DNS stuck on 'Awaiting External DNS'

[oluwatomilola]

I recently purchased a domain name from qsservers so I could register that on Netlify. However, I’ve followed all the processes (including changing my Nameservers) and it’s still stuck on ‘Awaiting External DNS’.

• We need to know your netlify site name. sponsorpaudramaclub.netlify.app The custom domain is sponsorpaudramaclub.com.ng

I’ve tried going through support articles and re-doing the whole process but when I try to access the site (through my purchased domain), I get this: DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

[dig]

@oluwatomilola

‘Awaiting External DNS’.

This means you have tried configuring the domains using Configure external DNS for a custom domain | Netlify Docs (note the image at the top of the documentation that shows the exact message you are seeing) however you have changed the nameservers for the domain as per Delegate your domain to Netlify | Netlify Docs.

You need to follow either one method or the other.

If using external DNS you keep your original (likely registrar) nameservers and configure the A/AAA and CNAME records per the first documentation.

If delegating to Netlify you need to change the nameservers and then manage all DNS records in Netlify dashboard.

[oluwatomilola]

I’m not sure I understand. I purchased the domain name and changed the nameservers from the default ones to netlify’s (i.e. delegated the domain to netlify). I haven’t followed any of the steps in the first link (Configure external DNS for a custom domain | Netlify Docs).

As an update, ‘www.sponsorpaudramaclub.com.ng’ is now showing ‘Netlify DNS’, but ‘sponsorpaudramaclub.com.ng’ is still ‘Awaiting External DNS’

[sid.m]

I see now that both sponsorpaudramaclub.com.ng and www.sponsorpaudramaclub.com.ng are working correctly, this was likely due to propagation. Let us know if you’re still seeing issues!

[webdevsumit]

Suddenly, I got the same issue and the site is down. What should I do?

[hrishikesh]

This appears to be resolved.

[lccua]

I got the same problem as you. I also tried re-doing the DNS but nothing worked. And I don’t think it is my fault because I have a different domain name that does work with a different site on the same account.

My netlify website is: luca-cassier-dev.netlify.app

My custom domain is: lucacassier.be

[expired]

@lccua

My custom domain is: lucacassier.be

A whois lookup provide a clue to the next step @lccua

~$ whois lucacassier.be

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

# Omitted for brevity

Domain:	lucacassier.be

Nameservers:
    We only activate this domain name once the contact details
    of the domain name holder have been validated. For more
    information, contact verification@dnsbelgium.be.

You need to verify your contact details as per the instructions.

[lccua]

Hello, thank you for the answer. I entered my old address in contact info when making an account on godaddy. Do you think this is the reason my domain doesn’t want to resolve?

[expired]

@lccua

Do you think this is the reason my domain doesn’t want to resolve?

The reason the domain won’t resolve is there are no active name servers. The domain will remain inactive until your contact details are verified as per the message above. Only the domain registrar can assist you at this time.

[lccua]

okay I will talk to godaddy their helpdesk

[ninjacoder2221]

My landing page went down out of nowhere, and i got the same thing saying “Awaiting External DNS”

I checked my cloudflare account where I host my domain and it all checks out.

What could be the issue here?

[luke]

Hi, @ninjacoder2221. No one can answer this question until you tell us the actual domain which is happening for. What domain are you asking about?

[Charliea]

Hi @Luke I am also stuck on the Awaiting Netlify DNS for my primary domain anthias.xyz. Can you see what might be the issue here?

[SamO]

@Charliea

anthias.xyz.

Hi, thanks for reaching out! Your nameservers do not point to Netlify. I see the following:

> anthias.xyz.		3600	IN	NS	dns3.p03.nsone.net.
> anthias.xyz.		3600	IN	NS	dns4.p03.nsone.net.
> anthias.xyz.		3600	IN	NS	dns1.p03.nsone.net.
> anthias.xyz.		3600	IN	NS	dns2.p03.nsone.net.

Netlify namerservers are as follows:

Once this is done propagation will take place and this can take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours!

[Charliea]

Thanks for flagging this @SamO ! Do they seem to be set up correctly now?

[sid.m]

It doesn’t look like the change has propagated yet, it may take a couple hours to do so. However, I’ve refreshed the DNS records on our end, which seems to have resolved the issue.

[marhf]

I have the very same issue persisting on my end. My Domain Registrar is GoDaddy, my DNS Management is with Cloudflare. I have deployed the website and configured the domain “www.mehersyeda.com” and added Netlify’s Nameservers to GoDaddys’s Nameserver Panel, but still it shows awaiting Netlify DNS for “mehersyeda.com”. It shows ‘Netlify DNS’ for “www.mehersyeda.com” though. It did show for both once.

[sid.m]

@marhf The issue is you have an inactive DNS zone. Cloudflare nameservers are responding rather than Netlify nameservers:

$ dig mehersyeda.com NS +trace | tail -n 6 

;; Received 805 bytes from 192.33.14.30#53(b.gtld-servers.net) in 24 ms

mehersyeda.com.		86400	IN	NS	chan.ns.cloudflare.com.
mehersyeda.com.		86400	IN	NS	drew.ns.cloudflare.com.
;; Received 95 bytes from 173.245.58.82#53(chan.ns.cloudflare.com) in 33 ms

You can take a look at our support guide on resolving inactive DNS zones here:

[Support Guide] How to detect and fix inactive Netlify DNS zones

Last reviewed by Netlify Support - November, 2024 What is an “inactive Netlify DNS zone”? First, it would help to define the term “DNS zone”. Quoting wikipedia, it says: A DNS zone is any distinct, contiguous portion of the domain name space in the Domain Name System (DNS) for which administrative responsibility has been delegated to a single manager. To paraphrase, a DNS zone is a collection of all the DNS records for a production domain. When you add production domains to Netlify DNS we…

[marhf]

Hello @sid.m - Thanks for the swift reply.

I tried deleting the Domain from Netlify and added them again which showed something like Your Domain already points to Netlify then it showed this:

The refreshing the page after a minute showed this:

Then again refreshing gave me this:

Then this:

Please assist, I am really confused. As I need to launch this website and without an SSL, this isn’t possible. I have opted for Netlify a lot in the past and Let’s Encrypt SSL Provisioning was never a problem.

Regards,
Hassan