Users can no longer access the SharePoint Online public website that's hosted on a custom domain in Office 365 for enterprises pre-upgrade

Consider the following scenario. In Microsoft SharePoint Online for Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises pre-upgrade, you created a site collection that uses a custom domain name, and then you designated the site collection as your public website. Users could previously access the website. However, users can no longer access the website. When they try to access the website, they receive an error message that resembles one of the following:

Before you can use this resolution, the following conditions must be true:

• The custom domain is added back to the Domains�list in the Microsoft Office 365 portal, and the domain is verified.
• The domain intent of the custom domain is configured to use SharePoint Online.
  
  Note To view or configure domain intent settings, follow these steps:
  1. On the Admin page of the Office 365 portal, click Domains.
  2. Click to select the check box next to the domain, click View properties, and then click Edit domain intent.

To resolve this issue, rename the public website by configuring it to use the domain name that you used to register in Office 365. Then, rename it again by configuring it to use the custom domain name. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Office 365 portal.
2. Click Admin, and then under SharePoint Online, click Manage to open the SharePoint Online Administration Center.
3. Click Manage site collections.
4. Rename the website to use the domain name that you used to register in Office 365. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. In the site collections list, click to select the check box that is next to the website, and then on the ribbon, click Website Domains.
   2. In the Rename Your Website dialog box, click http://<tenantname>-web.sharepoint.com, and then click OK.
   3. Wait for the rename operation to finish. It should take approximately five minutes to finish. However, it may take longer. For example, it may take a day if there is heavy load on the system.
      
      You can tell that the operation is completed when the green spinning wheel that appears next to the site in the site collections list is no longer displayed.
5. When the rename operation is completed, rename the website to use the vanity domain name. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. In the site collections list, click to select the check box that's next to the website, and then on the ribbon, click�Website Domains.
   2. In the Rename Your Website dialog box, select the vanity domain, and then click OK.
   3. Wait for the rename operation finish. This should take about five minutes to finish. However, it may take longer. For example, it may take a day if there's a heavy load on the system.
      
      You can tell that operation is completed when the green spinning wheel that appears next to the site in the site collections list is no longer displayed.
   
   
6. Make sure that the Domain Name System (DNS) settings for the vanity domain that you use are configured correctly with your domain registrar.
   
   To view the required settings, click DNS Settings on the ribbon. Be aware that if you change DNS settings with your domain registrar, it may take 72 hours for the changes to propagate throughout the Internet.
7. Test to confirm whether the public website can be accessed.
8. If the website still cannot be accessed, contact Microsoft Office 365 technical support.

This issue occurs if the custom domain was removed from and then re-added to the list of domains on the Domains page of the Office 365 portal.

Still need help? Go to the Office 365 Community website.