Hello,

I have founder/admin privileges on a Forumotion forum - https://hobbitmovie.forumotion.com/ - which for the last nine years has used the custom domain http://www.hobbitmovieforum.com/

The currently active staff and members of the community decided they would like to switch to using a new custom domain - forumshire.com - and waited for the current domain to expire. It currently has nine days left in the recovery period. The hope was that, once it expired, the new domain could be purchased through the Admin Control Panel in the normal fashion. However, it's not clear how this can be done.

This is what the ACP is showing:



After a bit of searching on the Help forum, I believe this to be the same issue as in the recent thread This domain has expired and is pending renewal or deletion. That thread was resolved through manual intervention by Help forum staff.

In short, we would like to be able to purchase the domain name forumshire.com through Forumotion itself, but are unclear if it's possible to do so on our end while the old custom domain remains in the recovery period. Any advice on how to resolve this on our end aside from waiting for the recovery period to end - or if Forumotion staff can sever the connection between the site and its former custom domain - would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your time!

Hello,

Once the domain has completely expired, you should be able to just purchase the new domain through the ACP. Do note that it can take a few days after the expiration for the domain to leave our system completely. So it may be a few days before the admin panel allows you to purchase a new domain.

Once the domain has completely left our system, as long as you have an active 'Advanced' or 'Premium Package' and the necessary credits (1200) you should be able to just purchase a new domain name directly from your admin panel.

-Brandon

Hello,

Thank you for your prompt response. Is there any way to expedite this process so a new domain can be purchased sooner? I ask mainly because that seems to have been what happened in the case of the thread I linked to, but according to The Godfather it was solved by "the team" rather than something the site owner did through the admin panel.

Exactly has the domain name not expired already.  Does it not say 1 day in the AP?

SLGray wrote:Exactly has the domain name not expired already.  Does it not say 1 day in the AP?

My ACP says (as in the screencap above) "Your domain name has expired since 1 days." I took that to mean it expired one day ago. Visiting the old custom domain - http://www.hobbitmovieforum.com/ - takes me to a landing page which says "This domain has expired and is pending renewal or deletion."

Did you also see the message that Forumotion is offering a free domain name?

All I see is a message informing me that the old domain name can still be renewed. I have not pushed the big green "renewal" button because I do not want to renew the old one. The reason I made this thread is because the ACP is only showing me the renewal option, not an option to purchase a new domain.

This screencap is from the page: Misc > Credits management > Spend credits > Domain name

So you do not see that messages right above the green renewal button?

I see a message telling me:

www.hobbitmovieforum.com

Since your forum has a high activity, your domain name renewal is offered by Forumotion.

Note that this renewal must be launched manually by the forum founder and can only be done as part of a valid Advanced or Premium package.

Your original domain name is https://hobbitmovie.forumotion.com.

I acknowledge I could be missing something incredibly obvious here, but I'm not sure how this allows me to purchase a new domain name that is not www.hobbitmovieforum.com

What happens when you go here:  AP > Misc. > Credits Management > Spend Credits > Buy Domain Name?

Hello,


You cannot purchase new domain name and can only renew old one because it is still linked to your forum since you can renew it up to 10 days after expiration.

Once the ten days are over, the domain is automatically removed so you can buy another domain

Hello do you have a package on your forum ? EDIT : I see you have an package installed on your forum.
Do you have a new domain address you would like to use ?

APE wrote:Do you have a new domain address you would like to use ?

Yes, we would like to begin using the domain name www.forumshire.com

As you say, the forum has the advanced package installed as well as sufficient credits for a new domain. Our only uncertainty is whether there is any way to avoid having to wait for the recovery period on our old domain name to end before making the new purchase.

Thank you.

What I can do is ask our head office to remove the old address from your ACP and then you should have the access to add the address you want.

they may even add the address for you our end then after that you can do it your self the following years.

That would be wonderful, thank you!

UPDATE:
I have asked the head office to remove the address for you.
Some one will see this soon and I hope they will unlink your old address so you can get the new one soon.

Ticket made 06.16.2020 @ 22:48:27

Hello @Eldorion sorry for the delay on this matter.

I have news from our head office.

The head office have said they can do this for you but you must know that if we do this your new domain will not have the offer for a FREE domain you will have to pay for it. BUT if you use the old domain then we will still give you the offer for the Free domain name you already have.

So what we are saying do you want to use the old domain and have it for free for one year or do you want to pay for the new domain address ?

Regards

APE.

Hi @APE,

As I said before, I would like to purchase a new domain for the forum. I've understood from the beginning that I will have to pay for this--as noted upthread, I have the credits lined up for it as well as having the advanced package installed.

Thank you again for your time.

Thank you for getting back to me on this matter I will ask our head office to do this for you right away.

I hope this will be done tomorrow for you.

Best regards

APE.

Good news @Eldorion

We have now done the steps to give you your domain name your address is now >> http://www.forumshire.com/
The great news is we even gave this address to you for free as you sill meet our requirements.

If this is now solved for you then please press the mark solved button found at the top of this topic.

We thank you for using forumotion as your host and wish you all the best.

best regards.

APE and all of the Forumotion team

Thank you so much for all your help, @APE.

I do have one further question. I turned off the HTTPS option before submitting the new domain name request, but when I tried turning it back on we still had the same SSL certificate, which of course resulted in my browser reporting a security error since that certificate doesn't cover the new domain name. Is there any way to get a replacement SSL certificate before the current one expires (which it will in early August)? I'd rather not leave HTTPS turned off for the next seven weeks, but I don't want my members to have to click through ominously-worded error messages in order to visit the site during that time.

Not a problem I will ask our head office to remove the old HTTPS address and re add it to your new address for you.

I hope this will be done tomorrow

Much appreciated!

Eldorion wrote:Much appreciated!

It's not a problem i have made the report and i Hope it will be seen tomorrow some time and then i will get back to you here

have a great day

Good news your forum address is now all sorted ;)your forum has now got the address of HTTPS

Thanks so much! I'll go ahead and mark this as solved.