Troubleshooting Domain Provisioning Problems

WHMCS can automatically register/transfer domains, you can specify whether this happens after the client has paid the invoice, wait until manually approved by a member of staff or disabled entirely. This is set on a per-domain basis.

Navigate to Configuration > System Settings > Domain Pricing (Setup > Products/Services > Domain Pricing prior to WHMCS 8.0).

To have WHMCS automatically register a domain when the client pays the invoice, select your desired domain registrar from Auto Registration:

This is list populated with the active domain registrars in Configuration > System Settings > Domain Registrars (Setup > Products/Services > Domain Registrars prior to WHMCS 8.0).

Missing Admin Contact Address/Name Error

To resolve an error stating that admin contact details are missing, incomplete or invalid:

Navigate to the Domains tab in Configuration > System Settings > General Settings (Setup > General Settings > Domains prior to WHMCS 8.0).

Try the following solutions:

  • Check Use Client Details.
  • Uncheck Use Client Details and and ensure the subsequent contact details fields are completed:
    • First Name 
    • Last Name
    • Email Address
    • Address 1
    • City
    • State/Region
    • Postcode
    • Country
    • Phone Number

Click Save Changes.

Missing Registrant Contact Address/Name Error

To resolve an error stating that registrant contact details are missing, incomplete or invalid:

Navigate to Clients > View/Search Clients.

Click the client and then click Profile.

Ensure the customer's details are complete and valid:

  • First Name 
  • Last Name
  • Email Address
  • Address 1
  • City
  • State/Region
  • Postcode
  • Country
  • Phone Number

Click Save Changes.

Other Registrar Errors

Encountering a Registrar Error when attempting to register, transfer or renew a domain is an error returned from the module and not WHMCS. The error is being returned by your domain registrar.

Navigate to Configuration > System Logs (Utilities > Activity Log prior to WHMCS 8.0) at the time of ordering for any error messages which should explain what the problem is. An explanation of common error messages can be found at Domain Registrars.

Automatic Domain Registration Suppressed as Domain Is Already Active

The auto-register action taken by WHMCS upon invoice payment can be overwritten on a per-domain basis. To do this:

  1. Edit the domain record and change the Status from Pending to Active.
  2. Then click Save Changes.

This can also be done by accepting an pending order via Orders > Pending Orders.

This action tells WHMCS that the domain is already registered, so the system will not attempt to register the domain a second time upon invoice payment. It is useful when importing data.

Instead of registering the domain, a System Log entry is created:

Automatic Domain Registration Suppressed as Domain Is Already Active

To manually register the domain, bypassing this status validation:

  1. Navigate to the Domain record in question via Clients > Domain Registrations.
  2. Select your desired Registrar from the dropdown and click the  Register Module Command button.

The domain will now be registered at the selected registrar.

Automatic Domain Registration on Payment Suppressed for New Client

You can overwrite WHMCS's auto-register action for new clients using the Only Auto Provision for Existing setting. 

If you enable this setting, the system will not process domain registrations and will log the following message to the Activity Log:

Automatic Domain Registration on Payment Suppressed for New Client

After this occurs, you can review the order and register the domain.

To do this:

1. Go to Orders > Pending Orders.

Orders > Pending Orders

2. Click the order ID.

3. Select a registrar to use to register the domain.

4. Check Send to Registrar.

5. Click Accept Order.

WHMCS - Manage Orders

Retrying the Module Action

Once the cause of the error is resolved, follow these steps to retry the register, transfer or renew action:

1. Navigate to Utilities > Module Queue.

Navigate to Utilities > Module Queue

2. Identify the domain entry in question:

WHMCS - Module Queue

3. Click Retry.

Click Retry

The system will attempt the action again.

  • If a success message is displayed, no further action is required.
  • If an error is displayed, repeat the above steps to address the problem and retry the action again