We have taken over the support of a website. We have copied it and installed it on a different server and have moved the domain from 123-Reg to TSO. That has moved successfully. We have changed the DNS records on TSO so that it points to the correct version of the site. That too works fine. The old support company used Cloudflare on this site so we wanted to do the same. We set CF up as per the working DNS records on TSO. We were very disconcerted (to say the least!) when the old site suddenly started showing up! On looking at the dashboard page for the site, it says that the Domain registrar is still 123-Reg! Obviously we have reverted and switched CF off for now.
So the questions are:
How long is it going to take CF to register that the domain has been moved? Because presumably if it is looking in the wrong place it is always going to find the wrong/old site?
Is the fact the the old support company had a CF set up for this site (the old one with 123-Reg DNS settings) causing this in any way?
Thanks for any light anyone can shed on this. One thing we donât want to do is the switch CF on again and then see the old site popping upâŚ
Do you know where the old site was hosted and/or how the old company set the domain up?
The only think I can think was if it was a Cloudflare for SaaS setup with the provider/host. If that wasnât removed properly on leaving it could be causing this.
I think it was hosted on WP Engine. But we now have control of the domain and the website. So whatâs confusing us is why CF seems to think the domain is still held on 123-Reg, when it has been moved to TSO. Iâm not entirely sure what Cloudflare for SaaS is - but this is a WordPress site, so I canât imagine itâs anything too complicated!
May I suggest you my post here as the other customer have had the same issue with WPEngine and resolved it quickly with them.
Maybe itâs also related to your case:
In terms of a topic title, may I ask if you used below tool?:
For one domain, I also see some âoldâ data while using it. Therefore, the ture and updated one is on ICANN Whois / WHOIS DomainTools when checking:
The registrar should make no difference. Cloudflareâs data on this may be out of date but that will not be whatâs causing the issue.
They do use Cloudflare so most likely they did not clear out their Cloudflare setup properly when the website was moved away from them.
The easiest way to get this resolved is to contact WP Engine and ask them to remove any Cloudflare configurations for your domain, specifically SSL for SaaS / Custom Hostnames.
If they say they are unable to help you, please email [email protected] with the subject Cannot remove custom host name and details of the issue. Once youâve done that youâll receive an automatic response with a ticket number. Please post that here so we can escalate it. Once you have reached out to Support they will ask you to verify domain ownership of the domain by adding a txt record to the domain in order to verify domain ownership.
Thanks. I have asked the previous developer to remove their CF configuration and they say that they have done so and that nothing else is set up at WPEngine. Weâve just tried again and itâs still showing the old site once the CF nameservers kick in (although CF does now show the correct registrar for the domain, so thatâs encouraging!).
I did email support and got a ticket number: 2376521
To be honest, the site has already gone wrong once today - and is currently not running through the CF nameservers. I am reluctant to experiment by changing the name servers again because it might just break it again and will potentially take time to propagate to the correct one again!
Alright so that narrows it down but brings us back to it very likely being this not being removed properly.
Have you/they actually contacted WPEngine about this? Some providers do not clear the configuration properly if you just remove the site in their panel.
Iâll escalate your Cloudflare ticket as well but that will probably take a while.
Thank you - I will try to contact WPEngine, but as we were not the account holders for this site (it was another agency from whom we have taken over) I am not sure they will be helpful. The old agency claim to have done it - but they may just be being awkward!
No problem, let us know if you have any luck with them, otherwise Iâll leave my escalation in the queue here for Cloudflare to get back to you. Theyâll have to verify your control of the domain and then should be able to sort it out.
As I thought - you canât talk to WPEngine about anything other than sales unless you log in. And we arenât the account holders so we canât! The chat bot wasnât very helpful
So yes, please leave the escalation in the queue. I am away work from tomorrow and back next Wednesday - please donât close the ticket if I donât answer for three daysâŚ
As you mentioned, the site was receiving SSL for SaaS from WPEngine so there was a custom hostname for this domain and that is why it was still being redirected to the previous hosting provider.
We have removed the custom hostname and the issue should have been resolved.
Thank you. I have switched to the âorangeâ cloud and all seems to be well. I will keep my eye on it for a while but it looks to be sorted. Thanks to domjh for helping out with this!
instead of 
does it show the correct site?