How to connect a custom domain to your Locker

Before you start

• Your Locker needs Pro. A legacy Pro trial that has not expired or an applicable billing grace period counts.
• You have to be the owner. An admin can see the domain status but cannot change the domain.
• Your identity confirmation has to be current. If it is not, the card reads: Confirm your identity before changing the domain, with a Confirm identity link. Authenticator setup happens on lockers.social, covered in the article Set up an authenticator and confirm your identity.
• You need access to the DNS settings for the domain.
• Pick one hostname, since each Locker uses a single custom domain. A subdomain such as community.example.com is the simpler choice, and an apex domain such as example.com is supported.

Add the domain

The card tells you what to expect while you wait: DNS changes usually show up in a few minutes and can take up to an hour. You can close this page; we keep checking. Until the record reaches Lockers the card says it cannot see the record yet. You can select Verify again to check right away, or close the page and come back later.

1. 1

   Open Admin

   Open your Locker and select Admin, then Settings, then Domains.

2. 2

   Find the Domain card

   The Domain card is at the top of the page, above Email replies.

3. 3

   Enter your hostname

   Type the exact hostname you want to use, with no https:// and no page path, then select Add domain.

4. 4

   Add the DNS records

   Open the DNS settings for that domain and add every record Lockers displays. One of them is a TXT record that belongs to your Locker alone.

5. 5

   Open the site

   When the status reads verified, select Open site to load your Locker on the new address.

What to expect after it verifies

Members reach your Locker at the custom hostname, and that is the address they see in the address bar from then on. Your hosted name.lockers.social address forwards to the custom domain and keeps the page path, so older links and bookmarks still open the page they pointed to. If you connected an apex domain such as example.com, Lockers routes www.example.com as well.

The first time a member opens the community after the change, they sign in again. Selecting Sign in takes them to lockers.social and brings them back to your custom domain, on the page they started from. They only type a password if they are not already signed in to Lockers in that browser.

Replace the domain

The old hostname stops routing as soon as you replace it, so anyone who uses it is sent to your hosted address and signs in again there. Give the replacement time to verify before you share it.

1. 1

   Open the Domain card

   Go to Admin, then Settings, then Domains.

2. 2

   Select Replace domain

   Lockers removes the current hostname and the card returns to its empty state.

3. 3

   Add the replacement

   Enter the replacement hostname, select Add domain, then add the records Lockers displays for it.

Remove the domain

Go to Admin, then Settings, then Domains, and select Remove domain.

Removal detaches the custom hostname from your Locker. Visitors who use the custom address are sent to your hosted name.lockers.social address, and members sign in again there.

If verification does not pass

• A proxy is switched on at your DNS provider. Turn it off for that record, or set it to DNS only.
• An older A record is still in place and takes precedence over the record Lockers gave you. Remove it.
• The record is on the wrong host. For community.example.com the record belongs on community, not on @.
• Check that the hostname in Lockers matches the records you edited, character for character.
• Use only the records Lockers shows you. Records copied from another site or another service will not verify this Locker.
• DNS caches can delay a new TXT record. Wait a while, then select Verify again.
• A domain that never verifies expires after 24 hours. Add the hostname again to get a fresh set of records.

What a custom domain does not change

A custom domain covers the web address and nothing else. Community notification email still sends from notify@lockers.social, and connecting a domain does not create a sending address on your own domain or add incoming email. You can still choose which address receives replies to those notifications. The article Set where community email replies go covers that setting.

Sign-in happens on lockers.social whichever address a member starts from, and they come back to your community afterward.