🔎 Why Your Site Went Down
When you change your nameservers to point to Cloudflare, you are telling the internet to look up your website in a new place. This change does not happen instantly. It needs time to spread across servers worldwide in a process called DNS propagation. During this window, some visitors may reach your site while others see errors or a blank page.
In almost every case, downtime after a nameserver change is caused by one of two things: propagation that is still in progress, or missing DNS records inside your new Cloudflare account. The good news is that both are easy to check and fix.
⏱️ How Long Propagation Takes
Nameserver changes usually complete within a few hours, but the official window is up to 24 to 48 hours. A site that has been down for around 8 hours is still within the normal range, especially if DNS records were not fully copied over before the switch.
If your site is still unreachable after 48 hours, propagation is no longer the cause. At that point, the issue is almost always a missing or incorrect DNS record, which you can correct using the steps below.
🛠️ How to Confirm the Cause
Before making changes, confirm what is actually happening:
- Log in to your Cloudflare dashboard and select your domain.
- Check the Overview tab. Cloudflare will display a message once it detects that your nameservers are active.
- Open the DNS tab and review your records.
- Confirm that an A record or CNAME record points to your correct server or hosting address.
If the nameservers show as active but your site is still down, the problem is your DNS records, not propagation.
⚙️ How to Fix the Downtime
Follow these steps to restore your site:
- In the Cloudflare DNS tab, compare your records against those from your previous provider or hosting company.
- Add any missing records. Most sites need at least an A record pointing to your server IP address and, if applicable, a www CNAME record.
- Make sure the record for your main domain is set to Proxied or DNS only as recommended by your host.
- Save your changes. Updates within Cloudflare apply quickly, usually within minutes.
- Clear your browser cache or test your site in a private window to see the current status.
If you are unsure which records you need, your hosting provider can give you the exact values to enter.
🐞 Known Issues With OTTO's Cloudflare Setup
If you connected Cloudflare through OTTO, two known issues can cause downtime that the general steps above may not fully explain:
- Records proxied unexpectedly on third-party hosting. On sites hosted with certain third-party platforms (such as Lovable), the OTTO Cloudflare Worker installation can silently proxy your apex and www DNS records, which can take the site offline. If your site is hosted on an external platform, open the DNS tab and set the affected records to DNS only instead of Proxied. Our product team is currently reviewing this behavior.
- Intermittent Error 1102. Some users see occasional Cloudflare Worker failures (Error 1102) during normal browsing rather than a constant outage. This is a known issue that our engineering team is actively working on.
💡 Tips to Avoid Future Downtime
You can prevent most downtime by preparing before you switch nameservers:
- Copy all DNS records first. Add every record to Cloudflare before changing your nameservers, not after.
- Switch during low-traffic hours. This limits the impact if a short outage occurs.
- Lower your TTL in advance. Reducing the Time To Live a day before the change helps updates spread faster.
- Keep a record of your old settings. Save a copy of your previous DNS configuration so you can restore it quickly if needed.
✅ When to Expect Full Resolution
Once your nameservers show as active and your DNS records are correct, your site should return for all visitors within a short time. If you have waited beyond 48 hours and added the correct records, and your site is still unreachable, it is time to dig deeper into your hosting or record configuration.
If you need further assistance, click the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the platform to start a live chat with a member of our team.