Solve common problems when adding a custom domain name
Although the process of adding a custom domain name is simple, you might face a few problems.
Unknown to you, some members of your sales department have started using Power BI. They signed up with their @proseware.com work email addresses. This action created an unmanaged Microsoft Entra organization with users in that team.
In this unit, you'll resolve the unmanaged Microsoft Entra organization problem, explore other problems, and see how to resolve them.
A custom domain name is under an unmanaged organization
If members of your organization sign up for another Microsoft service like OneDrive or Power BI, their email domain is used to create an unmanaged Microsoft Entra organization. This organization or directory is useable for only that service. You can't add it as a custom domain in Microsoft Entra ID.
You have two options to resolve this problem. Which option you use depends on the service they signed up for.
- Internal admin takeover: Add yourself as the global administrator for the unmanaged organization.
- External admin takeover: Add the Domain Name System (DNS) domain name to your managed Microsoft Entra organization.
The best solution is external admin takeover. Unfortunately, that's not an option for some services. The following table lists your option for each service:
| Service | Solution |
|---|---|
| SharePoint | Internal admin takeover |
| OneDrive | Internal admin takeover |
| Microsoft 365 | Internal admin takeover |
| Power BI | External admin takeover |
| Azure Rights Management | External admin takeover |
| Exchange Online | External admin takeover |
| Dynamics 365 | External admin takeover |
Because the sales team signed up for Power BI in this scenario, you can do an external admin takeover. The steps are the same as for adding a custom domain. The unmanaged organization won't stop you from completing those steps.
After you add your custom domain to your managed organization, all the following items are moved into your Microsoft Entra organization:
- Domain name users
- Subscriptions
- License assignments
Internal admin takeovers are more complex, and involve signing up for a Power BI account for the unmanaged organization. After you sign up, use Microsoft 365 to verify the domain name. No users or service plans migrate during an internal takeover.
Domain name verification isn't working
When you verify your domain, you update the DNS records with your domain name registrar. A period of time is required for the change to propagate through the world's DNS servers. This can take an hour or more. During this period, Azure can't read the record or verify the domain name.
If the domain is still unverified after an hour, check that you've entered the correct details. You can check them directly with your registrar or by using the Resolve-DnsName PowerShell command:
Resolve-DnsName -Name proseware.com -Type TXT
You should get something like this:
Name Type TTL Section Strings
---- ---- --- ------- -------
proseware.com TXT 3600 Answer {MS=ms94126796}
A domain name is already in use
A domain name created in one Microsoft Entra organization won't be verified in a new organization. Delete the custom domain name from the old Microsoft Entra organization. Also delete any created users or apps that use the domain name in their app ID URI. After you delete these resources and the domain name, you can then add the custom domain name to the new Microsoft Entra organization.