Host provider closes or unresponsive: save your site and data in 48 hours

Your provider has locked the control panel, stopped answering support tickets, or announced it's shutting down. Your site is still online but you don't know for how long, and you're not a systems administrator. Here's what to do, in order, over the next 48 hours.

1. Verify who still controls your domain

First things first: your domain and hosting control panel are two separate things, and you may have lost access to one without losing the other. Run a whois query (or RDAP, the protocol that has replaced whois for gTLDs like .com and .net) on your domain using an independent service, not the struggling provider's website. A whois search queries the public service where domain registries publish registration data: who registered a domain, through which registrar, when it was registered, when it expires, and which nameservers it uses. The field that matters is "Registrar": it shows the provider through which the domain was registered. This is where the owner can manage settings like DNS servers. If your registrar is a different company from your hosting provider (this happens often), you already have a lifeline: you can access the registrar's control panel even if the hosting panel is dead, and from there you can move your nameservers as soon as you have new hosting.

2. If the hosting control panel still responds: back up immediately, don't wait

If you can still access it, don't waste time arguing with the provider. Do this in order:

• Download all files via FTP or SFTP (SFTP is better if available, for connection encryption);
• Make a complete database export from phpMyAdmin (or equivalent tool) in SQL format;
• Note the database connection parameters (host, name, user) and the PHP version in use: you'll need these for restoration.

Don't rely on a single attempt: if the control panel is unstable, repeat the download multiple times and verify that files arrive complete (check their sizes).

3. If the control panel no longer responds

You have two options here. First: ask the registrar (not the hosting provider, if they're different companies) whether they have copies of technical contacts or can confirm the domain's status. Second, only if you suspect actual abuse (domain hijacking, phishing, illegal activity), you can turn to ICANN: if you have a complaint regarding a registrar, please email accredit@icann.org or use the Registrar Standards Complaint Form. To be clear: ICANN will forward the complaint free of charge to the registrar, which will examine and handle it. We cannot guarantee the registrar will respond. It's not a quick lever: it's the last resort for cases of clear abuse, not for a hosting provider simply not answering tickets. For reports of illegal activity submitted by law enforcement, the 2013 Accreditation Agreement requires registrars to provide a specific contact point: a dedicated point of contact for receiving reports of illegal activity submitted by law enforcement or similar authorities designated by the government of the jurisdiction where the registrar is established. The registrar should examine such reports within 24 hours of receipt. But be warned: this applies to law enforcement, not to an individual customer who has lost control panel access.

4. Choose temporary hosting quickly

At this stage you don't need a permanent provider: you need somewhere to get your site back online while you decide at leisure. Look for a plan that supports the PHP version and database you had (which you noted in step 2), with FTP/SFTP access and phpMyAdmin included from day one, with no activation delays. Upload the files, import the SQL dump, update the database connection credentials in your CMS configuration file (for WordPress this is wp-config.php) and verify the site opens before touching your DNS.

5. Final checklist: don't declare the emergency over too soon

Before considering the migration complete, check:

• MX records: if mail was routed through the old provider, move these last and only after verifying the new mailbox receives;
• nameservers: if you've changed them, propagation can take hours, not minutes;
• SSL certificates: these often need to be reissued on the new hosting, otherwise the site shows as "not secure";
• a whois check 24–48 hours later, to confirm the domain is still registered to you and not in a blocked or unauthorised transfer state.

If anything doesn't match in whois compared to before the crisis, this is the time to contact the registrar with documentation of your original contract, before the situation becomes more complicated.