You created the redirect. You saved it. You visited the old domain, and nothing happened. Or something happened, just not the right thing.
Domain redirects involve a few systems at once: DNS, a certificate, the redirect rule itself and your browser. When one of them is off, the whole thing looks broken.
Work through these checks in order. Most problems are solved by the first four.
1. Is DNS pointing to the right place?
The redirect can only run if the domain’s DNS sends visitors to whatever handles it. Check the A records for the bare domain and the CNAME for www with a tool like our DNS lookup.
If they still show your old host’s values, the redirect service never sees the request.
2. Has the change had time to spread?
DNS changes aren’t always instant. Many providers update within minutes, but some take hours. Our DNS checker shows what resolvers around the world currently see.
If some locations show the new records and others don’t, wait a little longer.
3. Are there leftover records?
Old records are a quiet cause of trouble. If the domain has two A records, one new and one from the old host, visitors are sent to either one at random. That makes the redirect work “sometimes”.
Remove old A, AAAA and CNAME records for the same host. Our record conflicts guide shows what to look for.
4. Is the right DNS provider in charge?
Your domain might be registered in one place but use another provider’s nameservers. Records added in the wrong dashboard do nothing. Check which nameservers the domain uses, and edit DNS there.
5. Does HTTPS work on the old domain?
Test https://olddomain.com separately. If it shows a certificate error, the redirect never gets a chance to run. This is the classic problem with registrar forwarding over HTTPS.
With Redirect Supply, certificates are issued automatically once the domain is connected. If it’s still pending, see domain stuck on pending.
6. Does www work too?
Visitors type both olddomain.com and www.olddomain.com. Each needs its own DNS record. If one works and the other doesn’t, the missing record is usually the cause. See www vs non-www not redirecting.
7. Is your browser remembering an old redirect?
Browsers cache permanent redirects aggressively. If you changed a 301, your browser may still be following the old one.
Test in a private window, or with our redirect tester, which always sees the live result.
8. Is the right rule matching?
If the domain redirects but to the wrong page, look at your rules:
Exact paths win over wildcards, and wildcards win over the catch-all.
Matching can be exact. In Redirect Supply,
/Pricingand/pricingare different, and so are/pageand/page/.Query strings count. A rule for
/pagewon’t match/page?ref=xunless you plan for it.
Our redirect types cheatsheet lists how matching works.
9. Is the destination itself working?
Sometimes the redirect is fine and the destination is the problem. It might redirect again, require a login, or no longer exist. Follow the whole chain to the end. If the last hop isn’t 200 OK, fix the destination or point the rule somewhere else.
Problems that only appear later
Some redirects work on launch day and break weeks later. If yours stopped working after a while, check:
The domain’s renewal. An expired domain stops resolving, and its redirects stop with it.
Recent DNS changes. Someone may have added a record for a new tool, like an email or verification service, and overwritten one you needed.
The destination site. A redesign can remove the page your redirect points to, which turns a working redirect into a 404.
Certificate renewal. If your redirect relies on hosting you no longer manage, its certificate may have expired.
A monthly check of your most important old URLs catches all four early.
Still stuck?
Write down what you see for each of these:
the DNS records for the bare domain and
wwwthe result for
http://andhttps://the full chain from the redirect tester
That makes it much faster for anyone, including our support team, to spot the cause. Our redirects not working doc covers the most common cases in more detail.
