A domain status code tells you what state the registry has your domain in right now. Most of the time you'll never see one. When you do, it's almost always one of three: clientHold (your site and email are offline, usually a billing problem), pendingDelete (the domain is in its final countdown to release), or redemption (expired and in a grace window before deletion). Each one has a different cause and a different fix, so check which one you actually have first.
Where to check your domain's status
Sign in to the portal, go to Domains, and click the domain. The Details section shows your registration dates, billing cycle, and payment method. You can also look up the raw WHOIS record yourself if you want the registry's own status codes. A domain can carry more than one status at once, for example a registrar lock alongside a normal ok status, so read the whole list before assuming something's wrong.
clientHold: the domain is suspended
clientHold means the registrar (us) has told the registry to stop resolving the domain, and on most hosting accounts the website and any email tied to it go dark while it's active. This is different from a registrar lock, which only blocks transfers.
The usual causes:
- Unpaid renewal or billing hold. Check Billing in the portal for anything unpaid or overdue, and confirm your card on file hasn't expired.
- Abuse or compliance hold. Less common, placed after a report or a WHOIS accuracy problem.
To resolve it: clear the billing issue first, that's what triggers it most often. If your invoices are current and the domain is still on hold, open a support ticket and ask directly what triggered it. Once the cause is cleared, we lift the hold and DNS resolution comes back since the records never changed.
redemption: expired and in the grace window
When a domain isn't renewed by its expiry date, it doesn't disappear immediately. It enters an expiry grace window. During this window the domain is suspended (DNS and email stop working, similar to clientHold), but it's still yours and still renewable.
To get it back: go to Domains, open the domain, and use Renew now. It's still far cheaper and faster than losing the domain and having to register it fresh.
Turn on Auto-renew on the domain card once you're through this so it doesn't happen again. If auto-renew was already on and the domain still expired, check that your card on file didn't decline, that's a common reason auto-renew fails silently.
pendingDelete: the final window
If a domain isn't renewed during the redemption period either, it moves to pendingDelete. During this window the domain is locked for deletion and cannot be renewed by anyone. At the end of it, the registry releases the name back to the public and it becomes available for anyone to register.
There's no self-service recovery from pendingDelete. If you're in this status and the domain matters to you, open a ticket and ask what options are left. In rare cases a registry allows an emergency renewal before deletion completes, but this isn't guaranteed and depends entirely on timing. The safest approach is to renew during the redemption window, not after it.
Other statuses you might see
A few more codes show up in WHOIS lookups and are worth knowing:
clientTransferProhibitedis the registrar lock toggle, and it blocks transfers only. See domain locks explained for the full breakdown.serverHoldlooks likeclientHoldbut is placed at the registry level rather than by us, usually for a legal or policy reason, and isn't something we can toggle from our side.pendingTransfershows up mid-transfer, either inbound or outbound. See transferring a domain away from Flashcloud for what that process looks like.
If you're setting up a domain for the first time and want to understand the records underneath all this, DNS record types explained covers what each record actually does once the domain is active again.
When to contact support
Open a ticket from Support → New ticket in the portal if: you're in clientHold and your billing is confirmed current, you're concerned about an approaching pendingDelete deadline, or you see serverHold and don't know why. These go to real people, not a bot.