Troubleshoot a domain that isn't working

When your website or email stops working at your domain, check four things in this order: whether the domain has expired, whether its nameservers are the two Cloudflare nameservers we sent you, whether a leftover DNSSEC record is blocking it, and whether the DNS records point to the right place. The first three you can check yourself in a few minutes; the fourth we check for you.

If the website is down and you're on Website Care, it's monitored around the clock and an outage is picked up without you reporting it. You're still welcome to open a ticket.

Prerequisites

• Your domain name.
• A browser. A terminal with dig is optional.

Step 1: Has the domain expired?

1. Go to ICANN Lookup.
2. Enter your domain and run the lookup.
3. Check the expiration date and the status.

If it has expired, or the status mentions a hold or redemption, sign in to the registrar shown and renew it. Oogle can't renew domains for you. See How domain registration, renewal and expiry work.

Step 2: Are the nameservers right?

In the same lookup result, read the nameservers. Or run:

dig ns example.com @1.1.1.1

Replace example.com with your domain. You should see exactly the two Cloudflare nameservers we sent you (names ending in .ns.cloudflare.com), and nothing else.

• Different nameservers? They've been changed, perhaps by the registrar after a renewal or transfer. Set the two Cloudflare ones back: How to change your domain's nameservers.
• Changed in the last day? It may still be spreading. See How long DNS changes take.

Step 3: Is DNSSEC blocking the domain?

If the domain doesn't resolve at all and the nameservers were changed recently, check for a leftover DS record:

dig ds example.com +short
dig example.com @1.1.1.1

If the first command shows a DS record we didn't give you, or the second shows status: SERVFAIL, the DS record from an old DNS provider is the likely cause. Remove it at your registrar, then allow time for old copies to expire, often 24–48 hours. See DNSSEC basics.

Step 4: Do the records point to the right place?

1. Go to Google Public DNS.
2. Enter your domain and select Resolve.
3. Repeat for www in front of your domain, such as www.example.com.

If either returns no answer, a record is missing. Website records for Oogle-hosted domains are in our Cloudflare account, so we'll check and fix them: open a Website Support ticket. See How to ask us to change a DNS record.

Match the symptom

You'll know it's fixed when

The domain loads in a private browser window, on your phone using mobile data, and the lookups show the expected nameservers and records.

What to put in a ticket

Choose Website Support, and include:

• the domain and the exact error message
• when it started, and whether anything changed (renewal, transfer, nameservers, a new service)
• what the four checks above showed

Never include your registrar password. If we need registrar access, we'll explain how to share it safely.

Next steps

• Fix DNS and SSL errors
• How long DNS changes take