at the losing registrar, it can complete in under an hour. If you ignore the confirmation emails, the registry auto-approves after 5 calendar days.
Do I have to wait 60 days to transfer a domain?
Only if the domain was registered or transferred within the last 60 days, or if the registrant name, organization or email was changed within the last 60 days. Otherwise there is no waiting period. Renewals and nameserver changes do not trigger the lock.
Will I lose my email if I transfer my domain?
Not if your mailboxes are hosted independently and your MX records stay unchanged. You will lose email if the mailboxes were provided by the registrar you are leaving, or if the new registrar replaces your nameservers with its own empty zone. Export your DNS records and migrate mail hosting before transferring.
Can I renew my domain with a different registrar?
Not directly. Renewal happens at the registrar holding the domain. However, most gTLD transfers include a mandatory one-year extension, which functions as a renewal at the new registrar’s price and is added to your existing expiry date.
Does transferring a domain affect SEO or my website ranking?
No. A registrar change is invisible to search engines as long as DNS resolution stays continuous and the site keeps serving the same content on the same URLs. Downtime caused by a broken DNS zone is what hurts, not the transfer itself. More at https://name.com.
What is an EPP code and where do I find it?
The EPP code (auth code or transfer key) is a domain-specific password issued by your current registrar. It is usually found in the domain settings under “Transfer out” or “Get authorization code”, or sent by email to the admin contact. It is case sensitive and may expire.
Is transferring a domain free?
The transfer operation itself carries no separate fee for most gTLDs, but registries require a one-year renewal to be purchased as part of the process, so expect to pay roughly one year of registration. Some ccTLDs transfer for free without adding a year.
Can I cancel a transfer once it has started?
Yes, until it completes. Reject it at the losing registrar or cancel the order at the gaining one. Once the registry has processed it, the domain is locked for 60 days and cannot be moved back immediately.
Need this handled for you?
If you manage a portfolio of domains, a business-critical website or mailboxes you cannot afford to interrupt, our team plans and executes registrar migrations with a zero-downtime DNS strategy: TTL preparation, full zone export, mail continuity checks and post-transfer verification. Get in touch and tell us how many domains you need moved.