Can't redirect root domain

Oooh nooo.. I'm having this exact situation and I keep getting back generic responses from Squarespace saying they are looking into it but don't know when it'll be fixed. According to the first post here this has been going on since November of last year. This does not fill me with confidence that they are actually anywhere near close to solving this. For a first time customer I'm not pleased with what's happening or the customer service so far.

7 hours ago, ACRutten said:

Oooh nooo.. I'm having this exact situation and I keep getting back generic responses from Squarespace saying they are looking into it but don't know when it'll be fixed. According to the first post here this has been going on since November of last year. This does not fill me with confidence that they are actually anywhere near close to solving this. For a first time customer I'm not pleased with what's happening or the customer service so far.

That's about the gist of things. I'm currently trying out the wwwizer method, but it's nevertheless disappointing that the issue persists. Been getting the same responses also.

If you are having trouble with forwarding your Squarespace root domain URL to your outside web page, make sure to delete all your DNS records. sign out of Squarespace and then signing. and add the new records. Do not add  A N/A 198.185.159.144. I am using Google Sites, so I have to add the following 

www CNAME ghs.googlehosted.com. 

@ A N/A 198.185.159.145

@ A N/A 198.49.23.144

@ A N/A 198.49.23.145 

the other CNAME, which I redacted is the domain verification from Google Ownership verification details, and the Squarespace domain is now automatically forwarding to my Google sites. See the attached picture.

PS. I am a freelance web developer helping people with low budgets set up their websites with Google Sites, PayPal, and Squarespace domains. example of my work. my client's website, see.  https://www.zeebayafricanfoods.com/ and https://www.intouchsolutionsllc.com/ if you would like to contact me elvizbiz@gmail.com. 

An easy workaround for this that worked for me is using URL Mapping. (Dev Tools > Url Mappings)

My client needs to re-direct his website temporarily for a merch drop on his Shopify store so I used a 302 re-direct. Here's the formula:

https://yourwebsite.com/ -> https://newwebsite.com/ 302
 

Same problem here. Tried the workarounds suggested above but won't work either.

5 hours ago, diplomasurconnect said:

Same problem here. Tried the workarounds suggested above but won't work either.

Try using 302 redirects without using the domain forwarding tool by Squarespace.

On 2/26/2024 at 6:28 PM, Nabiloh said:

Try using 302 redirects without using the domain forwarding tool by Squarespace.

Thank you so much. My site is hosted at Google Sites... Would this tip work for me? Could you tell me what to do?

I've had this same issue with my domain from squarespace linked to a Google Site, trying to get it resolved...

From squarespace support:

To summarize--upon visiting your domain, I see that typing www.moliternocarpentry.com leads me to your site, but typing your root domain moliternocarpentry.com (without the "www") does not.

We’re currently investigating an issue with root domains (without the "www") not redirecting to Google Sites—thanks for reporting this to us. Our Engineering teams are prioritizing a fix for this as we speak.
 
There are many variables that we test against before we release a fix, so we can’t provide an exact timeframe for a resolution. We can’t always follow up personally when a fix is released due to the volume of reports we receive for this issue.
 
That said, these reports are crucial for us as we improve our platform. If you notice any other unusual behavior, please contact us again.
 
In the meantime, you may continue using your "www" domain, or you may also choose to change and share your built-in domain as well:

On 2/27/2024 at 10:08 PM, smoliterno said:

I've had this same issue with my domain from squarespace linked to a Google Site, trying to get it resolved...

From squarespace support:

To summarize--upon visiting your domain, I see that typing www.moliternocarpentry.com leads me to your site, but typing your root domain moliternocarpentry.com (without the "www") does not.

---

We’re currently investigating an issue with root domains (without the "www") not redirecting to Google Sites—thanks for reporting this to us. Our Engineering teams are prioritizing a fix for this as we speak.
 
There are many variables that we test against before we release a fix, so we can’t provide an exact timeframe for a resolution. We can’t always follow up personally when a fix is released due to the volume of reports we receive for this issue.
 
That said, these reports are crucial for us as we improve our platform. If you notice any other unusual behavior, please contact us again.
 
In the meantime, you may continue using your "www" domain, or you may also choose to change and share your built-in domain as well:

Great! Thanks for sharing.

On 2/23/2024 at 6:20 PM, Etanyi said:

If you are having trouble with forwarding your Squarespace root domain URL to your outside web page, make sure to delete all your DNS records. sign out of Squarespace and then signing. and add the new records. Do not add  A N/A 198.185.159.144. I am using Google Sites, so I have to add the following 

www CNAME ghs.googlehosted.com. 

@ A N/A 198.185.159.145

@ A N/A 198.49.23.144

@ A N/A 198.49.23.145 

the other CNAME, which I redacted is the domain verification from Google Ownership verification details, and the Squarespace domain is now automatically forwarding to my Google sites. See the attached picture.

PS. I am a freelance web developer helping people with low budgets set up their websites with Google Sites, PayPal, and Squarespace domains. example of my work. my client's website, see.  https://www.zeebayafricanfoods.com/ and https://www.intouchsolutionsllc.com/ if you would like to contact me elvizbiz@gmail.com. 

 

Thanks... but your https://intouchsolutionsllc.com/ and https://zeebayafricanfoods.com/ are not working right now.

Using the WWWizer A record worked for me as of today with no https redirect warnings whatsoever. Had to remove other A records that were in there before.

Same issue. Tried all suggestions above and nothing worked.

Seems that Squarespace removed their site mapping section/renamed it to domaining forwarding?

I'm very disappointed that this is an issue, I've contacted Squarespace and will post an update shortly.

Update: I was told to keep the 'use www prefix' setting off for 24 hours, then to retry the domain forward. I'll update in 24 hours

@lw64 I tried the wwwizer and didn't make it work been trying for many hours. But I see the site https://www.tock.life/ is now working with out the www. did anyone else make it work? Will be moving out of squarespace if I can't make it work. 

On 3/11/2024 at 6:18 PM, BenMitchell said:

Update: I was told to keep the 'use www prefix' setting off for 24 hours, then to retry the domain forward. I'll update in 24 hours

Did you make it work?

I can't tell what Etanyi has put in for the host of the other CNAME. I found my Google site verification TXT. It is not in the form of a CNAME. Has anyone else found a solution?

Hey all, 

I was having the same naked domain forwarding issue and couldn't set up Domain Forwarding on my Sq Space domain page.  Kept getting the same issues that others above mentioned when trying to SAVE the forward rule.  But I think I found a way to fix it.  This applies to Google Sites hosted websites. 

When you add the CNAME record as shown below, as instructed by Google Sites when you add the custom domain to the Google Sites settings, I did not have the period "." after the CNAME.  See image below (no period at the end).

 When I added the "." so the CNAME is:  "ghs.googlehosted.com."  (without the quotes), then I was able to create and save the forwarding rule in Sq Space domain page.  It said it should take 24-48 hours to start working.  Fingers crossed!  I just did it, so will check again in a day or two to see if it's working.  But this is farther than I was able to get before, so hopefully it will work!  

Following up from my post from yesterday, I just checked my naked domain today with browsers that didn't work before I made the updates described above, and it worked!!  So problem solved.  You just have to add the period (".") to the end of  "ghs.googlehosted.com."  then do the Domain Forwarding from @ to www on your main domain settings page.  It took a day for this to start working.  Yay!

Bumping this.

I published my naked domain places never anticipating this issue. If I can't figure this out soon I might be forced to change everything to my subdomain.  

The really embarrassing part is I usually am the guy who helps other people with this stuff, but there is not much I can do when it says "try again later".  What's later?  Weeks months?  Years?

The redirect used to be so easy. Any news on this? 

same problem,i was with googledomains previously but after they switch my domain to squarespace this problem turned up

I am having the same issue, but I deleted the default Squarespace settings days ago.  (Still an issue)  We are trying to use Domain Forwarding, but it only allows me to enter the root domain, not WWW.domain.org.  Tech support is worthless, telling to wait ANOTHER 72 hours, then I have the same issue.  I phoned, and no one is home...

Hey all!  I've had my rounds with support about this issue.  I did find a solution.  Delete the squarespace defaults under DNS.  Add your forwarding rule with just the @.  If it won't let you save, do a hard refresh, log back in, do it again, and it will work.  I selected the SSL options (not sure if this matters).  After the rule is in place, head back to DNS and add the squarespace defaults again.  Give it a couple and your root & www will forward just fine.  The interesting thing is adding a root forwarding rule will delete these custom records.  Doesn't make a lick of sense but I probably had 14 hours in this trying to figure it out and this finally worked.  Support was no help here, just trial and error.  I'm doing another test on a separate domain forwarding to the same site just adding the cname www record only "ext-sq.squarespace.com".  As of now, that domain is working for root & www in safari and only www in chrome.  Going to give it a few days to see if it starts working and will update my other domains if that is a better solution as there shouldn't be a records when you have a forwarding rule setup.  I halfway get the www cname record.  I'm doing this test because I noticed the cname record was the only record that was kept IF you had the default squarespace records loaded prior to setting up your forwarding rule.  They just delete the a records which actually makes sense.  I have verified the www cname record is not added if the squarespace default records were not previously in DNS prior to adding the rule.  We'll see what happens with that test over the next couple of days.  I'm also testing another domain with just the forwarding rule in place with no default cname & a records assigned.  I'm betting it'll keep not working.  I'm betting the other test with the www cname record will start working for root & www but will report back on that.  Anyway, it will work for you if you just add those squarespace default records after applying your forwarding rule.  

Oh, one more thing.  I noticed that it stated I had custom name servers after messing with the forwarding rule.  Checked and the "customer name servers" were pointing to squarespace.  I just clicked use squarespace name servers and it resolved that issue.  I mean, I never had the domains pointing anywhere to it was an obvious glitch.  I notified support about this and they have a ticket open.  If you see that your DNS is being hosted somewhere else, be sure to fix that as it's pointing back to the same squarespace nameservers (makese no sense).  I'm guessing that's why website forwarding might not be working for a lot of people as well.  I noticed this on all my domains after editing the forwarding rule, happened every time.  Has to be a google domains migration glitch.  

Just an update... The domain I have only the www cname record is only working with www.  The domain with no squarespace default DNS with the same forwarding rule only forwards the root & not www.  The domain I have the squarespace preset fully loaded with cname & a records still works perfect for root & www. forwarding.