Websites · How it works

How long does DNS propagation take?

DNS changes usually take effect within minutes to a few hours, and occasionally up to 48 hours. The delay comes from caching: resolvers keep old answers for the time-to-live set on each record, and your provider may take a while to publish the change. Most problems blamed on propagation are typing mistakes in the record.

Propagation is the word people use for the wait between saving a DNS change and seeing it everywhere. Knowing why the wait happens tells you whether to keep waiting or go and fix something.

· Co-founder

3 min read · Published

  1. 1

    Check the record was saved

    Open your provider DNS page and confirm the record type, name and value exactly match what you were given.

  2. 2

    Check the name field

    Many providers add your domain automatically; a name typed as www.example.com becomes www.example.com.example.com.

  3. 3

    Look it up publicly

    Use a public DNS lookup tool to see what resolvers return for the name and record type.

  4. 4

    Wait out the old TTL

    If the old record had a long TTL, some resolvers keep it until it expires; a few hours is typical.

  5. 5

    Test from another network

    Open the site on a phone using mobile data, which avoids your own computer and router caches.

Why there is a wait

When a browser looks up a name, a resolver answers and remembers the answer for the record TTL, often an hour and sometimes a day. Until that time passes, the resolver keeps giving the old answer. Your DNS provider may also take minutes to publish the change to its own servers.

What usually goes wrong

A typo in the target, the domain added twice to the name, a new record added while the old one for the same name is still there, or the change made at the wrong provider because the domain uses nameservers somewhere else. Each looks like slow propagation and none fixes itself.

Plan changes ahead

If you know a move is coming, lower the TTL of the records you will change a day before, for example to five minutes. Old answers then expire quickly when you switch. Raise the TTL again once everything works, which reduces lookup traffic.

What propagation does not affect

Email keeps working if you leave MX records alone. A site on its free platform address keeps working throughout. Only the name you changed is in flux, so keep sharing the old address until the new one answers everywhere.

Where it shows up in OneCraft

After you add the TXT and CNAME records for a custom domain and press Verify, OneCraft checks for the TXT record, and checks again every ten minutes on its own. While the record is not visible yet, the status reads TXT record not found yet, and pending domains are retried for 48 hours. The free onecraft.live address works the whole time.

Questions people ask

Why does the site work on my phone but not my laptop?

Your laptop, browser or router may still have the old answer cached. Phones on mobile data use different resolvers that may already have the new record. Clearing the browser cache, restarting the router or simply waiting a little longer usually brings the laptop in line.

Can I speed up DNS propagation?

You cannot force other resolvers to drop cached answers, but you can avoid the wait next time by lowering the TTL a day before a change. For a change already made, double check the record for mistakes, since an error looks exactly like slow propagation.

Does changing nameservers take longer?

Often yes. Moving a domain to new nameservers changes records held by the registry, and those carry longer caching times, commonly up to a day or two. Changing a single record at your existing provider is usually much quicker than switching providers.

How do I know it has propagated?

Use a public DNS lookup tool that checks from several locations, and look for your new value for the right record type and name. When most locations show the new value, nearly all visitors reach the new site. Your builder verification will also turn green.

Will my site be down during propagation?

Usually not. During the change, some visitors reach the old host and others the new one, so both should be working. If the old host is already switched off, those visitors see an error until their cache expires, which is why you keep the old site live briefly.

Make one with websites

The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own.

Create a website with OneCraft

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Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .