Storefront runs two separate renewal systems. Domains renew on a fixed schedule tied to the expiry date, and product subscriptions renew on the billing period you set when you created the product. They fail in different ways and recover in different ways, so work out which one you are looking at first.
Most reported renewal failures are one of three things: auto-renew was never on, the customer has no usable payment method, or nothing failed at all and the status is being misread.
Step 1: Check the setting in the right place
For a domain, check auto-renew in Storefront Manager, on the customer's domain. Do not check it in OpenSRS or the Reseller Control Panel.
The OpenSRS-level auto-renew flag stays off for every Storefront domain, including domains where the customer has auto-renew turned on. Storefront runs its own renewal scheduler, and it is the source of truth. A domain showing auto-renew off in the Reseller Control Panel is expected, not evidence of a problem.
For a subscription, auto-renew is the renewal setting on the subscription itself, under Products in Storefront Manager. A customer who cancelled from Your Subscriptions in their account turned auto-renew off, which is a cancellation rather than a failure.
Step 2: Check the payment method
A domain only auto-renews if the customer has a payment method on file. Without one there is nothing to charge, and the customer may hear nothing about it.
Confirm the customer has a card saved on their account before investigating further. This is the single most common cause of a renewal that appears to have been skipped.
Step 3: Read the status correctly
Domain statuses
| Status | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Active | In good standing. A domain with auto-renew off stays Active until 30 days before expiry |
| Renewing Soon | Auto-renew is on and expiry is 60 to 30 days away. Domains without auto-renew never show this |
| Expiring Soon | Expiry is 30 days or less away. Every domain shows this, including auto-renew domains whose first renewal attempt already failed |
| Expired | Past the expiry date and in its grace period, 40 days for gTLDs |
| In Redemption | Grace period finished, now in the redemption period, 30 days for gTLDs |
Expiring Soon on a domain with auto-renew on is worth acting on. Every domain reaches that status in the last 30 days, but an auto-renew domain should have renewed at 30 days out, so seeing it there means the first attempt already failed.
Subscription statuses
| Status | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Active | Billing normally |
| Payment Failed | A renewal payment did not go through. Storefront is retrying automatically |
| Suspended | Retries were exhausted, auto-renew was off at the period end, or you suspended it. Still reactivatable |
| Expired | Terminated in the backend. Cannot be reactivated |
Your customer sees something different. Both Suspended and Expired show as "Expired" in their account, so a customer reporting an expired subscription may well have a recoverable one. Check the real status in Storefront Manager before telling them it is gone.
Step 4: Check where you are in the schedule
With auto-renew on, Storefront attempts a domain renewal five times: at 30, 29, 28, 7 and 1 days before expiry. The customer is emailed only when an attempt fails, after two reminders at 37 and 31 days out.
A renewal that has not run yet is not a failed renewal. If expiry is more than 30 days away and auto-renew is on, no attempt has been made.
Step 5: Confirm what actually happened in the event log
The event log settles whether a renewal ran.
For a domain, open the domain's event log and look for an Order event reading "Domain auto-renewed". The By field shows System with no IP address. If it is not there, filter the global event log by System to see whether the scheduler ran at all.
For a subscription, open the subscription's event log, or the customer's event log filtered by Order, and look for "Subscription renewed". If it is missing, check whether the subscription shows Payment Failed, because the renewal may still be retrying.
Recovering from a failed renewal
An expired domain
During the grace period, 40 days for gTLDs, the domain can be renewed at the regular rate. This is the window to act in.
Once the domain moves to In Redemption it has left that window, and recovery is no longer something you can do through Storefront. Contact OpenSRS Support while the domain is still in redemption, because after the redemption period ends OpenSRS deletes the domain and Storefront removes it from the database. That point is final. The customer cannot recover the name through Storefront, and re-registering it later is a new purchase if it is still available.
A suspended subscription
Open the subscription's details page in Storefront Manager and click Reactivate Subscription.
What happens next depends on timing. Within the current billing period, the subscription returns to Active with no charge. Past it, Storefront charges the card on file: if the charge succeeds the subscription becomes Active, and if it fails the subscription stays Suspended.
Customers can reactivate a lapsed subscription themselves within 7 days, which retries their payment method. Past that window only you can do it, from Storefront Manager.
Things that look wrong but are not
A domain expiring in 45 days still shows Active. Correct if auto-renew is off. Renewing Soon only appears for auto-renew domains, and only from 60 days out. Without auto-renew the domain stays Active until 30 days before expiry.
A subscription shows Payment Failed. Nothing is required from you. Storefront retries the payment method automatically. Point the customer at their billing page if their card needs updating, and step in only if the status persists and the retries are exhausted.
A customer got an email saying their subscription is ending. They received the expiry version of the reminder, which means auto-renew is off. They can resume from Your Subscriptions before the period ends, or you can click Enable Renewal on the subscription in Storefront Manager.
A customer received no subscription renewal reminder. Reminders only go out on the dates selected for that billing option under Settings → Product Catalog, and Storefront sends none for Suspended or Expired subscriptions.
A subscription on an archived product will not renew. Archiving removes a product from your store and existing subscriptions run to expiry without renewing. A product cannot be un-archived.
Subscribers on a deleted billing option stopped renewing. When a billing option is permanently deleted you choose whether to migrate subscribers to another option or leave them unmigrated. Unmigrated subscriptions run to the end of the current term and do not renew.
A refunded domain stopped auto-renewing. Expected. A refund turns auto-renew off, and the domain expires at its natural renewal date.
The renewal charged a different amount than the customer expected. Product price changes apply to renewals going forward, and a customer who changed their currency preference is billed in the new currency from their next renewal. A first-year promotional or coupon price never carries into the renewal, which is why the standard renewal price is shown at checkout.
When to contact OpenSRS Support
Contact OpenSRS Support when:
- A domain is In Redemption and the customer wants it back.
- The event log shows a renewal ran, the customer was charged, and the domain's expiry date did not move.
- Auto-renew is on, a payment method is on file, and no renewal attempt appears in the event log at all.
Include the domain name or subscription ID and the expiry or renewal date.
Related articles
- Domain statuses and renewal reminders
- Managing customer subscriptions
- Emails sent to your customers
- Using the event log
- Issuing refunds
Full Storefront documentation
These troubleshooting articles cover what to do when something breaks. Setup guides, feature documentation and the Storefront API reference all live on the Storefront documentation portal.