Custom Domain - Troubleshooting

Common problems and solutions around custom domains, SSL certificates and DNS settings. Most issues with custom domains and SSL certificates come down to incorrect DNS configurations. If you would like a quick introduction to DNS, check out this cool comic: https://howdns.works.

To check your DNS settings yourself, you can use this helpful tool: https://www.whatsmydns.net.

Now, let's look at the most common issues and how to fix them.

Propagation Time

DNS records are cached across the internet, meaning that browsers, routers, etc will often remember the most recent value of a DNS resolution for a limited amount of time. During that time, any changes you make might not be reflected in your browser until the cache expires.

Depending on the previous TTL (Time To Live) setting of your DNS records, it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours for your DNS settings to be reflected.

Missing DNS Record

Make sure that you have completed both steps in the domain setup. If you have a "www.example.com" and "example.com" domain, you need to create one DNS record for each of them.

Incorrect Nameservers

Make sure your domain is pointing to the correct Nameservers. Sometimes you might have changed the Nameservers for your domain to a different service and are creating the DNS records in the wrong place.

1. Go to your registrar (where you bought your domain)

2. Find the Nameservers in the domain settings

3. Make sure you create the DNS settings on the correct Nameservers

DNS Provider Redirects

Umso automatically redirects from http:// to https:// and from your non-www to www version (or vice-versa depending on your primary domain). That means you have to create no redirects in your DNS settings. Having those redirects will also throw off our DNS verification system so please remove those.

Domain Parking

Some domain sellers will enable a parking feature until you start using your domain. In some cases, you will need to turn off that parking feature manually to stop the provider from injecting DNS records which you can't control and don't want in a live site.

CloudFlare Proxy

If you're using CloudFlare proxy or a similar service, make sure to turn off the "proxy" feature until Umso was able to verify your domain. Some services will not allow requests to http domains meaning we won't be able to reach our site unless it has a HTTPS certificate. However, we can't issue the certificate until we were able to reach and validate the site. This creates a cycle which will lead to your domain setup being stuck in pending. To avoid this, simply turn off proxying until we were able to verify your domain and issue your initial HTTPS certificate. Renewal is not affected by this issue since we renew your certificate while the old one is still valid.