BlueHost Tips: How To Change Primary Domain

If you have a Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, or Dedicated Hosting account, Bluehost is happy to help you change the primary domain on your account. Please review the following information prior to starting the rename process.

Changing your primary domain is generally only necessary if you:

• Would like your users to log in to their accounts using a new primary domain name.
• Lose ownership of your old domain and would like to remove it from your account.
• Use Google App Engine, which authenticates via user accounts on the primary domain.
• Would like consistent branding in Drive shares and Calendar invites, which always show the user’s primary email address.

A Few Words of Caution

• Recent Purchase – A rename cannot be processed if you’ve processed any hosting transactions within the last two hours. Hosting transactions include your account’s original purchase, upgrading or downgrading your hosting plan or term length, renewing your hosting term, or canceling a hosting renewal.
• New Domains – Newly registered domains cannot be canceled after purchase. If you would like the primary domain released, it will only be replaced with the other domain you wish to use as a primary but will not be refunded. The said domain will still be under your ownership for a year, and you may use it whenever you wish to in that duration or let it expire for a single year.
• Weebly – Changing the primary domain name will break your ability to publish an existing Weebly site on the old and new primary domain. If you’re using Weebly to publish your website on either the current or new primary domain, we highly recommend that you do not change the primary domain name, or you’ll have to rebuild your website(s).

Make sure to have the current primary domain, the new primary domain, and the last four of your password ready.  Also, confirm that you have read and understood the following information:

• Downtime – The websites and email hosted on this account will be down while the system changes your primary domain, which can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour.
• Backups – Your usernames, passwords, files, databases, etc., will not be changed; however, we highly recommend that you download a complete backup of your website files and databases to your home computer as a fail-safe against possible file corruption.
• File Directories – The new primary domain will point to the public_html directory, the same way the current primary domain does now. It is your responsibility to move the website files for both domains to their new locations for the sites to function properly.
• Custom Configurations – Any subdomains, custom DNS settings, and email forwarders on the old and new primary domains will be deleted during this process, and it is your responsibility to set those up again when the change is complete.
• Weebly – Changing the primary domain on this account will permanently break the ability to publish an existing Weebly site on both the new and old primary domains. You will have to rebuild your website(s) from scratch.