We recently announced that we would be activating Free Character Migrations for select high population Classic realms. It’s been a while since we’ve enabled Character Migrations like this, and we understand that there are bound to be some questions about how this process will work.
Starting your Character Migration
Unable to start the Free Character Migration
While Free Character Migration is in progress
Once your Free Character Migration has completed
Frequently Asked Questions
Starting your Character Migration
Transfers can be initiated in one of two places
| The character select screen on eligible realms | The queue timer UI while the player is in queue on an eligible realm |
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Once initiated, the process to complete your migration will be the same.
- You will see a single service listed called Free Character Transfer. Select this service and click on the Buy Now button.
- You’ll be prompted to select an eligible realm and character from the drop-down menu.
- Check the Transfer realm box, then select the eligible realm available.
- Click Continue . If the button is not available, double-check that you filled out all the appropriate fields.
The Free Character Transfer window will close, your transfer is in progress. You will be unable to log into that character until the transfer has completed.
Unable to start the Free Character Migration
- Free Character Move Unavailable / Unable to transfer to my desired realm
- In order to balance queue times we are only offering transfers from high population realms to low/medium population realms.
- You may only have one faction on a PvP realm, if you are attempting to transfer a character of the opposite faction you will need to delete the existing character.
- If you do not have the shop option available at character selection, you may have parental controls active and prohibited in-game purchases. Troubleshooting steps can be found here.
- Error “You can’t do that right now, please try again later”.
- This may mean you have a character of the opposite faction on the destination realm. You cannot have both Alliance and Horde character on the same realm. You must delete the character on the destination realm in order to initiate the Free Character Migration.
- Character has mail
- Any mail in your inbox will prevent you from transferring, including letters. Please log into the character and delete/remove the mail.
- Character has active auction/bid
- If you have an item on the auction house you’ll need to wait until it has been removed and cleared from your mailbox.
- If you have an active bid you will be unable to transfer until you have been outbid or you have won the auction (and cleared the item from your mailbox).
- Character is guild master
- Guild masters are unable to transfer. You will need to disband the guild or transfer leadership to another member.
While Free Character Migration is in progress
- You will be unable to cancel the transfer once initiated.
- You will be unable to log into the character until the transfer has been completed.
- The estimated time for transfer may be inaccurate and take longer than stated.
- Once your transfer completes, you will not receive a notification, but you will find your character if you log in to your new realm. If you cannot see your character on the new realm, create a level 1 to refresh your character selection screen.
Once your Free Character Migration has completed
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Name taken on destination
- For approximately one day, the new realms will be restricted to only those players using a free character move. After one day, any player may create new characters there. This is to allow players using the free character move service a better chance at retaining the name of the character they’re moving.
- If 2 characters with the same name from 2 different realms transfer to the same destination, the one arriving first will keep the name.
- If transferring to an existing realm you may have a naming conflict with a character who already exists there. In that case you will be prompted to rename your character.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q.: Why aren’t any transfers available for my character?
A.: We haven’t enabled it yet for your realm. Note that only select realms are being offered the chance to transfer.
Q.: Why can I only move to this specific realm?
A.: In order to balance queue times we are only offering transfers from highly populated realms.
Q.: [Players who transferred from the queue screen] I clicked “Continue” and the window closed. How can I tell my transfer is really being processed?
A.: Try transferring the character again. The window should now update to say that a transfer is in progress and show you the estimated time it will take to fully move your character to the new realm.
Q.: I tried to transfer a character, but it seemed to fail and stall out. Now I can’t move that character anymore and I can’t log into it.
A.: Log out of the game all of the way for about 15 minutes. Then log back in. You should now be able to move this character.
Q.: I am trying to transfer a character, but my time estimate keeps saying “5 minutes”. Am I stuck?
A.: You’re probably not stuck, but something is probably taking a little longer than we estimated.
Q.: I tried to transfer a character, but I don’t know if it has completed yet?
A.: Go to the NEW realm you are trying to transfer to. If the transfer is complete, your character will be there. If your character is not there yet, you may have to wait. Keep refreshing the character select screen by changing realms or logging in to the world on a different character, then logging back out.