Cannot access my domain, did Shopify steal my domain?

Shopify Discussion
1

I purchased my domain YEARS ago and decided to try Shopify back in February 2021 and I transferred my domain over. However, after a month, I decided to go back and transfer my domain back to where it originally was connected to.

I started to receive an email from Shopify that I needed to renew my domain, which I thought was odd because I always renewed through another company. Now, Shopify OWNS my domain via whois because I cannot renew due to not having an active account with shopify?! This is ridiculous. I had that domain for years before I even tried Shopify and now they OWN IT!

Is there anything I can do besides purchasing another month with Shopify + the domain annual cost? Is that what I have to do yearly?!

Where was the fine print where Shopify stated they were going to own my domain and basically ‘rent’ it out to me?!

1 Like
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Shopify provides WHOIS Privacy. They very likely did not steal your domain and are providing you the privacy service that come with their domain service so your name isn’t publicly available on WHOIS. It’s likely up for its annual renewal. When you tried Shopify you likely transferred the name to Shopify’s domain service instead of who you were with originally.

Below is the domain transfer help page on transferring your domain to another provider:

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/domains/managing-domain-ownership/transferring-shopify-domains#transfer-your-shopify-managed-domain-to-another-domain-provider