Yesterday I transferred a domain into GoDaddy, which inevitably required changing the domain information. After the change, the domain status kept showing “pending whois verification”. At first I thought it would clear after a while, but a whole day passed with no change. Later I learned this requires us to verify it ourselves — it isn’t automatic.
“pending whois verification” means it’s waiting to verify the Whois information. GoDaddy has upgraded and become stricter: the Whois email you filled in must be verified before further changes are allowed, otherwise it keeps showing “pending whois verification” and won’t let you modify DNS and other domain settings. Verification is very simple.
- Click “Modify DNS” (you’re not actually changing DNS).
- Click “Resend” to resend the verification email. If your mailbox can’t receive GoDaddy’s email, click “Update registrant email address” to change the email in the domain’s Whois information.
- You receive a verification email titled “Please verify your email address”, and click “verify your email address” to verify at GoDaddy.
- Log into your account; verification is complete.
A final word: I quite approve of what GoDaddy does, because this confirms the email you filled in is usable and can receive GoDaddy’s mail. Once I used an email that, only when verification was needed, turned out unable to receive GoDaddy’s mail, costing extra time to fix the email first. This way ensures your mailbox can receive mail, which is reassuring. And GoDaddy also has a responsibility to maintain the authenticity of Whois information.