There are several reasons to transfer a domain name to another registrar or in our case transfer a domain from wix to Hostgator. Perhaps your current registrar doesn’t offer all of the features you need, or they’re offered at a price that simply doesn’t fit your budget.
Regardless of the reason you find yourself here, all the information you need to complete a domain name transfer can be found below. The process is simple and relatively quick.
There are several blocks in place to protect your domain name ownership that can cause difficulty in transferring your domain to a new registrar. Before you transfer your domain to HostGator, you must ensure that the domain is ready to be transferred.
Update Name Servers
Changing your name servers while your domain is being transferred may cause the transfer to fail. Make sure that you update your name servers before the transfer begins so that your domain will be working as soon as possible.
Disable the WHOIS Privacy:
If WHOIS privacy is enabled, it will prevent your verification information from being retrieved and will prevent your transfer from succeeding.
Update Your WHOIS Information
Your WHOIS information may be used to verify your ownership of a domain before the transfer completes. Updating your contact information to ensure that you can access the email addresses on your WHOIS will prevent transfer failure.
Confirm the Domain is 60 Days Old
ICANN(The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) does not allow a domain to be transferred within its first 60 days.
Unlock Your Domain
Domain locks prevent unauthorized domain transfers. Be sure to unlock your domain just before transferring it so that it can be transferred successfully. The lock status of your domain can be viewed in your WHOIS information.
Check Your Domain’s Expiration Date
It can take up to 7 days to transfer a domain. If your domain expires during transfer it may become locked again, causing the transfer to fail.
Check that the Domain is not in Redemption
If you are transferring an expired domain, be sure that it is within 30 days of expiration. If it has been expired for longer than that your domain may not be transferred without renewal.
Get Your EPP Code
You will need to get your EPP authorization code from your current registrar in order to transfer your domain. EPP Authorization codes expire, so you should ensure that you get them shortly before transferring your domain.
When you try to transfer your domain, HostGator automatically attempts to check several issues that may interfere with your domain transfer.
Domain Transfer Error
This list checks for all of the things that HostGator can check directly:
Is your domain unlocked?
If the answer is no, you will need to contact your current registrar and request to have your domain unlocked. Your current registrar.
Is Domain Privacy disabled?
If domain privacy is enabled, it will prevent HostGator from being able to verify your ownership of your domain. This will need to be disabled by your current registrar.
Is the domain older than 60 days?
(The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) ICANN regulations prevent the transfer of a domain that is less than 60 days old. HostGator will not be able to transfer a domain until 60 days have elapsed.
Also Read: How to Migrate from to WIX to WordPress
More Questions about Domain Transfer
Has the administrator’s email been validated?
HostGator verifies the ownership of your domain with an email to the contact information from your WHOIS. By default this verification email goes to the admin email, however, you should ensure that your WHOIS is entirely up to date. WHOIS Privacy can prevent this from happening correctly as well.
If the answer to this is No:
Click the How-To Fix button. In the popup box that appears, click the button to send a confirmation email to the administrator email from your WHOIS information.
An email should arrive shortly at that email address with both a confirmation code and link. Please either click on the link or enter the confirmation code in the text box on this popup and click Confirm.
Does HostGator support this domain type?
This checks to see if this domain type may be hosted by HostGator.
Is this domain far enough from expiration?
Some registrars may not allow an expired domain to be transferred away.
Is this domain not currently in redemption?
Once a domain is in redemption status a domain will be unable to be transferred.
Except for validating the administrator email, the pre-transfer checklist will ensure that all of these tools say Yes. Once you’ve validated your administrator email, click Continue to Checkout. Repeat the process for any other domains you wish to transfer before moving on.
Once you’ve added all the domains you wish to transfer:
- Click the button labeled Continue to Checkout
- The first step within the checkout process will be to either log in with an existing HostGator account or create a new account.
- In the Order Summary section, you will be able to review all of the domains and whether or not you would wish to have Domain Privacy. Here you will also be able to set the domain name servers.
- Click on the Continue to Checkout button to proceed to the payment section.
- Click in the next checkbox to accept the HostGator Terms of Service, Domain Registration Agreement, and Privacy Policy.
- To have the domain transfer verification be sent to the WHOIS Registrant Email on the domain click on the Place Your Order button.
- Check the mailbox for the WHOIS Registrant Email contact for a verification email to approve the domain transfer. This email will also allow you to enter in your EPP key that is required for the domain transfer process.
Congratulations! Your transfer should now begin successfully.
Domain transfers will be initiated only after payment has been made. Once the transfer has initialized, be sure to watch for an incoming confirmation letter to the email address listed on the domain WHOIS. The domain transfer should be decided within 7 days from the date listed in the confirmation letter. If the transfer was successful, then the domain’s new information should appear when using a public WHOIS lookup tool.
I hope you like this article and it helped in solving your domain transfer problems. If so, I would love to hear about it in the comments below!
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