Troubleshooting Your Custom Domain Problems

Of the many accessories and features in Blogger, Custom Domain Publishing is possibly the most problematic. Looking at the Labels index in this blog, I see the Custom Domains label on 283 posts (as of 2012/11/29) - which makes it one of the most heavily labeled single topics here. There are several challenges with diagnosing and resolving a custom domain problem.

• It has various different causes.
• It leads to many different symptoms, which can easily be confused for other problems.
• Its symptoms can be chronic or intermittent- and may be immediate, or may take months to exhibit themselves.
• It may involve action by any blog guest, by the blog owner, by Blogger Support, and / or by a third party such as the domain registrar, to correct any given problem.

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As you read this article, click on some of the many links in the text, and read the linked articles. Please think of this article as the first chapter in a very large book - in this case a book with 283 chapters.

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How To Use This Guide

• Always start properly, with righteous DNS addresses.
• Verify DNS addresses, using Dig. If any doubt about Dig results, compare logs from multiple Dig utilities, including a Dig against the authoritative domain server. Possibly 90% of all custom domain problems are caused, directly or indirectly, by spurious DNS addresses.
• If examination of multiple Dig logs shows righteous DNS addresses, look at HTTP traces against the BlogSpot and domain URLs.
• If neither Dig nor HTTP traces provide a definitive diagnosis, consider that you have internal database corruption.
• As you diagnose your DNS setup, only look at "A" and "CNAME" records.
• As you diagnose and / or fix the problem, do not delete the Google Apps administrative desktop account.

These are the known custom domain publishing diagnoses. Here's a brief, one line summary of the problems, which are discussed, in some detail, farther below. Click on any one, if it looks promising, to jump to the detail discussion.

• Domain Purchase Unsuccessful
• Only Name Registration Purchased, No DNS Hosting
• Domain Addresses Not Defined
• Domain Ownership Not Verified
• Non Google DNS server Part Of Configuration
• Domain Addresses Not Properly Chosen
• Domain Previously Registered, And Used In Blogger
• Domain Registration Expired
• Blog Published To Domain, Using Mixed Case URL
• Domain Redirected To Google Ad Services, Sites, or Start Page URL
• Domain Published, Partially
• Internal Blogger Database Corruption
• The Blog And Domain Are In Transition

Domain Purchase Unsuccessful

• The domain will not be setup. The blog may, or may not, be published to the domain.
• This will follow use of "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptoms will vary. We see both "404 Not Found", and "Another blog is already hosted at this address", fairly common for this problem.
• This will be an issue for newly purchased domains.
• It will be diagnosed by use of the WhoIs log showing "xxxxxxx.xxx appears to be available", and verified by examination of the Google Checkout logs, and bank account ledger entries.
• The blog owner generally has to correct a problem with his bank account, then repeat the purchase of the domain.

Only Name Registration Purchased, No DNS Hosting

• The domain will not be setup, nor the blog published to the domain.
• This will follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar.
• The primary symptom will be the query "What are the DNS servers for Google?", "I need 2 IP addresses for my domain!", or "I can only change NameServer1, NameServer2 in my domain setup!".
• This will be an issue for newly purchased domains.
• It will be diagnosed by the stated symptom, with the blogger confirming the diagnosis by checking the registrar's invoice to see what services were paid for.
• The blogger will have to arrange for DNS hosting - free or paid - but choose the right DNS hosting service. A free third party DNS hosting service may be useful, in this case.

Domain Addresses Not Defined

• The blog will not be successfully published to the domain.
• This will follow domain registration using "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptom will be "Another blog is already hosted at this address", in the Settings - Basic - Publishing display.
• This will occur for new custom domains.
• It will be diagnosed using an excerpted Dig log, for both domain URLs.
• Here, the blogger will be advised to contact Google Apps Support, for any domain purchase issues.

Domain Ownership Not Verified

• The blog will not be successfully published to the domain.
• The primary symptom will be an "Error 12" or variant (we have observed "Error 12", "Error 13", "Error 14", and "Error 32", in reported various forum topics), when using the the Settings - Basic - Publishing wizard.
• This may follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar, or using "Buy a domain".
• This will occur for new custom domains - as well as for mature domain being re published.
• This will be diagnosed using an excerpted Dig log, for both domain URLs. Base DNS addresses should also be verified, to ensure a righteous setup.
• The blog owner will be advised to add or verify presence of the proper domain ownership verification "CNAME". This may involve adding an updated "CNAME", and / or carefully examining the format of the "CNAME", as entered in the "Zone Edit" registrar display. Some blog owners may need to use a free third party DNS hosting service, to allow for registrars who cannot support the necessary "CNAME".

Non Google DNS server Part Of Configuration

• The blog may, or may not, be successfully published to the domain.
• This will follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar.
• The primary symptom may be "Another blog is already hosted at this address" (for new custom domains, in the Settings - Basic - Publishing display), or conversely "404 Not Found" (for long existing custom domains, when viewing the blog). The symptoms will be observed intermittently, when the non Google server is referenced.
• Possible secondary symptoms:
  • Blog feeds, intermittently not redirected from the native BlogSpot URL.
  • Commenting problems.
• It will be diagnosed using an excerpted Dig log, for the domain root.
• It is typically resolved by a 4 step process. For best results, follow this procedure religiously.
  1. Publish the blog back to BlogSpot.
  2. Correct the DNS addresses.
  3. Wait for the DNS latency period to expire. This is important. Failure to consider DNS latency may later lead to Internal Database Corruption. This period will vary, as a result of the TTL setting in the "A" / "CNAME" referral.
  4. Republish to the domain URL.

Domain Addresses Not Properly Chosen

• The blog may, or may not, be successfully published to the domain.
• This will follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar.
• The primary symptom may be "Another blog is already hosted at this address" (for new custom domains, in the Settings - Basic - Publishing display), or conversely "404 Not Found" (for long existing custom domains, when viewing the blog).
• Possible secondary symptoms:
  • Blog feeds, unreliably redirected from the native BlogSpot URL.
  • Commenting problems.
• It will be diagnosed using an excerpted Dig log, for both domain URLs.
• It is typically resolved by a 4 step process. For best results, follow this procedure religiously.
  1. Publish the blog back to BlogSpot.
  2. Correct the DNS addresses.
  3. Wait for the DNS latency period to expire. This is important. Failure to consider DNS latency may later lead to Internal Database Corruption. This period will vary, as a result of the TTL setting in the "A" / "CNAME" referral.
  4. Republish to the domain URL.

Domain Previously Registered, And Used In Blogger

• A Blogger blog was successfully published to the domain, at one time - by a different person. It is now not successfully published.
• This may follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar, or using "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptom will be "Another blog ...", when attempting to publish / re publish the blog to the domain.
• It will be diagnosed using an excerpted Dig log, for the BlogSpot, and both domain, URLs.
• It will be resolved using the Custom Domain Reset form - and much patience by the current domain owner.

Domain Registration Expired

• The blog was successfully published to the domain, at one time.
• This may follow domain registration, long ago purchased from a third party registrar, or using "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptom may be unexpected content, displayed by the blog. The nature of the unexpected content will vary.
  1. In most cases, and when the blog owner is lucky, the domain will be dead, or maybe display a page of ads or an "Offsite Warning" interstitial display.
  2. In rare cases, and when the blog owner is not lucky, the blog will display contents of another blog, another website, or an "Offsite Warning" interstitial display.
• It will be diagnosed using a WhoIs log, which shows expiry and last update dates, for the domain.
• There are two possible resolutions (see two primary symptoms, above, for possible variants).
  1. With the blog owner being lucky, it is in the control of the registrar. After domain registration is renewed, the problem is resolved by the 4 step process. For best results, follow this procedure religiously.
     1. Publish the blog back to BlogSpot.
     2. If necessary (and possible), contact the registrar, and renew the registration. Then, correct the DNS addresses.
     3. Wait for the DNS latency period to expire. This is important. Failure to consider DNS latency may later lead to Internal Database Corruption. This period will vary, as a result of the TTL setting in the "A" / "CNAME" referral.
     4. Republish to the domain URL.
  2. If the blog owner was not lucky, the domain may now be in the hand of an unknown party. This will be a subject for another article.

Blog Published To Domain, Using Mixed Case URL

• The blog will be successfully published to the domain, but will not be visible from either BlogSpot or domain URLs.
• This may follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar, or using "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptom will be a "404 Not Found", when attempting to view the blog using either the BlogSpot or domain URLs.
• This will, typically, occur for new custom domains, immediately after the end of the 3 Day Transition Period.
• It will be diagnosed using a RexSwain HTTP Trace, starting from the BlogSpot URL.
• It is typically resolved by publishing the blog back to BlogSpot, then re publishing to the correct URL, using all lower case letters.

Domain Redirected To Google Ad Services, Sites, or Start Page URL

• The blog will not be successfully published to the domain.
• This may follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar, or using "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptom will be "Another blog is already hosted at this address", in the Settings - Basic - Publishing display.
• This will typically occur for new custom domains.
• It will be diagnosed using a RexSwain HTTP Trace, starting from either domain URL.
• It is typically resolved by deactivating or resetting the Ad Services, Sites, or Start Page service, using Google Apps.

Blog Published Partially, To The Custom Domain URL

• The blog will appear successfully published to the domain.
• This may follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar, or using "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptom will be "404 Not Found", when viewing the blog using one of the domain URLs - and the blog will still be published to the BlogSpot URL.
• It will be diagnosed using an excerpted Dig log, for the BlogSpot, and both domain, URLs. If each of the above diagnoses are eliminated, one by one, and "404 Not Found" is still observed, internal database corruption is the only remaining possibility.
• It is typically resolved by re publishing the blog to the domain. This symptom may mask a Service Redirect, or Internal Database Corruption.
• As you diagnose the problem, re publish the blog to the domain, and / or recycle the domain settings, please do not delete the Apps desktop account.

Internal Blogger Database Corruption

• The blog will not be successfully published to the domain.
• This may follow domain registration, purchased from a third party registrar, or using "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptom will be "Another blog is already hosted at this address", in the Settings - Basic - Publishing display.
• It will be diagnosed using an excerpted Dig log, for both domain URLs. If the above diagnoses are all eliminated, one by one, and "Another blog ..." is still observed, database corruption is the only remaining possibility.
• It is typically resolved by recycling the domain settings in Google Apps, and / or use of the Custom Domain Reset form.
• As you diagnose the problem and / or recycle the domain settings, please do not delete the Apps desktop account.

The Blog And Domain Are In Transition

• The domain will be setup - but will not redirect. The blog will be published to the domain URL.
• This will follow use of "Buy a domain".
• The primary symptom will be seen only by the owner (when properly logged in to Blogger). When clicking on the "View Blog" dashboard button / link, the owner will see an "In Transition" display.
• This will be a temporary issue, for newly purchased domains, successful purchased.
• It will be diagnosed using an excerpted Dig log, for the BlogSpot, and both domain, URLs.
• It will go away, when Transition expires, 72 to 96 hours after successful domain purchase and registration. The blog, and the domain, will then redirect properly.
• While you wait for Transition to expire, spend time reading what you will want to do, when Transition is complete.

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And if it's not too late, read Setting Up A Custom Domain, before you start.

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