INTEGRITY Cloudflare Docs

Cannot add domain

If you encounter issues adding a domain to Cloudflare, follow these troubleshooting steps.

Disable DNSSEC

Cloudflare cannot provide authoritative DNS resolution for a domain — a domain on a primary setup (full) — when DNSSEC is enabled at your domain registrar.

If you do not disable DNSSEC before changing your nameservers, you might experience the following issues:

If you experience these issues, refer to Configuring DNSSEC and Troubleshooting DNSSEC.


Register the domain

If the issue is with your registrar, you may receive the following error messages:

If you receive these error messages, make sure that:


Resolve DNS for apex domain

Before a domain can be added to Cloudflare, the domain must return NS records for valid, working nameservers. NS records can be checked via third-party online tools such as https://www.whatsmydns.net or via a command-line terminal using a dig command:

dig +short ns cloudflare.com

ns3.cloudflare.com.
ns4.cloudflare.com.
ns5.cloudflare.com.
ns6.cloudflare.com.
ns7.cloudflare.com.

Additionally, the domain must return a valid SOA record when queried. SOA records can be checked via third-party online tools such as https://www.whatsmydns.net or via a command-line terminal:

dig +short soa cloudflare.com

ns3.cloudflare.com. dns.cloudflare.com. 2029202248 10000 2400 604800 300

Check if the domain is restricted at Cloudflare

If Cloudflare has temporary or permanent restrictions on a domain, you will receive the following errors:


Contact the zone owner in case of zone hold error

Enterprise customers can use the zone hold feature to prevent domains to be added in any other account. If you get the following error when adding your domain, it means that a zone hold is active:

The zone name provided is subject to a hold which disallows the creation of this zone.
Please contact the owner of the Cloudflare account that manages this domain to have this hold removed.

In this case, you need to remove the zone hold if you own the Cloudflare account in which the zone is active, or contact the owner of the Cloudflare account that has the zone active.

If you are not the owner of the Cloudflare account that has the hold on the zone, using an online WHOIS tool might help you finding the owner of a website.

See this external WHOIS tool or this other external tool.

The owner might be your hosting provider, or a SaaS service provider.

You can also use the Cloudflare Forgot Email? page, and check the documentation related to the Forgot Email? feature.