Question

Domain name already exists?

My client previously had hosting in DigitalOcean and pointing to registered domain name.

And now we facing an issue is that our new hosting server want to point back the previous domain name but it still holding by the previous hosting server which the developer already missing in action😅, so we got no way to unbind it.

And I had create a ticket about this, then the customer support told me switch it to your registrar’s nameservers, and then create the following TXT record.

But how should I do that if I can’t even point to the domain name?

Any steps can provide? I am new to DigitalOcean.

Thanks.

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alexdo
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March 29, 2020
Accepted Answer

Hello, @tkjayaojs

May I ask if you have access to the domain name, I mean if it’s controlled by you, e.g you’re the one that registered or have access to the domain name’s renewal and etc?

If you have access to the domain than you can update the domain name’s nameservers from the registrar’s control panel (the company you pay for the domain name’s renewals, e.g Namecheap, GoDaddy, HostGator and so on).

You can login to their control panel and then simply change the nameservers to theirs and then once the DNS propagation is done (keep in mind that this might take up to 48 hours due to ISP cache, it usually happens a lot faster) the DNS zone will be controlled from their end.

Once you’ve switched the nameservers you can add DNS records including TXT records from the third party control panel. The TXT record will still need few hours in order to fully propagate, but once this is done you should be good to go or check again with the support team if they’ve mentioned if something else will bee needed.

Hope this helps!

Regards, Alex

Add your domain - to Cloudflare, and Cloudflare will generate new nameservers, now add these nameservers in your Domain registrar.

After 5 - 15 minute check Dns propogation, which nameserver your domain pointing to.

Then, revert back with digitalocean nameservers.

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alexdo
Site Moderator
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March 8, 2022

Hello there,

The system performs a DNS lookup to see if the domain has already been added to DigitalOcean. If it has, you’ll receive a message that says Data domain example.com: Name already exists. If the domain has not been previously added to DigitalOcean’s DNS service, it will be added.

In our public community, we aim to answer open questions about anything SysAdmin, DigitalOcean and beyond. However, we make every attempt to keep personal information safe and so don’t ever access personal account information here. This means we can’t provide help with any account or billing-related issues.

Please reach out to our amazing support team who will be more than happy to assist you with your account issue!

https://www.digitalocean.com/support/

Hope that helps