Title: Domain setup issue: Stuck on "Verification Needed"

I am experiencing an issue while connecting a custom subdomain under an institutional root domain to my Vercel project. Due to the strict internal IT policies of our organization, we are allowed to add only one single DNS record per subdomain.

Here is what we have tried so far:

With only a CNAME record configured: The site returned a 404: NOT_FOUND page on Vercel, and the "Verification Needed" warning did not disappear.
With only a TXT record configured (current status): The site is completely inaccessible.

In both scenarios, Vercel continues to show the "Verification Needed" status. Currently, when we look up our subdomain using tools like dnschecker.org, the TXT record value (vc-domain-verify=...) is successfully propagated and publicly visible. However, Vercel's dashboard still fails to verify ownership because we cannot maintain both the CNAME/A record and the TXT record at the same time due to our institutional constraints.

Has anyone dealt with a similar restriction where you can only set one record? Are there alternative ways to bypass this verification step or have Vercel support manually verify the domain for us?

Any advice or workarounds would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

domain2

domian1

There's another community post with 404 debugging tips that might be helpful. Please give these solutions a try and let us know how it goes.

https://community.vercel.com/t/debugging-404-errors/437

Vercel Community

Debugging 404 Errors

Sometimes things don’t go as expected when deploying a website. If you see a 404 on your site, that means the page or resource couldn’t be found. There are...

A human should be around soon to offer more advice. But you can also get helpful information quickly by asking v0.

Leaderboard Winner

Hi Wnsah814,

I don’t think TXT vs CNAME can be treated as either/or for the final setup. They do different jobs:

TXT = proves you control the domain/subdomain
CNAME = routes traffic for that subdomain to Vercel

So the current behavior makes sense:

Only TXT present  -> Vercel can maybe verify ownership, but the site will not route
Only CNAME present -> traffic reaches Vercel, but Vercel may still reject it if ownership verification is pending

Also, if the TXT record and CNAME are being requested at the exact same hostname, many DNS providers will not allow that because a CNAME cannot coexist with other records at the same name.

I’d check the exact Name/host field Vercel is asking for. Sometimes the verification TXT is not meant to be added as the same host as the CNAME. For example, compare these separately:

dig TXT your-subdomain.example.edu +short
dig CNAME your-subdomain.example.edu +short

If Vercel really requires both records on the same hostname and your institution only allows one record total, then there probably is not a clean DNS workaround from the Vercel side. You’d need one of these:

1. temporary exception from IT to add the TXT until Vercel verifies it, then switch to CNAME
2. permanent exception allowing the required CNAME
3. delegation of that subdomain/zone to DNS you can manage
4. use a different subdomain where both verification and routing can be configured correctly

I would not try to bypass verification. If the domain is already associated with another Vercel account/team, Vercel requires that TXT proof before allowing the domain to be used safely.