How to check DNS records after moving hosting

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Moving a website to a new host usually means changing a few DNS records, the entries that tell the internet where your domain points. Most of the time the move goes smoothly, but it is easy to change the website record and forget the email records, or to check too early and think something has gone wrong. This guide explains which records matter, how long changes take to appear, how to check each one with the DNS lookup tool on Valtrinity and what to do when the results do not match.

Par Valtrinity. Mis à jour le 18 octobre 2026.

The records that matter after a move

Your domain has several kinds of DNS record, and a hosting move touches some but not all of them. The A record points your domain name to an IPv4 address, which is where the website is served. The AAAA record does the same for IPv6 addresses. A CNAME record points one name at another name, often used for the www address. NS records name the servers that hold the rest of the zone.

Email depends on MX records, which say where mail for your domain should be delivered, and on TXT records, which often hold sender checks used by other mail systems. These are easy to forget because they have nothing to do with the website, but a wrong MX record stops email arriving.

• A and AAAA: website addresses.
• CNAME: one name pointing at another, often www.
• MX and TXT: email delivery and sender checks.
• NS: the servers that answer for your domain.

How long changes take to spread

DNS answers are stored, or cached, by networks and devices so that they do not have to ask the authoritative server every time. Each record has a TTL, a time to live in seconds, which tells caches how long they may keep an answer. When you change a record, people who asked just before the change will see the old answer until their cache expires.

In practice most changes are visible within an hour, but the old answer can linger for up to 48 hours. This is why a check done five minutes after a change may show the old address, even though the change is correct and will spread.

• Most changes are visible within an hour.
• Some caches may hold the old answer for up to 48 hours.
• A lower TTL before the move makes the change spread faster.

Worked example: moving a website and its email

Suppose your domain points to an old host at 192.0.2.10 and the new host gives you 192.0.2.44. A day before the move, you lower the TTL on the A record to 300 seconds, which is five minutes. On moving day you update the A record to 192.0.2.44, and the www CNAME continues to point at the apex name.

Next you check the new address with the DNS lookup tool. The A record shows 192.0.2.44, which is the new address. You then check the MX records. If your email is hosted separately, the MX records should be unchanged, so mail continues to arrive. If you changed them, check that the mail provider has confirmed the new servers before you rely on them.

• Lower the TTL a day before the move.
• Update the A record on moving day.
• Check MX and TXT records even if you did not touch them.

Check each record in the DNS lookup tool

Open the DNS lookup tool on Valtrinity and enter your domain. Run a check for each record type you care about: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and NS. Write down what each returns. Compare the results with the settings your new host gave you.

If an AAAA record exists but the new host does not support IPv6, visitors who use IPv6 may still reach the old server or see an error. Remove the AAAA record if the new host does not provide one, unless you have a reason to keep it.

• Check A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and NS.
• Compare each result with the new host settings.
• Remove an AAAA record if the new host does not serve IPv6.

Check email after the move

Email problems often appear later than website problems, because mail is retried. Send a test message to an address you control, check that it arrives, and reply to it. Use the email DNS checker to confirm the mail records are in place, and look at the sending records as well as the delivery ones.

• Send a test message and reply to it.
• Use the email DNS checker for the mail records.
• Check again the next day.

When results do not match what you expect

If the lookup shows the old address, wait and check again after the TTL has passed. Do not keep changing records, because each change restarts the wait. If the new address shows but the site does not load, the problem is usually on the new host, such as a missing site configuration or an SSL certificate that has not been issued yet.

Keep the old hosting account running until the new site and email have been working for several days. Turning it off too early is one of the most common causes of a short outage.

• Wait for the TTL before judging the change.
• Avoid repeated edits, which restart the wait.
• Keep the old host running for several days.

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