How do I resolve DNS propagation delays and inconsistencies in Route 53?

Resolution

When you update a record set in your hosted zone, the change propagates to all Route 53 edge locations within 60 seconds. Certain locations might show your new DNS record values, and others show the old values. If DNS records show old values across locations, then a DNS resolver might still have the previous setting cached. You must wait for public DNS resolver caches to clear before changes take effect.

Note: In the following commands, replace DOMAIN NAME or example.com with your domain name and NAME_SERVER with name server.

Check DNS propagation

Run the following command to check if the client received the correct response:

dig DOMAIN NAME @NAME_SERVER>

It's a best practice to monitor the propagation status of your DNS records across different internet service providers (ISPs) and AWS Regions. For more information, see DNS Propagation Checker on the whatsmydns.net website.

Check time to live (TTL) values

Each record has a TTL value that specifies the time, in seconds, for DNS resolvers to cache the information in the record. Until the amount of time that you specify in the TTL passes, DNS resolvers continue to return the old value in response to DNS queries.

Run the following dig command to check the value of the TTL. In the ANSWER SECTION of the command output, the number next to the domain is the record's TTL in seconds. For example, the TTL for record A for example.com is 300 seconds.

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-93-169 ~]$ dig example.com @a.iana-servers.net

; <<>> DiG 9.18.33 <<>> example.com @a.iana-servers.net
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 16169
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 6, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com. 300 IN A 23.192.228.80
example.com. 300 IN A 23.192.228.84
example.com. 300 IN A 23.215.0.136
example.com. 300 IN A 23.215.0.138
example.com. 300 IN A 96.7.128.175
example.com. 300 IN A 96.7.128.198

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 2001:500:8f::53#53(a.iana-servers.net) (UDP)
;; WHEN: Wed Jun 18 19:04:03 UTC 2025
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 136

Note: Replace example.com with your domain name.

If the number is high, then lower the TTL value.

Note: When you change the TTL, the new setting takes effect only after the old TTL time period passes. You can't make changes in currently cached values take effect faster with a change in TTL. For more information, see How Amazon Route 53 routes traffic for your domain.

Confirm that your domain uses the name servers for your hosted zone

If your domain uses name servers from a different hosted zone, then the Route 53 response to the DNS query doesn't reflect your DNS changes. Check if your domain uses the name servers for your hosted zone.

To get a list of name servers, run the following whois command:

whois DOMAIN_NAME | grep "NAME SERVER"

Note: Replace DOMAIN_NAME with the name of your domain.

For more information on how to use WHOIS, see Viewing information about domains that are registered with Route 53.

Compare the name servers with the ones that are in your Route 53 hosted zone. If the name servers don't match, then update the name servers in your domain registrar account.

Configure IPv4 and IPv6 records to correctly route traffic

Important: Resources that support IPv4 and IPv6 require both A records and AAAA records in your Route 53 hosted zone. If you create only one record type, then clients on only IPv4 or IPv6 networks can't connect.

Complete the following steps:

1. Open the Route 53 console.
2. Choose Hosted zones, and then select your hosted zone.
3. Choose Create record.
4. On the Routing policy dropdown list, choose Simple routing.
5. In the Value text box, enter the IPv4 address for your resource's A record or the IPv6 address for your resource's AAAA record.
6. Choose Create records.

Note: If you use the at (@) symbol in Route 53 record names, then DNS propagation issues occur. When you create a record for the root domain, don't add a value to the Record name field.

Related information

I changed DNS settings, but they haven't taken effect

Name server (NS) and start of authority (SOA) records that Amazon Route 53 creates for a public hosted zone