Fix ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED in Chrome

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED is Chrome’s way of telling you the DNS lookup for the site you’re trying to reach came back completely empty. Not “domain doesn’t exist” (that would be NXDOMAIN) — this is a failure even earlier: Chrome asked “what’s the IP address for this domain?” and got no answer at all. Something in the resolution chain broke before any DNS server could even reply. For a broader walkthrough, our Google Chrome Errors is a good next read.

The three times I’ve seen this come up most unexpectedly: when an ISP’s DNS servers went down briefly (and switching to Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 brought everything back instantly), when a Chrome update quietly changed the DNS-over-HTTPS provider to one that conflicted with a corporate network setup, and when the Windows DNS Client service stopped running after a Windows Update. All three showed identical ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED messages. The fastest path to a fix is figuring out which of these categories you’re in.

Chrome Only, or All Browsers? That’s the First Question

Before touching a single setting, try opening the same site in Firefox, Edge, or any other browser you have installed. This takes ten seconds and narrows the field considerably.

If other browsers also fail — if Firefox gives a “Name Not Found” and Edge agrees the address can’t be resolved — the problem is at the system level: Windows DNS, the ISP DNS servers, or the network adapter configuration. Work through Fixes 2, 3, and 4 first, in that order.

If only Chrome gives ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED while other browsers load the same site fine, the problem is specific to Chrome’s own DNS handling. Chrome has its own DNS-over-HTTPS implementation that runs independently of the system DNS settings, and it’s remarkably good at developing conflicts with corporate network setups, certain router configurations, and overzealous VPN clients. Fix 1 (Chrome’s DNS-over-HTTPS settings) is where to start.

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED Fix 1: Check Chrome’s Own DNS Settings

This is the fix most guides bury at the bottom, but it’s the right starting point if the error only appears in Chrome. Chrome’s built-in DNS-over-HTTPS feature routes DNS queries through an encrypted HTTPS connection to a specific provider — and when that provider has issues, or when it conflicts with how your network handles DNS (particularly common on corporate networks or networks with content filtering), Chrome returns ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED for everything while other applications on the same machine work perfectly.

1. In Chrome, go to Settings → Privacy and security → Security
2. Scroll down to Use secure DNS
3. Try toggling it Off entirely — reload the failing page immediately
4. If that fixes it, the DNS-over-HTTPS provider was the conflict
5. If you want to keep DoH enabled, switch the provider to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Google (8.8.8.8) rather than the default or ISP-provided option

The Chrome update that changed my DoH settings was a version that moved from “automatic” selection to a specific ISP-provided resolver that didn’t work on my setup. Toggling secure DNS off temporarily confirmed the cause in about 30 seconds. Switching the provider to Cloudflare fixed it permanently.

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED Fix 2: Restart the Windows DNS Client Service and Flush Cache

If ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED affects all browsers, this should be your second check. The Windows DNS Client service (also called “dnscache”) is responsible for processing all DNS lookups on the system. When it stops — which happens more often after Windows Updates than you’d expect — no DNS queries get processed, and everything fails with name resolution errors. Restarting it takes under a minute and is often the complete fix.

1. Press Windows + R, type services.msc, press Enter
2. Scroll to DNS Client
3. Right-click → Restart
4. If Restart is greyed out, click Properties → confirm Startup type is Automatic → click Start
5. Open Command Prompt as administrator, run: ipconfig /flushdns
6. In Chrome, go to chrome://net-internals/#dns → click Clear host cache
7. Reload the page

Note: on Windows 11, the DNS Client service may appear as “protected” in services.msc and not allow manual restart. In that case, a full PC restart achieves the same result — Windows restarts the protected services correctly on boot.

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED Fix 3: Switch DNS Server

If the DNS Client service is running and flushing the cache doesn’t help, the DNS server your system is using is the problem. ISP DNS servers go down, experience propagation delays, and occasionally block certain domains — any of which produces ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED from Chrome’s perspective. Switching to a reliable public resolver bypasses whatever the ISP’s server is doing.

1. Settings → Network and internet → Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) → click your active connection
2. DNS server assignment → Edit → Manual
3. Enable IPv4: set Preferred DNS to 1.1.1.1, Alternate to 8.8.8.8
4. Save — then reload the failing page

When my ISP’s DNS servers had an outage, switching to 1.1.1.1 had everything working again within seconds while their servers were still down. I’ve kept Cloudflare as my default DNS ever since — it’s faster than any ISP resolver I’ve tested and doesn’t block or modify results.

If you’re on a corporate network: be aware that switching DNS servers may break access to internal company domains that are only resolvable via the corporate DNS server. In that environment, the right fix is typically different — talk to IT about the ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED rather than changing DNS independently, because corporate DNS configurations are often intentionally specific.

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED Fix 4: Disconnect VPN and Check Proxy

VPN applications take over DNS routing on the system — they replace the configured DNS server with their own to prevent DNS leaks through the encrypted tunnel. When the VPN’s DNS server is down, slow, or incorrectly configured for your current location, every DNS lookup fails. This is particularly likely if ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED started the moment you connected to a VPN, or if it appears intermittently when the VPN reconnects in the background.

• Fully exit the VPN application (not just disconnect — quit it from the system tray)
• Test the failing site immediately
• If it loads: the VPN’s DNS is the culprit. Check the VPN’s settings for a “Use system DNS” or “Don’t manage DNS” option
• Also check Windows proxy settings: Settings → Network and internet → Proxy → make sure “Use a proxy server” is Off
• Check the hosts file for any override entries: open C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts in administrator Notepad, look for any lines containing the failing domain, and delete them

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED Fix 5: Reset the Network Stack

When none of the above works and ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED persists across all browsers, all DNS servers, and with the DNS Client service running correctly, the Windows network stack has accumulated enough corruption that DNS queries aren’t being processed correctly even when all the individual components appear healthy. A full reset takes the stack back to a clean state.

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

Run each in an Administrator Command Prompt in order, then restart the PC. The Winsock reset in particular requires a reboot to take full effect — don’t skip it.

This is the “last resort” fix but it works surprisingly often on machines that have had multiple VPN clients, antivirus products, and network tools installed and uninstalled over time. Each of those applications leaves traces in the network stack, and over time those traces compound into configuration drift that affects DNS resolution.

Quick Reference by Situation

Situation	Most likely cause	Fix
Chrome only — other browsers work	Chrome DNS-over-HTTPS conflict	Fix 1 — check Chrome’s secure DNS setting
All browsers fail, all sites	DNS Client stopped or ISP DNS down	Fix 2 (restart DNS Client); Fix 3 (switch DNS)
Started after VPN connected	VPN DNS server issue	Fix 4 — quit VPN; check DNS leak protection
One site only	Stale DNS cache or mistyped URL	Check the URL; Fix 2 (flush cache)
Persists through all fixes	Network stack corruption	Fix 5 — full Winsock reset + restart

Related errors: our guide on DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN covers the version of this error where DNS resolution completes but finds no valid domain — it shares most of the same fixes but has a slightly different diagnostic path. For DNS failures that affect all browsers simultaneously, our DNS server not responding guide goes deeper into Windows-level DNS service diagnostics. Additional guidance for enterprise environments — where DNS-over-HTTPS, proxy auto-discovery, and split-horizon DNS zones interact with ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED — is on the Google Chrome support pages.

One scenario worth mentioning separately: ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED appearing on a site that was working yesterday and hasn’t changed can sometimes indicate that the site’s domain has expired or been transferred. Domains lapse, registrars change, and DNS records can disappear without warning. A quick WHOIS lookup on the domain (search “whois [domain]”) confirms whether the registration is still active before you spend time troubleshooting your own DNS configuration for a problem that’s entirely on the site’s end.

IPv6 and ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED have a complicated relationship that’s worth understanding if the error only appears on certain sites. Chrome by default prefers IPv6 DNS resolution (AAAA records) over IPv4 (A records) for sites that support both. If your network’s IPv6 configuration is broken — a common issue on home networks where the router has IPv6 enabled but the ISP doesn’t provide IPv6 connectivity, or vice versa — DNS lookups for dual-stack sites can fail with ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED even though the IPv4 path to the same sites works fine. You can test whether this is the cause by temporarily disabling IPv6 on your network adapter: Network Connections → right-click your adapter → Properties → uncheck Internet Protocol Version 6 → OK. If ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED stops, your IPv6 configuration is broken and that’s the underlying issue. The permanent fix is either correcting the IPv6 setup (router settings, or contact ISP) or leaving IPv6 disabled on the adapter if you don’t need it.

Routers with DNS relay features add another layer of complexity. Many home routers act as a DNS relay — your PC sends DNS queries to the router (192.168.1.1), and the router forwards them to the ISP. When the router’s DNS relay service has issues, ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED affects every device on the network simultaneously, and the fix looks exactly like an ISP DNS problem (switching to 1.1.1.1 bypasses the router and connects directly to Cloudflare’s servers). If ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED appears on multiple devices in the household at the same time, the router is the most likely single point of failure — restart it and then test. If restarting fixes it temporarily but the problem returns regularly, check whether the router’s firmware is up to date and whether its DNS relay feature is configured correctly.

One practical tip that saves time when diagnosing persistent ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED: open Command Prompt and run nslookup google.com. If this returns a valid IP address, DNS is working at the system level and the problem is Chrome-specific (Fix 1). If nslookup also fails with “can’t find server name for address” or a similar error, the problem is system-level DNS (Fixes 2 through 5). This single command takes five seconds and immediately tells you which half of the troubleshooting tree applies, avoiding the wasted effort of applying Chrome-specific fixes to a system-level problem or vice versa.

Search engine autocomplete and Chrome’s built-in predictive address bar loading can occasionally cause confusion around ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED. Chrome pre-fetches DNS for sites based on your browsing history and the links on pages you visit — and if a pre-fetched result is an ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED, that result can be cached and served on subsequent navigation to the same domain even after the actual DNS problem has resolved. If you’ve fixed what appears to be the DNS issue but Chrome is still showing ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED, a combined clear of Chrome’s internal DNS cache (chrome://net-internals/#dns → Clear host cache) and socket pool (chrome://net-internals/#sockets → Flush socket pools) usually clears the persistent cached failure immediately. It’s a two-minute step that’s worth doing after any DNS fix before concluding the fix didn’t work.

For users experiencing ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED specifically on sites with non-standard TLDs (.local, .internal, .corp, .home) — domains commonly used on internal corporate and home networks — the issue is typically that these “special” TLDs aren’t resolvable through public DNS because they’re not globally registered. Chrome’s DNS-over-HTTPS feature may attempt to resolve these through a public DNS provider like Cloudflare or Google, both of which will return ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED because they don’t know about your local network’s custom domains. The fix in this case is specific: either disable DNS-over-HTTPS in Chrome (Fix 1, toggling off secure DNS) so Chrome uses the local DNS server that knows about these domains, or configure Chrome’s secure DNS to use your local/corporate DNS server rather than a public one. Your network administrator can provide the DoH endpoint for the corporate resolver if one exists.

Parental control software that blocks specific domains at the DNS level — returning ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED instead of a block page — is a sometimes-overlooked cause that affects home networks. Products like Circle, OpenDNS Home, and router-based content filtering often implement blocks by making domains unresolvable rather than redirecting to a block page. If ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED appears on specific categories of sites, particularly on a machine used by younger family members, checking whether parental control DNS filtering is configured is worth doing before pursuing technical DNS fixes. Related: How to Fix ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID in Chrome.