When does WordPress release a domain when you chose not to renew the domain?

  • Unknown's avatar
    ireypaa · Member ·

    Hi All,

    I had purchased a domain with WordPress, however I did not renew the domain on Sept 21st 2016, as I want to release the domain so that another developer can purchase it and take over the site. Unfortunately the domain still seems to be registered to me, a Whois domain lookup for the domain reveals that it is still registered to me, but WordPress has told me that the domain has expired.

    I want to know how we can properly unregister/release the domain so that another developer may purchase it ?

    Thanks so much.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    I can’t tell if you actually cancelled the upgrade or not.

    Canceling upgrades
    You have to be logged in as Admin http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/#administrator under the exact same username account that registered the blog to access the blog’s dashboard, cancel any upgrades, claim a refund for any qualified upgrades, and disable auto-renew. Dashboard > Store > My Upgrades. You can also disable auto-renew there. http://en.support.wordpress.com/my-upgrades/#canceling-upgrades

    This thread is also tagged for a Staff follow up. Subscribe to this thread so you are notified when they respond and be patient while waiting. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    You can find a detailed description of the domain expiration process here:

    Domain Expiration

    Expired domains go through a process of about 90 days after they expire before they are potentially released. I say potentially, because the registrar has the right, during this period, to try and sell the domain at a private auction. Should someone buy the domain at auction it will not be released.

    There are also services where you can pre-order a particular domain, and those services then register the domain automatically the moment it is released. In that case you also won’t be able to register the domain again somewhere else.

    By letting the domain expire, you gave up ownership of it, so you currently have no say over what happens to that domain, and you run the very real risk of losing it permanently. If you still wanted to use the domain, you could have transferred it to another owner, or even to another domain registrar, instead of letting it expire.

    Your domain is now in the redemption phase of expiration with our registrar. We are usually still able to recover a domain during this phase, but the registrar charges a $80 fee to do this. If you agree to pay this fee I can try to get the domain back for you, and then I can help you transfer it once it’s restored and renewed.

    Otherwise you’ll need to wait until this process completes and hope someone else doesn’t buy it before you are able to.

    Let me know how you would like to proceed.

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