Transferring an Existing Domain to Bytemark

Domains are sold and managed by ‘registrars’ (eg, Gandi, GoDaddy, Namecheap). If you’ve bought a domain with one provider, you might one day decide to transfer it to another. There are two different processes for transferring your domain, depending on whether your domain ends in ‘.uk‘ or not. Please follow the relevant section below

Domains that end with .uk

Each registrar has a ‘Tag’. Bytemark uses the tag TUCOWS-CA. To transfer your domain to Bytemark:

1. Contact your existing registrar, and change the ‘Tag’ for your domain to TUCOWS-CA
2. Within 24 hours, your domain should transfer to Bytemark (you can check the status of the transfer using any ‘whois’ service such as Nominet WHOIS — look for the ‘Registrar’ field).
3. When you can see the Tag has changed, please let us know so we can update our systems so you can manage the domain through the Bytemark Panel.

There is no charge for transferring .uk domains to Bytemark as your domain registration period is not automatically extended (unless the domain is within 7 days of expiry).

Domains not ending with .uk

This process usually requires verification of the transfer by email, by providing a ‘Domain Auth Code‘ (sometimes known as an ‘EPP‘ key), as per these instructions:

1. Contact your existing domain registrar, and ensure the domain is unlocked.
2. Check the ‘Organisation‘ and ‘Admin‘ contact details are both correct, and that you can receive email to the registered email address(es).
3. Request the ‘Domain Auth Code‘ or ‘EPP Code‘ from your current registrar. This is your proof of domain ownership, and you will need this later.
4. Contact us to let us know that you want to transfer a domain to us, so we can initiate the transfer (there is no need to send us your Domain Auth Code).
5. Once we have initiated the transfer, you should receive an email to the ‘Organisation‘ and/or ‘Admin‘ email addresses asking you to confirm the transfer. Be sure to check any spam folders for the mail.
6. Read the email carefully! You will likely be sent to a web form, asking you to confirm the transfer by entering your Domain Auth Code.
7. Ensure that the ‘Business Name‘ listed on the page is ‘Bytemark Hosting‘ and the other information looks correct.
8. Once the form has been completed, there will be a few more emails confirming the change of registrar, and the domain will transfer from the old registrar to Bytemark.
9. To check the status of the transfer, you can use any WHOIS service such as https://who.is — look for the ‘Registrar’ field — but if you’re unsure as the the state of the transfer you can contact Bytemark support.
10. Within 24 hours of the transfer taking place, the domain should appear in the Bytemark Panel under the ‘Domains’ tab.

Please note: Transferring (non-.uk) domains to Bytemark automatically extends the registration period by 1 year. How much this will cost depends on which top-level domain (TLD) you are transferring. Please see our pricing page for more information.

Important things to note for all domains

• DNS ‘Hosting’ (where any DNS records are served from) is separate from the selection of registrar, and they don’t need to be the same company. There’s nothing at all stopping you from having your DNS hosted by Bytemark, while the domain is with a different registrar, or vice versa.
• When moving a domain to Bytemark, it will not change the authoritative DNS servers being used by that domain, but you may want to ensure the losing registrar will not remove your DNS hosting before you transfer the domain away.
• In order to transfer a domain, it has to be ‘live’, so domains which have expired cannot be transferred to another registrar, and they will need to be renewed or returned to normal status first.