Domain statuses and renewal reminders

Every domain sold through Storefront moves through the same set of stages, from registration to renewal or expiry.

Knowing what each status means and when reminder emails go out lets you answer customer questions about a domain's state without opening a ticket, and helps you explain what a customer should expect to see in their inbox as a renewal date approaches.

Domain statuses in Storefront

Storefront shows a simplified status on each domain rather than the raw OpenSRS status. The table below covers every status a domain can show and what triggers it.

Storefront status	What it means
Active	The domain is in good standing.
Renewing Soon	Auto-renew is on and the domain is within 60 to 30 days of its expiry date. Domains without auto-renew skip this status.
Expiring Soon	The domain is within 30 to 0 days of its expiry date. Every domain shows this status in that window, including auto-renew domains whose first renewal attempt already failed.
Expired	The domain has passed its expiry date and is in its grace period, 40 days for gTLDs.
In Redemption	The domain has completed its grace period and entered the redemption period, 30 days for gTLDs.
Suspended	Mirrors an OpenSRS status of Suspended.
Verifying	Mirrors an OpenSRS status of Verifying, admin_reviewing, or pending.

Registration itself runs from 1 to 10 years, aside from a small number of TLDs with different limits.

What happens after redemption

Once a domain finishes its redemption period, or finishes its grace period if no redemption period applies, Storefront hides it from the customer's domain list and from Storefront Manager. OpenSRS then deletes the domain, and it's removed from the Storefront database.

This is permanent: once a domain passes this point, the customer can't recover it through Storefront, and re-registering it later means treating it as a new purchase if it's still available.

How Storefront's auto-renew setting works

A customer's auto-renew setting lives in Storefront, not in OpenSRS. When a customer turns on auto-renew, Storefront's own scheduler runs the renewal attempts and sends the related reminders. The OpenSRS-level auto-renew flag on that domain stays off at all times.

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This is expected behavior, not a bug
If you check a domain directly in OpenSRS or the Reseller Control Panel, auto-renew will always show off, even for a domain where the customer has auto-renew turned on in their Storefront account. Storefront, not OpenSRS, is the source of truth for whether a domain will attempt to auto-renew.
If OpenSRS' auto-renew setting is on for a given domain, it will renew, but no attempt will be made by OpenSRS to collect renewal fees from your customer; only Storefront can do that.

Renewal and expiry reminder emails

Storefront emails customers automatically as a domain approaches its expiry date.

The schedule depends on whether auto-renew is on or off, and every email in both schedules comes from Storefront, not OpenSRS, so it carries your store's branding.

Auto-renew on

Day relative to expiry	What happens
37 days before	Renewal reminder email sent
31 days before	Renewal reminder email sent
30 days before	First auto-renew attempt. Email sent only if it fails
29 days before	Second auto-renew attempt. Email sent only if it fails
28 days before	Third auto-renew attempt. Email sent only if it fails
7 days before	Fourth auto-renew attempt. Email sent only if it fails
1 day before	Final auto-renew attempt. Email sent only if it fails
Expiry date	Domain expires
1 day after	Domain expired email sent

Storefront attempts renewal starting 30 days before expiry, and sends two renewal reminders first, at 37 and 31 days out, so customers with auto-renew on aren't caught off guard by a charge they'd forgotten about.

Auto-renew off

Day relative to expiry	What happens
30 days before	First expiry notice email
7 days before	Second expiry notice email
1 day before	Third expiry notice email
Expiry date	Domain expires
1 day after	Domain expired email sent

ICANN requires the expiry notices in this schedule.

Troubleshooting

A domain expires in 45 days but still shows Active. Is that wrong?

Not if auto-renew is off. Renewing Soon only appears when auto-renew is on, and only starts 60 days before expiry. A domain without auto-renew stays Active until 30 days before expiry, when it moves to Expiring Soon.

OpenSRS shows auto-renew as off for a domain the customer has set to auto-renew in Storefront. Is something broken?

No. Storefront manages auto-renew independently of OpenSRS, and the OpenSRS-level flag stays off for every Storefront domain. Check the customer's auto-renew setting in Storefront Manager rather than in the OpenSRS Reseller Control Panel.

A customer says they never received a reminder email.

Ask them to check spam or junk folders before assuming nothing was sent. If the domain has auto-renew off, they should have received emails at 30, 7, and 1 day before expiry.