When you first connect a custom domain to your involve.me account, you may encounter the “DNS Not Validated” error. This means that the DNS entries for your domain have not been properly set up, preventing your custom domain from being connected to your involve.me account.
In this article, we will guide you through the steps to solve this error and successfully connect your custom domain.
If you followed the steps on how to connect your custom domain, then head over to the "Manage Domains" page, which you can access by opening the dropdown next to your name on the top right. Here, you will see a list of all your active custom domains, as well as any that are not yet activated/validated.
Click the "DNS Not Validated" text which should bring up a pop-up like this one:
For this example, we used "subdomain.mydomain.com" as our custom domain.
Keep the information from this pop-up (the one you got, not the above example) at hand, as you might need it for some of the troubleshooting steps below.
With this being said, these are some of the most common reasons for the "DNS Not Validated" error:
Not Enough Time Has Passed
Even if the DNS record has been set up correctly, it can take some time for DNS changes to propagate and for your custom domain to be fully connected.
Please wait at least 1-2 hours before checking.
The DNS Entry Was Not Entered Correctly
To connect your custom domain, you will need to create a CNAME DNS record with your provider, by using the entries provided by involve.me (see above screenshot example). If the record was not entered correctly, your custom domain will not be validated.
Not entering the DNS correctly on the domain provider's interface is a common mistake, but it can just as easily be solved/avoided by editing it.
The steps for creating or editing a DNS entry will depend on the domain provider you're using, as each one will have it's own way of doing things. When creating an entry, some require you to put in subdomain.domain.com while others just require subdomain as the hostname (because the domain is always appended). Same thing for the value, some require you to enter custom.invovle.me and others require custom.involve.me. (dot at the end if the domain is external).
To ensure that the DNS record is set up correctly, you can also use a tool like MXToolbox to look up the record.
If even after trying the above troubleshooting the issue persists, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team for assistance.