Assigning an existing (DNS managed) domain to a new site within same Wix account

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I just want to confirm a scenario with a domain name that I can’t find documentation for on the Wix website or help files. Wix experts in chat have seemed a little confused and my client is very nervous about going live on Friday.

  • Client has a domain name registered elsewhere, not through Wix. They are NOT interested in transferring the domain name to Wix due to many emails and DNS settings that would cause company wide issues during a transfer.

  • That domain name is currently assigned to a live Wix site. In the Wix admin it says “managed by a third party” and “connected by DNS”. I can see the DNS records and they point to Wix.

The image shows an interface displaying two name server (NS) records for a domain named "xidn.com", both pointing to the value "ns2.vixdns.net" with a Time To Live (TTL) of 1 day. (Captioned by AI)
The image shows an interface displaying two name server (NS) records for a domain named "xidn.com", both pointing to the value "ns2.vixdns.net" with a Time To Live (TTL) of 1 day. (Captioned by AI)1006×303 57 KB

  • I’ve designed a brand new Wix Studio site for them in the same Wix account. It currently has the temporary wix-based url and does not have its own domain assigned. The current/existing site will be deleted/archived after the domain is assigned to the new site.

The image features a screenshot of a digital platform interface showing two website management sections titled "New site that will replace existing site" and "Existing, live site," with notes indicating a need for transferring domains. (Captioned by AI)
The image features a screenshot of a digital platform interface showing two website management sections titled "New site that will replace existing site" and "Existing, live site," with notes indicating a need for transferring domains. (Captioned by AI)528×454 77.3 KB

  • Again, the existing domain name is managed externally by a domain registrar. The DNS is pointed to Wix and configured w/ multiple important CNAME & ARecord entries. Multiple company emails are also set up and managed via the registrar, so transferring the domain name to Wix is not an option at this time.

This image shows the Domains management interface in a web service, where a ".com" domain with four "teammates" is managed by third-party services, currently connected by DNS, and the option to assign it to a different site is visible. (Captioned by AI)
This image shows the Domains management interface in a web service, where a ".com" domain with four "teammates" is managed by third-party services, currently connected by DNS, and the option to assign it to a different site is visible. (Captioned by AI)1006×598 82.7 KB

  • I first chatted with Wix on a support call and was told that the “Assign to a different site” option in the above screenshot would not work for a domain managed by a third party, and that we would need to change the DNS records.

  • This resulted in a very confusing call with the client’s domain registrar wherein they thought they needed to unlock the domain and initiate a transfer. They could not understand what I was explaining about Wix and how Wix has things set up. After multiple calls with them, I went back to Wix in search of what specific new/different DNS information I needed for the new site.

  • Back on with a Wix expert, everyone was confused again. They once again sent me information that doesn’t apply to our situation (such as transferring the domain to Wix),
    and telling me the “Assign to new site” option wouldn’t work. When I pressed for what new/different DNS records I would need to give the domain registrar, the Wix expert backtracked (after putting me on hold for some time) and then said, never mind, since the domain is already pointed to Wix, the “Assign to a different site” option WILL work.

  • He had no other info to give me on whether or not “Assign to a new site” would cause any downtime and sort of shrugged and said, “Maybe a half an hour.” Can someone confirm if this is the case?

  • I asked them to send me some documentation on this, but there isn’t any(!!) My own search of Wix, plus third-party sites like Youtube and other places Wix folks post helps and aids and hacks, turned up nothing. We can find documentation for transferring a domain to or away from Wix, assigning a new domain to a site, etc… but nothing for this particular scenario where the external domain is already pointed to a different Wix site on the same account.

:double_exclamation_mark: Since Wix does not use a theme or template system that allows easily redesigning existing/live sites, and since plenty of people keep their domains separate in order to juggle many different corporate email needs, I would think our scenario would be common enough for documentation to exist. Please remedy this lack of documentation, Wix!

:folded_hands: Client is EXTREMELY nervous about going live this Friday. Can someone please confirm that toggling “Assign to a different site” will work in our case? And if it will, what is the expected down time if any?

@codequeen

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Speaking with yet another confused Wix expert. Please, someone clarify with hard data!

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Anyone? We’re going to try the “Assign to a different site” this evening in the hopes that anything awful that might happen can be resolved before their official launch on Friday.

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This is a question to Wix-Team-Members, or Codequeen.
If Codequeeny is available, try to tag her.

@codequeen HELP needed!

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Okay, just had to sweat buckets and try it out myself tonight. Using the “Assign to different site” worked very smoothly with already-DNS pointed domain name.

Really hope this scenario (externally managed domain already pointed to Wix, reassigned to a new site on same account) gets documented somewhere so others can avoid the stress loops I went through with my client.

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Further updates for anyone going through a similar issue:

While using “Assign to different site” worked smoothly, we did have some issues with browsers pulling up the old site (even after 48 hours for DNS propagation had passed, though I don’t know what needed to propagate as the DNS was not changed… the URL was already pointing at Wix). Emptying cache & cookies did not solve the issue. We were able to pull up the old site in private browsing windows and on mobile devices that had never accessed the site before.

Further, there was some very weird behavior with the old site vs the new site displaying. For example, I could refresh the browser window (we tried Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari) to force the new site to show, but it would glitch and show the old site again, somewhat randomly.

This topic had the same problem without resolution: How can I make sure my new website appears when users type in my domain, instead of my old website?

I ended up using this embedded code to force a refresh every five seconds: Wix Editor Request: Setting a Page to Refresh Automatically | Help Center | Wix.com it was not a long-term solution as no one could navigate the site as long as it was refreshing. But it did seem to force most of the client’s company to see the new site. Though again, everyone experienced seeing the old site periodically as if through some kind of glitch.

On with Wix chat, they suggested I unpublish the old site, so I did so. This didn’t seem to help anything, even after 48 hours or so. It also caused extra problems as with the old site down, I couldn’t manage the 301 redirects, so we now have Google traffic that is getting 404 pages.

I don’t anticipate anyone being able to help or actually respond here. Just noting for anyone else. If Wix does pay attention to these posts, again, I beg of you to document the process for site redesigns when utilizing a non-Wix domain name already pointed to Wix. And consider building in some DNS reset tools that make the site redesign display more smoothy across the globe.

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