# what happens when a domain expires **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-a-domain-expires/724366 "2015-07-06T01:30:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AppleFanboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@AppleFanboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppleFanboy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-a-domain-expires/724366/1 "2015-07-06T01:30:22Z")
Let say example [youtube.com](http://youtube.com) domain expires, is it possible then for me to buy the domain? What happens then if nobody renews the domain? What happens to all the records of the accounts,ip address, email addresses etc… ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-a-domain-expires/724366/2 "2015-07-06T02:05:03Z")
If you rent xxx. com then _usually_ ( perhaps depending on the registrar firm ) there is a short period of grace for you to renew afterwards, perhaps a few weeks, perhaps a month. However ( although some major computing.internet corporations _have_ forgotten to pay for renewal [not helped by the fact one cannot pay in advance for more than 9 years generally] ), the domain could be automatically sniped by registrars, sometimes for a client who wants your name, or sometimes for themselves for future profit. If no-one renews or buys an unrenewed name it goes back in the pool, anyone could then rent it. The records of previous owners would be attached at ICANN or possibly the previous registrars who handled the name successively. ( If still in existence. ) There are not as many registrars as people think, due to mergers and takeovers. Although it is nothing like as bad as the stranglehold one firm has on Hosting Companies. Doesn’t matter who you choose half the time, they are all owned by the same people. \* - At least in America, but they may do the same everywhere else. Monopoly capitalism at play. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-a-domain-expires/724366/3 "2015-07-06T02:21:37Z")
IP addresses stay with the YouTube servers. Just the record that tells computers to find the YouTube website at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx changes. So you could hijack requests for [youtube.com](http://youtube.com) by taking over registration of the domain name [youtube.com](http://youtube.com), but you would not get access to the content that way. Same goes for email. If you suddenly owned [gmail.com](http://gmail.com) you would not have access to my existing email at [myemail@gmail.com](mailto:myemail@gmail.com). However if you set up a new mail exchange record (MX) for [gmail.com](http://gmail.com) and created an account [myemail@gmail.com](mailto:myemail@gmail.com), any new email sent to [myemail@gmail.com](mailto:myemail@gmail.com) would get sent to your server.\* All the records and databases and everything stays with YouTube. But their data collection would stop having any data to collect once people stop being able to get to them via [YouTube.com](http://YouTube.com). \*Only after the new IP addresses and MX records propagated across other nameservers. For a while, SMTP servers would probably connect to the old IP addresses for [gmail.com](http://gmail.com) and send mail to the old servers. That would be an epic mess. But eventually mail would start getting to your server. ---
**Author:** ![edwardcoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cab0a1/32.png) [@edwardcoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwardcoast)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-a-domain-expires/724366/4 "2015-07-06T03:32:36Z")
> [@AppleFanboy](#): > > Let say example [youtube.com](http://youtube.com) domain expires, is it possible then for me to buy the domain? What happens then if nobody renews the domain? What happens to all the records of the accounts,ip address, email addresses etc… I work in IT and I’m responsible for many domains. Sometimes we have decided to no longer use a domain, so this is what happens when we allow it to expire. It ends up being transferred to a company that sells domains, and people bid on the domains. Some domains have no value to anyone else, so they expire and no one uses them. The account records for the domain no longer exist, and it’s the property of the domain auction company. The IP address for that domain gets reassigned. Any e-mail sent to that old domain would normally get bounced back to the sender. You could bid on the domain and if you get the winning bid or there are no other bidders, you would get the domain. From there you could transfer it to another registrar or leave it with who they recommend or have an association with. I’d say there is almost no chance that you would get the same IP address for the domain once you own it, unless you went out of your way to have it hosted with the same web hosting service.