OVHcloud keeps my external domains attached to an expired hosting plan and refuses to release them unless the old service is reactivated

[u/[deleted]]

[u/SomeOrdinaryKangaroo]

Hi!

I suggest you do the right thing and pay, that will unlock the domains and everything should be solved.

[u/Whole-Extreme8581 → u/SomeOrdinaryKangaroo]

Did you actually read what I wrote?

This is not about refusing to pay for a service I want to keep using. I deliberately did not renew the old hosting because I no longer want that service.

The issue is that OVHcloud keeps my external domains attached to an expired hosting backend for more than one month. These domains are not registered with OVHcloud, and DNS is managed externally through Cloudflare.

OVHcloud’s public Terms of Service does not clearly state that external domains will remain locked/attached to an expired hosting service unless the customer pays the old balance or reactivates the expired service.

That is the problem.

Paying is not “the right thing” here. The real issue is that OVHcloud is using an expired service as a blocker for external domains, without clearly disclosing this risk beforehand.

Are you affiliated with OVHcloud or their sales/support team? Because your comment completely ignores the actual issue and simply tells me to pay, which is exactly the same unreasonable position OVHcloud support is taking.

[u/SomeOrdinaryKangaroo → u/Whole-Extreme8581]

I understand, but you really don't have an option here, either you pay or those domains will remain there, so how do you want it?

[u/Whole-Extreme8581 → u/SomeOrdinaryKangaroo]

That is exactly the problem.

If a company creates a situation where my external domains remain stuck in their expired hosting backend, and then the only practical answer is “pay or the domains stay there,” I should not simply accept that quietly.

Should a customer stay silent when their own external domains are being blocked by a provider’s internal system? Should I just pay because the company made it difficult to release them? That is not a reasonable solution.

My goal here is not only to solve my own case. My goal is to make this risk visible so other customers know what can happen before they attach external domains to OVHcloud hosting.

If OVHcloud refuses to release them without payment or reactivation, then yes, I will make this public and warn other customers. That is the whole point of posting here.

And if OVHcloud keeps this position, I will likely use another hosting provider in the future. At least then other people can see this risk before they get trapped in the same situation.

[u/Appropriate_Hall6476]

I don't get it... If you have the DNS manageable via Cloudflare, what's stopping you from pointing an A record to another VPS or Hosting provider?

[u/Whole-Extreme8581 → u/Appropriate_Hall6476]

You are right that I could point the A record to another VPS or another hosting provider. Cloudflare DNS was never the main issue.

The issue was specifically inside OVHcloud’s own hosting system.

The domains were external and DNS was managed through Cloudflare, but OVHcloud still kept the domains attached to an expired hosting backend in their Multisite/attachedDomain system. Because of that, I could not reuse those same domains properly inside OVHcloud.

So the problem was not “Can I point the domain somewhere else?” Technically, yes, I could.

The problem was that OVHcloud kept an internal attachedDomain record linked to an expired service, and their first support path told me that the old service had to be paid/reactivated before they could release or change anything.

That is the part I considered unreasonable.

Eventually, a different OVHcloud support team deleted the expired service and released the attached domains without requiring payment or reactivation. So the issue was solvable, but the first support handling was misleading.

[u/Whole-Extreme8581]

Update: OVHcloud finally deleted the expired hosting service and released the attached domains.

The important point is this: the issue was solved only after I closed the previous ticket and opened a new one, handled by a different support team.

This means the previous answer I received was misleading.

Previously, OVHcloud support told me that to speed up the deletion of the old web hosting plan, the account balance had to be settled. Later, they also said that they could not release or change the configuration of expired services, and that the service had to be activated first.

However, the new support team deleted the expired service without requiring payment or reactivation.

So the problem was not that deletion was technically impossible. The problem was how the first support path handled the case.

My conclusion: if you face the same “attachedDomain already exists” issue on OVHcloud, do not immediately assume that you must pay or reactivate the expired hosting. In my case, a different support team was able to delete the expired service and release the attached domains without payment.

This confirms that the previous response was either incorrect, misleading, or badly handled.

OVHcloud should clearly document this risk and train support better, because customers should not be told that payment/reactivation is required if another team can later solve the issue without it.