Purpose of the guide
If you requested a domain name transfer when upgrading your website from a 30-day free trial, we asked you if you had access to the email inbox of the Admin contact on your domain. If you stated that you didn't have access to the current Admin email we asked for an email address that you did have access to and advised that you update the Admin email contact in the domain manager where your domain is hosted before it is transferred to Rocketspark.
This is a how-to guide to update/check the Admin contact on your domain to complete the transfer of your domain name to Rocketspark. You can also follow these steps to check what your Admin contact is set to. If you're transferring your domain we just require that it is set to an email address you have access to, otherwise, you won't be able to approve the transfer and it will get stuck in limbo... which can take a few days to realise!
About the Admin contact
The admin or administrative contact information is a set of contact details that each domain name is required to have. The Admin contact is used to get in contact with the domain owner when approval is needed for the domain, for example when transferring your domain to a different company the transfer need to be approved via an email to the admin contact. The admin contact information is usually editable with the company that currently renews your domain name. If you don't have a control panel to log in to manage your domain you will need to email or phone the current company that bills you for your domain name to make these changes.
For .au domains the approval and transfer keys are sent to the Registrant contact and not the Admin contact.
Where is my domain hosted?
Follow our guide here to learn where your domain is currently hosted.
How to change your admin contact details on your domain
The below instructions are generic for the process of updating your admin contact and may not match exactly your domain provider's website. Most providers provide their own help/support documentation for this process.
- To change your administrative contact you first need to log into your domain holder account where your domain is currently being hosted.
- There will be an area where you can manage all domains currently registered under the account.
- Select the domain you are wanting to change the administrative contact on.
Find the area called Contact Information, or similar. Here you will find there are potentially four different types of contacts.
Registrant Contact: Domain Owner. Changes can Lock your domain from transferring. (.au domains used for transfer approval). Warning, updating the Registrant contact can cause your domain to be locked for 60 days. This does not apply to .au domains which require the Registrant contact email to approve the transfer to Rocketspark and can be safely updated.
Admin Contact: Used when transferring domains between registrars. Receiving transfer keys and approving the transfer.
Technical and Billing Contacts: Not commonly used.
- Edit the Admin/Administrative contact and enter the new details you would like to update. The most important part is to make sure an email address is set that you have access to. If you have contact protection enabled we recommend you turn this off or check that the email address for emails is set to the one you have access to. (.au domains also need to update the Registrant contact).
- While you are logged in, if you are planning to transfer your domain please make sure you have any Privacy/Contact protection options turned off. Also, make sure your domain is unlocked if that is an option.
Once you have successfully updated your admin contact these changes can take a few hours to update globally, if you are in the process of transferring to Rocketspark we will check these details periodically and transfer the domain as soon as we can.
NOTE: To edit an admin contact for a domain that has already transferred to Rocketspark, please contact us. from the form on our contact page.