a month ago
Hi Railway support,
I need help with a custom domain that's been stuck on "Validating domain ownership" for hours on service coursea.
Domain: coursea.co
Service: coursea
DNS state (verified via Google DNS 8.8.8.8):
CNAME:
$ dig CNAME coursea.co
coursea.co. 1799 IN CNAME qyc9jgas.up.railway.app.
TXT:
$ dig TXT _railway-verify.coursea.co
_railway-verify.coursea.co. 1799 IN TXT "railway-verify=9f12f95c51e87de4cef9ed5e71a35993def24b9aa805a4fb4880d2f2bfb932a4"
Both values are byte-for-byte identical to what Railway shows in the "Configure DNS Records" popup. Global DNS propagation confirmed via dnschecker.org — 100% green worldwide.
Steps already taken:
Set CNAME and TXT records in Namecheap according to Railway's exact instructions
Verified propagation globally
Waited over 30 minutes for Railway verification
Removed the domain from Railway → re-added it → same result
Both records are propagated and match what Railway expects, but Railway's verifier never marks the domain as validated
Additional context — Railway URL regeneration:
Today the internal service URL for coursea was regenerated three times:
dtijd0fl.up.railway.app → dc7oflv6.up.railway.app → qyc9jgas.up.railway.app
Each regeneration forced us to manually update Namecheap and re-verify. This raises two questions:
Is URL regeneration expected behavior on our plan, or a bug?
Could the verifier have cached the previous CNAME target (dc7oflv6) and be checking against it instead of the current one (qyc9jgas)?
As a workaround, I've now set up www.coursea.co with a new CNAME (lxdk6vqc.up.railway.app) and TXT record. This will hopefully verify cleanly since subdomains don't have any CNAME-at-apex edge cases. But we'd still like coursea.co (apex) to work as the primary domain.
Request:
Please force manual re-verification of the domain coursea.co on service coursea
Please confirm whether the internal service URL regeneration is expected — if it happens repeatedly, we'll need to migrate DNS to Cloudflare for stability
If possible, share any logs or diagnostic info from your verifier explaining why the current setup isn't validating
Thanks,
Ciprian
6 Replies
a month ago
This thread has been opened as a public bounty so the community can help solve it. The thread and any further activity are now visible to everyone.
Status changed to Open Railway • about 1 month ago
a month ago
Your DNS provider doesn't support CNAME flattening.
- Move your nameservers from Namecheap to Cloudflare.
- In cloudflare DNS settings, add CNAME FOR @ POINTING TO qyc9jgas.up.railway.app
- Proxy status should be DNS only.
a month ago
It may take up to a few hours (maybe even a day) for Railway to validate the DNS and issue certificates. If one isn't issued by then, try removing the domain from Railway and add it back after ~10-15 mins.
h701h
Your DNS provider doesn't support CNAME flattening. 1. Move your nameservers from Namecheap to Cloudflare. 2. In cloudflare DNS settings, add CNAME FOR @ POINTING TO qyc9jgas.up.railway.app 2. Proxy status should be DNS only.
a month ago
Namecheap does support CNAME flattening, it's even mentioned in the docs: https://docs.railway.com/networking/domains/working-with-domains#adding-a-root-domain.
darseen
Namecheap does support CNAME flattening, it's even mentioned in the docs: https://docs.railway.com/networking/domains/working-with-domains#adding-a-root-domain.
a month ago
That's why migration to cloudflare is advised
h701h
That's why migration to cloudflare is advised
a month ago
It's only recommended as a workaround if your DNS provider doesn't support CNAME Flattening or dynamic ALIAS records at the root. Namecheap supports CNAME flattening.
a month ago
For reverification of your domain;
- delete the custom domain (coursea.co) from your service in the Railway dashboard.
2.Wait about 10–15 minutes. Then Re-add the custom domain.
Migrating to cloudflare is still an option.