Domain transfer in progress - store not available for customers

[redsockbluesock]

Hello,

I started the transfer progress of my domain from bluhost to shopify on August 1st and my store has been unavailable to customers ever since. I have actioned all verification emails and accepted the transfer on the bluehost end. When reading the articles in the Help Center it mentioned that the there would be no issues for customers during this process, can you please let me know how or when my store will be available again?

Right now when you go to my site is says the server is unavailable.

Any help would be great 

[Helen · Accepted solution]

Hi, @redsockbluesock. Welcome to the Community. 

You’re correct! Your custom domain from your customer’s perspective should not be affected during the transfer process, so I’m here to help!

Could you please let me know what the notification message is next to the domain when you go to ‘Online Store > Domains’ from within your Shopify admin. Does it say 'Connected', ‘Transfer in progress’, or ‘Setup in progress’?

Secondly, please check the DNS settings to be sure the A Record and CNAME are there and correct. To do this, from the Domains page click on Manage, then DNS Settings at the top of the page. It looks like this:

Within this section, please confirm you have the following settings present with the values as seen below. If either of them are missing, please add it by clicking on the Add Custom Record button on the top right hand side. 

Let me know what you find, and if you needed to make any changes. I’m here to make sure it gets resolved.

[redsockbluesock]

Thank you so much for the help. I had to add the CNAME record in the DNS settings. All seems to be good now!!

[trosso]

Hello,

I did try the settings you have posted about DNS setting ( @ ) and IP adress but still can not connect Bluehost domain - www.bestshopnow.net .  I still have the one only bestshopnow-net.myshopify.com. which I obviously I would like to replace with my my main Domain.Please help.I spent hours to try and figure this out..Thanks.R

[trosso]

Oj sorted now ..Obviously had to wait the system to reflect:)

[yanjel]

I'm having same issue. Mine is stuck in "transfer in progress" and I have no buttons to manage DNS or other. I initiated transfer 2 days ago. @Helen @redsockbluesock  can anyone help? should i remove 3rd party domain since it's not 3rd party anymore? Settings screenshots below.

[Helen]

Hey, @yanjel. Thanks for the screenshot.

It can take up to 20 days for a domain transfer to complete, after which time you'll be able to access the DNS settings from your Shopify admin. There isn’t a way to speed up the transfer, but an email will be sent once the transfer is complete. Keep an eye out for that! 

Please note, that since it appears as though your domain was already connected to your Shopify account before initiating the transfer, there won’t be any disruption to your online store from your customer’s perspective.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[yanjel]

Well I need to modify MX records for my email hosting with Google, but I cant manage via Shopify. My old host was so difficult, that's why I decided to move the domain to shopify. Is there another way I can modify the necessary records while domain is in transfer process?

[Helen]

Hi again, @yanjel. You might be able to still edit your DNS settings from within your old domain host account while it is transferring; please reach out to your previous domain host to confirm this. However, from the Shopify side, you will need to wait for the transfer to complete before you’ll be able to access your DNS settings from your admin.