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The short answer: an online propagation checker asks the same name of a list of public resolvers around the world and draws the answers on a map. A mixed map is normal: each resolver has its own cache and its own clock. The map does not show your internet provider’s resolver, nor your customer’s, nor your computer. The source is what counts, and the number that tells you how long each cache has left is the TTL in the answer.
What the map shows, and what it means
| What you see | What it means |
| Some show the new value, some the old one | Caches of different ages. Normal until the old TTL has passed; see what propagation really is. |
| All new on the map, but you still see the old one | Your resolver or your computer is not on the map. See the caches ipconfig does not reach. |
| All old, long after the old TTL | Most likely the source still has the old value: the change was not saved, or it was saved in a zone nobody reads any more. |
| Red crosses or “no answer” on some | That resolver did not answer the checker. It does not mean the change failed. Isolated crosses can be ignored. |
| Several different addresses, all valid | The domain has more than one address on purpose, or sits behind a CDN that answers by location, such as Cloudflare. That is not propagation. |
| “Does not exist” (NXDOMAIN) on some, after you created the record | Negative caching: they asked before the record existed. See negative caching and the SOA. |
Asking the same question from the command line
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| An all-green map does not mean your visitors already see the new value. Their internet providers’ resolvers are not on the map. And asking the same public resolver twice can give different answers: behind an address like 8.8.8.8 there are many servers, each with its own cache. |
| Before looking at maps, check the source. If the source is right, the rest is time and the TTL tells you how much. If the source is wrong, no map will ever turn green. |
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The map still looks odd and you cannot tell cache from mistake? Tell us the domain, the record type and the value you expect to see. Open a support ticket |
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