Why is it taking so long for my DNS changes to propagate in Route 53 and public resolvers?

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I updated a DNS record set in my Amazon Route 53 public hosted zone. However, the changes take a long time to propagate.

Short description

DNS propagation is the amount of time that it takes for DNS changes to be updated across the internet. If the propagation isn't complete, then clients can't see updated values after they resolve the domain name.

If you experience incomplete propagation, then clients can't connect to your application. Some clients might also experience DNS-related errors, such as Servfail, NXDomain, or Refused. In this case, clients can connect directly to the IP address of the application, but they can't connect through the domain name.

Resolution

There are over 100 edge locations in Route 53 with DNS name servers that answer DNS queries from clients. When you update a record set in your hosted zone, the change propagates to all Route 53 edge locations within 60 seconds. The edge locations update with the latest information from your hosted zone, and the edge locations respond to client queries accordingly. If a client sends a query directly to the domain name's hosted zone name servers, then the client receives the correct response.

To confirm that the client received the correct response, use the dig tool:

dig <domain name> @<name server>

Then, use any public DNS tool to check the domain's resolution from different AWS Regions. Some locations might show the updated value while other locations still show the previous value. Or, you might see the previous value in all Regions. In both cases, propagation isn't complete, and you must wait for the public DNS resolver caches to clear.

If you updated your DNS settings but don't see the expected outcome, then see the following troubleshooting steps for your use case:

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AWS OFFICIALUpdated 10 months ago