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. Let customers know before this deadline if you want to give them a chance to act.
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.
This matters when you're troubleshooting: 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. That's expected behavior, not a sign that the setting failed to save. Storefront, not OpenSRS, is the source of truth for whether a domain will attempt to auto-renew.
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 |
Since Storefront domains are attempted to be renewed 30 days before the expiry of the domain, two renewal reminders sent at 37 and 31 days before expiry. Storefront sends them 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.
How this differs from Email Notifications
Domain renewal and expiry emails aren't controlled through the Email Notifications settings in Storefront Manager. They go to the customer automatically based on each domain's expiry date and can't be turned off store-wide. Email Notifications is a separate feature that alerts you and your team about store events like new orders and refunds. See Email Notifications for how that feature works.
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 OpenSRS or the Reseller Control Panel.
A customer says they never received a reminder email.
Confirm the email would have come from Storefront, not OpenSRS, since that's the sender the customer needs to look for. 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.
How long does a customer have to act after a domain expires before it's gone for good?
40 days in the Expired grace period plus 30 days in the In Redemption period for gTLDs, 70 days total from the expiry date. After that the domain is removed from the customer's list and deleted from OpenSRS and the Storefront database, and it can't be recovered.
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