How to transfer a domain to an account you control

Do you need a registrar transfer at all?

A registrar transfer moves a domain’s registration from one registrar to another. It changes who you pay and where the domain’s controls live. Three other things get called “transferring the domain” and are not:

• Moving the website to a new host does not require transferring the domain. You change one or two DNS records to point at the new host. The registrar isn’t involved.
• Changing DNS, whether individual records or the nameservers, does not require transferring the domain. That’s the DNS guide.
• Moving the domain between two accounts at the same registrar is usually a quick “push” or “account change” rather than a transfer. If the current holder is cooperative and you both use the same registrar, ask about that first.

You need a registrar transfer when the domain is registered at a registrar you don’t want to use, or in an account you don’t control and can’t be moved within. The goal is to end with the domain in an account you own, with the website and email working exactly as before. If you don’t yet know where the domain is registered, run the diagnostic first.

Situations that block or complicate a transfer

Check these before you start. Each one changes the plan.

• The domain was registered less than 60 days ago, or was transferred less than 60 days ago. Under ICANN’s Transfer Policy a registrar may refuse a transfer in that window, and most do. Wait it out.
• The registrant name, organization or email was changed in the last 60 days. That change puts the domain under a mandatory 60-day transfer lock unless the registrar offered, and you took, an opt-out at the time. Check the date of the last contact change before updating anything else, and don’t “tidy up” the contact details right before a transfer.
• The domain is expired or expires within the next few weeks. Renew it at the current registrar first. A transfer takes days, and an expiry during it makes everything harder. Note that a domain renewed shortly after expiring may not get the usual extra year when it’s transferred.
• A previous agency or developer holds the registrar login. You need their cooperation to unlock the domain and release the code, or you need to prove to the registrar that you’re the registrant. Start that conversation now; it’s the slowest part.
• The visible company isn’t the underlying registrar. Builders and hosts often sell domains as resellers. The public record names the registrar; the unlock switch and the code may be in the reseller’s dashboard, or may need a support request to the reseller. For a domain bought inside Lovable, Bolt or Replit, the builder-domain guide says what each documents.
• Email is hosted at this domain. Your mailbox depends on DNS records that must survive the move. This doesn’t block the transfer, but it raises the cost of getting step 5 wrong.

Steps 1–5: Prepare

1. Identify the current registrar

Look the domain up at lookup.icann.org. Note the registrar, the nameservers and the expiry date. If the registrar’s name doesn’t match where you think the domain is managed, a reseller is involved.

2. Get access to the existing registrar account

Try to sign in. If you can’t, and the account is someone else’s, ask them to either move the domain to you within the registrar or to do the unlock and code steps below on your behalf.

3. Confirm you can read the registrant contact email

The registrar sends approval and confirmation emails to the domain’s contact address. Check what that address is, and that you can read it today. If it’s an old address or someone else’s, remember that changing it can trigger the 60-day lock; ask the registrar whether their opt-out is available before you change it, or have the current holder forward the emails instead.

4. Record the current expiry date

You’ll compare it afterwards. For most common domain endings a successful transfer adds a year.

5. Export or screenshot every DNS record

Open the DNS panel wherever the nameservers point, and export the zone if there’s an export button; otherwise screenshot every record with its type, name, value and TTL. This is the step that turns a broken site after transfer from a day of guesswork into ten minutes of typing. If the domain uses the current registrar’s own nameservers, also plan now for step 12, because those nameservers may stop answering once the domain leaves.

Steps 6–8: Unlock and get the code

6. Check eligibility and the transfer lock

In the domain’s settings, find the transfer lock, sometimes shown as “locked” or the status clientTransferProhibited. Confirm none of the blockers above apply. If the registrar shows a “transfer eligibility” or “can this domain be transferred” note, read it.

7. Unlock the domain

Turn the transfer lock off. This is a single switch at most registrars. The domain is now movable by anyone who has the code, so do the next steps promptly and re-lock afterwards.

8. Get the authorization code

The authorization code, also called the auth code, EPP code or transfer key, is a one-domain password that proves you’re allowed to move it. It’s usually shown or emailed from the same settings page as the lock. The current registrar is required to provide it within five calendar days of your request and can’t withhold it over a billing dispute. Treat it as a secret.

Steps 9–10: Start and approve

9. Start the transfer at the destination registrar

In your own account at the new registrar, choose “transfer a domain”, enter the domain and the code, and pay the transfer fee, which normally includes a year’s renewal. Two things to check on the way through:

• If the new registrar imports DNS records or offers to “scan” them, compare the result with your export line by line. No registrar guarantees to find every record.
• If the new registrar requires its own nameservers (Cloudflare does; most don’t), set up every record from your export there before the transfer completes. Cloudflare in particular requires the domain to be active on its DNS before it will accept the code.

10. Approve the emails and actions

The transfer request reaches the current registrar through the registry. The current registrar has five calendar days to approve or refuse; if it does nothing, the transfer goes through automatically at the end of that period. It will email the contact address, and many registrars include an “approve now” link or a button in the account that finishes the transfer within minutes instead of days. Use it. Don’t act on any email you weren’t expecting; the transfer needs only the code and, optionally, your approval at the old registrar.

Steps 11–14: Verify and lock down

11. Verify the domain after the transfer

The domain should appear in the new account with you as registrant and an expiry date about a year later than the one you recorded. Look it up again at lookup.icann.org and confirm the registrar has changed.

12. Check the nameservers and DNS didn’t change

Compare the nameservers with the ones you noted in step 1. They normally carry over unchanged. If they belong to a third party such as Cloudflare, DNS is untouched and you’re done with this step. If they were the old registrar’s and the old registrar has stopped serving the domain, or the new registrar switched them to its own, recreate every record from your export at the DNS provider now in use, then check the site and email as described in the DNS guide. Load the website with and without “www”. Send an email to an address at the domain and reply from it.

13. Re-enable the locks

Turn the transfer lock back on at the new registrar. If the domain had DNSSEC turned on before and you disabled it for the transfer, turn it back on only after DNS is verified.

14. Verify auto-renew, payment and recovery

The new account needs the same settings as any registrar account you own: auto-renew on with a working card, two-factor authentication on with the recovery codes saved, a recovery email or phone set, and domain privacy on. The registration guide lists them. Then close the old account or remove its payment method, once nothing else lives there.

Country-code domains have their own rules

Everything above describes the generic domain endings, such as .com, .net, .org and the newer ones, which follow ICANN’s Transfer Policy. Country-code domains are run by national registries with their own procedures, and they differ in the details:

• .uk domains currently move by the current registrar changing the domain’s “IPS tag” to the new registrar’s, rather than by an authorization code. Nominet, the .uk registry, is replacing that with a transfer authorization code that completes the move immediately; it has announced 9 February 2027 as the date.
• .au transfers use an authorization code (also called the domain password) much as above, take up to three days once approved, and carry no fee at the registry.
• .de transfers use an AuthInfo code that the current provider generates and that expires after 30 days.

Other endings have their own rules again, and waiting periods and fees vary. Before transferring a country-code domain, read the destination registrar’s instructions for that specific ending rather than assuming the steps here apply unchanged.

Checklist

The rules are changing

Sources

The rules and product behaviour described above were checked against these pages when the guide was last updated. If something here has changed, these are the places to look.

• Transfer Policy (current version, in force since 21 August 2025) · ICANN
• Transfer Policy FAQs for registrants · ICANN
• Board resolution adopting the Transfer Policy Review recommendations (7 June 2026) · ICANN
• Registrar advisory: transfers within the auto-renew grace period · ICANN
• ICANN Lookup · ICANN
• Transfer your domain to Cloudflare · Cloudflare
• How do I transfer a domain to Namecheap with minimal downtime? · Namecheap
• Transferring a domain to a Squarespace site · Squarespace
• .UK registry FAQ: transfer authorisation codes · Nominet
• Transfer your .au domain name · auDA
• Provider transfer · DENIC