Bring your records over

When the nameservers change, DNA answers for every name under your domain, so every record comes over first.

The order

1. Export your zone file from your current DNS host, and import it when you connect.
2. Check the review and connect. It lists every record DNA will serve, by what it does.
3. Turn DNSSEC off at your registrar if the review says it's on. The Setup tab shows your nameservers a day after it's gone.
4. Move anything that isn't a DNS record: email forwarding, URL redirects.
5. Change the nameservers, and keep your old DNS host's records for two days after.

Records people miss

These are the records people most often find missing after a move:

• Email: MX records, and the TXT records your email provider gave you (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
• Verification: TXT records from Google, Microsoft, Apple or any tool that verified the domain.
• Subdomains on other services: a helpdesk, status page, shop or newsletter at its own name, such as help or status.
• Subdomains handed to a provider: an email service can ask you to point a sending name, such as Klaviyo's send, at its own nameservers (NS records). Its email keys live there.

Export your zone file

A zone file is your DNS host's full list of records for the domain. It's the only complete list: DNS can't be listed from outside, so a name only your DNS host knows about can't be found any other way. Upload it in the first step of connecting, or later on the domain's DNS records tab.

Squarespace, Namecheap, Amazon Route 53, Wix, SiteGround, Porkbun, Hover, Vercel, IONOS, Netlify, Gandi, Google Cloud DNS, Azure DNS, OVHcloud, WordPress.com, Linode, DreamHost and NameSilo have no zone file download. Open their DNS page beside the review, and after you connect, add any record it lists that DNA's doesn't, under DNS records.

From a zone file DNA copies A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV and CAA records, and NS records that hand a subdomain to other nameservers. An ALIAS or ANAME record becomes a CNAME. Your old host's own nameserver, SOA and DNSSEC records aren't needed: DNA's replace them. The review lists any other record it can't copy; send that list to hello@d3.com before you switch and we'll add them.

What DNA checks without a zone file

DNA looks up your domain, www, your email records, common Microsoft 365 and mail-client records, and up to 40 subdomains named on your domain's current security certificates. It also finds a wildcard record (*) and subdomains handed to other nameservers, such as an email provider's sending name. The review names any record found this way that DNA can't hold as it's set up today, such as a text record on a name that also points elsewhere; send that list to hello@d3.com if you need them. If your domain publishes more than one SPF record, the review says so: inboxes ignore them all until you merge them into one, which you can do under DNS records after you connect. Without a zone file, Get my nameservers waits until you confirm you've compared your DNS host's record list with DNA's.

Until you change the nameservers, DNA keeps checking those subdomains and any wildcard against your current DNS host. If one answers there but not in DNA's copy, or a record from your file couldn't be copied, the Setup tab lists it and holds your nameservers until each is copied or unticked. Untick any you don't use and choose Copy the ticked names; DNA stops asking about the unticked ones, and DNS records lists them with Restore.

A subdomain that never had a certificate, such as a mail-only name or an internal tool, can't be found this way. The zone file is how those come over.

Which names DNA runs on

Copied records go through DNA for your domain and www. Every other subdomain is copied as DNS only, so mail, FTP and other services keep reaching their own servers; switch Proxied on for one under DNS records once you know it's a website. A subdomain that pointed at your domain (mail → @, as cPanel sets up) is copied pointing straight at your server, so mail doesn't land on DNA.

If your MX record names your domain itself, as cPanel sets up, mail is delivered to the same name as your site, and DNA leaves it DNS only so mail keeps arriving. To have DNA check your domain too, add an A record for mail.yourdomain.com with your mail server's address, point MX at it, then switch Proxied on for your domain under DNS records.

DNSSEC: off a day before the switch

Internet providers remember DNSSEC for up to a day after it's turned off. Connect first, then turn it off: DNA sees it go, and the Setup tab shows your nameservers a day later. If you turned it off before connecting, wait a day yourself before changing the nameservers. Once the domain is Connected, you can sign it again from Settings.

Things that aren't DNS records

These live in your registrar's or DNS host's control panel, not in your records, so move them before you switch:

After the switch

• Keep your old DNS host's records for two days. Some internet providers keep asking it that long.
• Make record changes in DNA from the moment you connect. A change made at the old host after that isn't copied, except a new subdomain the Setup tab finds for you.
• Check that your site loads and that a test email arrives.

Next

• Connect a domain
• Manage DNS records
• Troubleshooting