Moving a domain to another registrar changes who you pay and where you manage the registration. It doesn't have to touch your website or email at all, because those depend on DNS records, and DNS records live with whichever company your domain's nameservers point to. Email breaks during a transfer when those records sit with the old registrar and disappear once the domain leaves it, or when the new registrar switches the nameservers to an empty zone. So the one job before you start is to find out where your DNS lives and make sure a complete copy of the records will still be answering after the move.

Where do your DNS records live?

Look the domain up in ICANN Lookup or check the nameservers in your registrar's control panel. The nameserver names tell you the company:

Nameservers belong to What a transfer does to your records What to do
Your web host or a DNS service such as Cloudflare Nothing, as long as the nameservers stay the same Keep the existing nameservers when the new registrar asks
The old registrar The records may stop answering when the domain leaves Move DNS first (below), then transfer
Nobody you recognize Unknown Find out before you start; ask whoever set up the site

The middle row is where email goes missing. Hostinger's transfer guide warns that if you keep your existing nameservers, some providers won't let you manage the DNS records after the transfer, and that if you switch to its nameservers instead, services hosted elsewhere may stop working until you add their records. Both outcomes come from the same thing: a record set that isn't complete where the domain ends up.

Copy every record before anything moves

Open the DNS zone at the current DNS host and save a copy: an export file if it offers one, screenshots if it doesn't. Check that the copy includes these:

Record Name What it does What breaks without it
A (and AAAA, if present) @ Points the domain to the web server The website
CNAME or A www The www version of the site Links and bookmarks with www
MX @ Says which servers receive your email All incoming email
TXT @ SPF, plus verification codes for Google, Microsoft and other services Outgoing email reputation, service verification
CNAME or TXT selector._domainkey DKIM signatures for each service that sends mail as you Email authentication
TXT _dmarc Your DMARC policy DMARC checks and reports
CNAME / SRV autodiscover and others Mail app setup, Microsoft 365 services Outlook setup on new devices

The _domainkey and autodiscover lines are easy to miss because they don't sit on the domain itself. Scroll the whole zone.

If the old registrar hosts your DNS: move DNS first

Do it as two separate jobs, a few days apart:

  1. Create the zone at the new DNS host (the new registrar, your web host, or a DNS service) and enter every record from your copy.
  2. Compare the two zones line by line.
  3. Change the nameservers at the old registrar to the new DNS host.
  4. Wait at least a day, then test: the website loads, you can send and receive email from an outside address, and your mail app connects.
  5. Only now start the transfer, and choose "keep existing nameservers" when the new registrar asks.

Splitting it this way means the transfer itself changes nothing you can see. If something breaks in step 4, the old registrar still holds the domain and you can switch the nameservers back.

Before you request the transfer

  • Check the dates. ICANN's Transfer Policy lets a registrar refuse a transfer within 60 days of the domain's registration or its previous transfer, and requires a 60-day transfer lock after a change of registrant (the owner's name, organization or email) unless you opted out. If you're changing the owner details anyway, ask the registrar about the opt-out first. Hostinger also asks you to start at least 45 days after the last renewal, and with at least 7 days left before expiry.
  • Make sure you can receive the confirmation email. Transfer approvals go to the registrant contact. If that's info@ on the domain and email is fine, good. If it's a former employee's address, update it first, keeping the 60-day lock in mind.
  • Turn off the transfer lock at the old registrar. The lock shows up as clientTransferProhibited in a lookup.
  • Get the authorization code (also called auth code, EPP code or transfer code). ICANN's registrant FAQ says the registrar must give it to you within five calendar days of your request. Some registrars let you generate it yourself in the control panel.
  • Check DNSSEC. Hostinger requires it to be switched off before a transfer. If your current provider turned it on, ask the new registrar what it needs.

Country domains work differently. A .uk domain, for example, doesn't need an auth code; GoDaddy's help page says so, and the move is done by changing the domain's registrar tag at the old registrar. Follow the new registrar's instructions for your extension.

During and after the transfer

Start the transfer at the new registrar, pay, enter the code and confirm the email. Under ICANN's Transfer Policy, if the old registrar doesn't respond within five calendar days, the transfer is approved by default; approving it at the old registrar when it asks can be faster. Hostinger says a transfer to it can take up to 7 days.

When it completes:

  • confirm the domain shows the new registrar and the expiry date you expected;
  • confirm the nameservers are the ones you chose;
  • send and receive a test email, load the site with and without www;
  • switch on auto-renewal at the new registrar and check the contact email.

Keep the old registrar account open until everything has worked for a week, and cancel any separate DNS or email service there only after you've confirmed nothing still uses it.

Where Hostinger fits

If you're moving the domain to the same company that hosts your site, Hostinger lets you choose during the transfer between keeping your existing nameservers and switching to its own, and lets you keep your current records if you switch. Nameservers are locked while the transfer runs, so decide before you start. The record checklist above still applies: the transfer only goes smoothly when the zone at the destination is complete.

If you're moving the website as well as the domain, do the two separately; the hosting move guide covers the site.