Why You Should Auto-Import DNS Records
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Auto-import copies your domain’s existing DNS records into DNSimple DNS hosting for you. It lowers the risk of downtime and saves time when you move a domain or its DNS to DNSimple.
Instead of recreating every record by hand, which is slow and easy to get wrong, you let DNSimple look up your existing records and import them.
Key benefits of auto-importing
- Reduces downtime: The most important benefit is avoiding downtime. When the records are already in DNSimple before you switch name servers, your website and email keep working during the move.
- Saves time: Recreating a zone with dozens of records by hand takes a long time. Auto-import finds the common records in one step.
- Increases accuracy: Manual entry is a common source of errors, like typos in IP addresses, hostnames, or text strings. Auto-import copies the values exactly as your current DNS provider serves them.
- Simplifies complex records: Auto-importing is particularly useful for complex or long records, like TXT records for DKIM, DMARC, or SPF, which can be difficult to copy and paste without error.
How it works
Auto-import is available on all DNSimple plans. When you transfer a domain to DNSimple, the transfer pages offer to auto-import DNS records for you. Auto-import looks up A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, and TXT records for the domain itself and for the www, blog, and email subdomains. You can add other subdomains to the search. You can also start auto-import at any time with in the record editor.
Auto-import does not import every record type, so check the zone for anything it could not find, such as SRV or CAA records, and add those yourself.
Before anything changes, you see a preview of every record that will be imported. If a name already has exactly one record of the same type with a different value, the imported value replaces it, and the preview shows with the old value. Otherwise, imported records are added alongside your existing ones. Auto-import never deletes records.
As an alternative to auto-importing, you can manually import records from a zone file or export your records to a zone file for backup purposes.
Have more questions?
If you have additional questions or need any assistance with your DNS records, just contact support, and we will be happy to help.