How to Fix ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED: 9 Proven Fixes

You can fix ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED in most cases within five to ten minutes, without touching a single line of code.

There’s one thing most guides skip, though: you need to know whether the problem lives on your device or on the website itself. The fix is completely different for each.

This guide starts with a 30-second diagnostic, then gives you exact fixes for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iPhone.

If you manage a website or online store and it’s your own domain that’s throwing the error, there’s a dedicated section for you too, covering DNS records and nameservers.

What Does ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED Mean?

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED means your browser asked the Domain Name System (DNS) to translate a web address into an IP address, and the request failed. Without that IP address, your browser has nowhere to send the connection request, so the page never loads.

Think of DNS as a phone book for the internet. You type a name like example.com, and DNS looks up its IP address so your browser knows where to connect. When that lookup fails, Chrome shows “This site can’t be reached” with the ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED code. Firefox shows “Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.” Safari and Edge use their own wording, but the underlying cause stays the same: the domain name never resolved to an address.

You’ll also see this written net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED in developer consoles and error logs. It’s the same error, just Chrome’s internal network stack labelling.

This is a client-facing DNS error, not a server crash, and that distinction matters. A server crash usually still resolves the domain name and then fails to load the page content. ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED fails one step earlier, before your browser even knows where to send the request.

That earlier failure point is exactly why this error confuses so many site owners. Your hosting dashboard can show everything green, and your server can be running fine, but visitors will still see ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED if the domain-to-IP lookup itself is broken. The server never even gets a chance to respond because the request never arrives.

Quick Diagnostic: Is It Just You, or the Whole Site Down?

This is the step most guides skip, and it’s the one that saves the most time. Before clearing caches or touching DNS settings, spend 30 seconds figuring out where the problem actually sits.

People on Reddit and the Shopify community report the same mistake constantly. An hour gets lost on client-side fixes when the real issue was a DNS record, or it goes the other way, and someone chases a DNS change that was never the problem.

Run through this quick check:

Test	If it works	If it fails too
Open the site on your phone using mobile data (not Wi-Fi)	The problem is with your Wi-Fi or router	Move to the next test
Open the site on a different network (a friend’s Wi-Fi, a hotspot)	The problem is your home or office network	Move to the next test
Open a different, well-known site (like google.com)	The issue is specific to that one domain	The issue is with your device or network
Ask someone in another location to try the same site	It loads for them, so the DNS problem is likely on the site owner’s end	Everyone’s affected, which usually points to DNS misconfiguration

If only you’re affected on one network, the client-side fixes below will almost always solve it.

If the site is down for everyone, everywhere, skip ahead to the site-owner section. The fix lives in the domain’s DNS configuration, not your computer. No amount of cache flushing on your end will change that.r down. The fix lives on the domain’s DNS configuration in that case, not on your computer. No amount of cache flushing on your end will change that.

How to Fix ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED on Desktop, Android and iPhone

Desktop and mobile devices resolve DNS a little differently, so the fixes below are split by platform. Chrome on mobile also keeps its own cache layer, separate from the operating system’s cache, which is why a fix that clears the problem on desktop sometimes doesn’t carry over to your phone at all.

On Windows, Mac and Linux

If the diagnostic pointed to your device or network, work through these steps in order. Most people are fixed by step 4.

1. Retype the address by hand instead of trusting autocomplete, since a misspelt domain or extra period triggers this exact error.
   
2. Clear your browser’s cache and cookies for “all time,” not just the last hour or day, since outdated cached data can point to a dead IP.
   
3. Flush your device’s DNS cache. Windows: run ipconfig /flushdns in Command Prompt as administrator. Mac: run sudo dscacheutil -flushcache in Terminal. Linux (systemd): run sudo systemd-resolve --flush-caches.
   
4. Switch to Google DNS (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1) through your network adapter settings.
   
5. Check your hosts file, located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts on Windows or /etc/hosts On Mac and Linux, fix bad entries and remove them after backing up the file.
   
6. Temporarily disable your VPN or proxy, since a misconfigured VPN server can produce this exact error.
   
7. Reset your firewall to default settings to rule out overly strict rules blocking DNS queries.
   

If you’ve worked through all eight steps and the error persists on every site you try, run a full malware scan. Malware that hijacks DNS settings produces the same symptoms as a simple misconfiguration. The cause is just less innocent.

On Android

1. On your Android Phone, open Chrome → Settings.
   
2. Then, Privacy and Security → Preload pages.
   
3. Select “Turn off”. This setting silently caches DNS data for sites you haven’t even visited yet.
   
4. Now, Privacy and Security → Delete browsing data.
   
5. Select “All time,” check “Cached images and files,” and click Delete data.
   
6. If you’re a user on Android 9+, set a Private DNS provider. Go to Settings → Network and Internet → Private DNS.
   
7. Then select Private DNS → Designated DNS, and enter dns.google as the hostname.
   
8. As a last resort, go to Settings → Reset options → reset network settings. This clears saved Wi-Fi passwords too, so make sure you have them written down first.
   

On iPhone

1. Go to Settings → Wi-Fi Tab.
   
2. Tap the “i” next to your network to select Configure DNS.
   
3. Switch from Automatic to Manual, remove the existing entries, and add 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
   
4. If the site still won’t load, forget the Wi-Fi network entirely and reconnect. This forces a completely fresh DNS lookup instead of reusing whatever the network previously handed to your phone
   

Pro Tip: If the problem only happens inside one app rather than in Safari, check that app’s settings. Some apps carry their own DNS-over-HTTPS setting, and it can end up misconfigured or pointed somewhere unreachable.

If It’s Your Own Website: Fixing It at the DNS and Hosting Level

Here’s what most troubleshooting guides don’t tell you. If your diagnostic test showed the site is down for everyone, everywhere, none of the fixes above will help. The problThe problem isn’t on any visitor’s device. It’s in your domain’s DNS configuration, and only you or your host can fix it.

Work through this checklist:

• Confirm the domain hasn’t expired: An expired domain stops resolving almost immediately, and it’s the most common cause of a site-wide ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED.
• Verify your nameservers: Run a WHOIS lookup and confirm they match what your host or DNS provider assigned. A typo, often left over from a migration, breaks the resolution for every visitor at once.
• Check that your A record points to the correct IP: If you recently changed hosts, your DNS records need to point to the new server. This gets missed constantly during migrations.
• Give DNS propagation time to finish: Changes can take a few minutes to 48 hours to reach every resolver worldwide. If you just made a change, the error might just mean propagation isn’t done yet.

We see this pattern often: A store owner migrates hosts, updates the A record, but forgets the domain is still pointed at the old registrar’s nameservers. The new host’s dashboard looks fine, but visitors still get ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED because DNS never actually switched over at the registrar level. Check nameservers before touching anything else; it’s a five-minute step that saves hours of confusion later.

None of this is instant. Even a correctly executed DNS fix can take up to two days to reach every resolver globally, with no way to speed it up once submitted. If your site can’t afford that downtime during a migration, plan the cutover carefully. A team that handles both the DNS switch and WordPress speed optimization together tends to avoid this problem, sequencing the cutover to minimise the resolution gap.

If your site also feels slow once it’s back up, that’s worth a separate look. Slow response times and DNS misconfiguration often get diagnosed together, since both can be traced back to a recent hosting change. Our guide on slow website loading issues covers the most common causes once the problem itself is sorted out.

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED vs. Similar DNS Errors

Several browser errors look related to ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED but point to different problems. Knowing which one you’re actually facing saves you from troubleshooting the wrong layer entirely.

Error	What it means	Where the fix lives
ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED	DNS lookup failed entirely; no IP address was found	Client DNS settings, or the domain’s DNS records
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN	DNS responded, but the domain doesn’t exist	Almost always, the domain itself, often a typo or an unregistered domain
ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS	DNS worked fine, but the site is stuck in a redirect loop	Server-side redirect rules or SSL configuration
ERR_INTERNET_DISCONNECTED	Your device has no active internet connection at all	Your local network or ISP, before DNS is even involved

If you’re seeing timeouts rather than an immediate failure, that’s a different symptom. It’s worth checking against a connection timed out error instead, since the underlying cause and the fix both differ from a straightforward DNS lookup failure.

Preventing ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED in the Future

A few habits cut down on how often you’ll see this error again.

• Keep your browser and operating system updated as DNS handling occasionally changes between versions.
• Use a reliable public DNS provider by default instead of whatever your ISP assigns automatically.
• Set a calendar reminder well before any domain renewal date, so an expired registration never catches you off guard.
• If you manage a site, document your nameservers and DNS records somewhere outside your hosting dashboard. That way, a migration doesn’t turn into guesswork under time pressure, and you won’t be locked out of your own records if the dashboard itself becomes unreachable.

For site owners, add one more habit: whenever you change hosts or DNS providers, keep the old configuration active until the new one resolves correctly from multiple networks. A short overlap window costs nothing, and it turns a potential outage into a non-event.

Conclusion

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED almost always comes down to one of two things: either your device or network can’t complete a DNS lookup, or the domain’s own DNS configuration is broken for everyone. The 30-second diagnostic above tells you which one you’re dealing with before you waste time on steps that were never going to fix your specific problem.

For visitors, flushing your DNS cache and switching to a public DNS server clears up the vast majority of cases. For site owners, the fix almost always traces back to nameservers, DNS records, or propagation timing. Work through the right section above, and you should be back online well within the hour.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)