The Real Blogger Status

Both the historically infamous "Another blog ..", and the currently infamous "Error 12", are part of the custom domain publishing process. Similar to the mysterious "bX" codes being an enhanced version of "We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.", "Error 12" (and variants) is an enhanced version of the monolithic "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address.". "Another blog" (which was generally seen during use of the Blogger Publishing wizard) is complemented by the equally annoying "Not found" (which is generally seen after Publishing is used).

As most of us know, Blogger HTTPS support does not include custom domain publishing . The advantages offered by HTTPS access are widely advertised - and have led to envy between blog owners who publish to custom domains, and native BlogSpot blog owners proudly advertising their new HTTPS connectivity. Long ago, we saw possibly malicious code which helps our readers avoid using country code aliases , to read our blogs from an aliased country. Recently, there was dodgy code which blocked HTTPS mode , to read a customised blog. Now, we have custom code to force HTTPS access, for BlogSpot published blogs.

If you are trying to make your custom domain published blog work, see my guide Troubleshooting Your Custom Domain Problems . If you want to know how to setup a custom domain properly, from the beginning - and avoid the need for Troubleshooting - read Setting Up DNS Addresses For Custom Domains . Avoid the most basic mistakes made - read The Simplicity Of A Custom Domain Setup . If you just setup your custom domain - and want to minimise the effects of the URL change upon your search engine relationships - read Managing The Migration . If you're just browsing, then read on - but get a good cup of coffee first. And welcome, to Nitecruzr Dot Net.

Of the many accessories and features in Blogger, Custom Domain Publishing is possibly the most problematic. Looking at the Labels index in this blog, I see the Custom Domains label on 363 posts (as of 2015/06/15) - which makes it one of the most heavily labeled single topics here. There are several challenges with diagnosing and resolving a custom domain problem. It has various different causes . It leads to many different symptoms, which can easily be confused for other problems . Its symptoms can be chronic or intermittent- and may be immediate, or may take months to exhibit themselves. It may require resolution by any blog guest, by the blog owner, by Blogger Support, and / or by a third party such as the domain registrar.

We see occasional frustration, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , involving broken or unreliable custom domains. I setup the Custom Domain properly, following the Google directions . For some of my readers, my custom domain is not opening. I can see it is going in an infinite loop in the browser - and after a long time, it's throwing errors. My domain is setup, properly. Why do I have to deal with this? And we will investigate - and in many cases, we find the domain is setup properly .

We see an occasional report in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about custom domain publishing. My readers can't view the blog - they get a redirection count error! DNS analysis shows a properly setup domain . When we try to examine the blog, we see a private blog notice - or we are required to login. But why a private blog, using a custom domain?

Some of my favourite problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , are about inconsistent blog online status. It was fine yesterday. Why is it down, now? and I see the blog, just fine! Why are some of my readers complaining? and I can access it, using my phone! Why is Blogger down, on my home computer? and The registrar tells me everything is OK! Whenever I see the latter report, I know exactly where to start.

Blog owners have been trying to block tracking their own Stats pageviews, for a few years. This option has long been unusable, for blogs published to custom domains . Recently, Blogger Engineering updated the option - and the dashboard page with the link.

Some blog owners setup their new custom domain, check all settings carefully (and correctly) - then find that it does not work. We see the confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . The addresses were right - and all the DNS servers updated correctly. But when I open the website, it does not open. It continuously reloads for 5 minutes and after 5 minutes it shows an error. It's frustrating, when everything is setup properly - but still no results.

Sometimes, you have to re publish your blog, to the domain. Maybe, you want to change the BlogSpot or domain URL, or change the blog - or maybe the previous publishing did not complete, properly. If the blog is currently published to a non BlogSpot URL, you can't just publish it, again. You have to start by publishing the blog back to a BlogSpot URL, before you can again publish the blog to a non BlogSpot URL. Given the right planning, and understanding of the tasks involved, you can do all of this in a couple minutes - less time than it will probably take you to read these instructions.

Have you ever heard the old saying I had a friend, and I had a blog. I gave my friend control of my blog - and now, I have neither a friend, or a blog. If you have a blog, and it's yours alone, then it's yours - for eternity, or until you give up control . When you make your friend a blog administrator, you give up control of the blog.

I've been observing custom domain publishing, and how it's affected by applications mapped through various Google services, for a few years. The well known "Another blog", and it's successor "Key already exists", have three possible causes . Actual content, published to the URL. Bogus DNS addresses. Database corruption. If you map a Google service to a URL in your domain, even temporarily, then simply disable the service, you can end up with a domain URL that remains mapped to the service. When you try to publish your blog to that URL, you're going to see "Another blog ..." or "Key already exists ...".

Blogger blog owners, like everybody else, like to save money. Some blog owners prefer to save money when registering a custom domain, for their blogs. We've seen several free domain registration services, providing what is claimed to be a two level Top Level Domain "co.xx" (where "xx" == various country codes). The latest in this ongoing story appears to be "net.tf" - and 13 other "top level domains" . There is also an additional free service offering third-level .tf domains, under the name United Names Organisation. They occupy 14 second-level domains , including .eu.tf, .us.tf, .net.tf , and .edu.tf. They are run by the same company as smartdots.com, and are given away as URL redirections.

Sometimes, we see the frustration, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about custom domain setup. I try to publish my blog to my domain, and I get We have not been able to verify your authority to this domain. Error 14. even when I know I have added the necessary DNS addresses. Why does Blogger ignore my addresses? When we check, using multiple tools - such as DigWebInterface , or Kloth , or WhoIs , we see no addresses. Even, in some cases, when the blog owner is thoughtful enough to include well displayed copy of the zone editor display.

One of the more promising features of Google Domains - besides the ability to access the Google Domains dashboard using a normal Google account - may be a recently discovered option. I could not make my domain work, so I contacted Google Domains Support. They provided a simple adjustment, that actually worked! Google Domains Support appears to be available, to anyone who purchases a domain, using Google Domains.

We are seeing a few blog owners reporting, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , of inability to use various dashboard functions. I am seeing "This Connection Is Untrusted" - You have asked Firefox to connect securely to 7749195048983246407_73be54cd6d1c58526e719a5edd6d94a945570409.blogspot.com, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure. This prevents me from using various preview features. We suspect that the problem involves the Firefox browser, possibly following the latest update .

We're seeing an increasing number of problem reports, mentioning Google Domains. Google Domains is becoming a popular registrar for new custom domains - and this leads to more problems, reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Many reports look like timing problems, from long ago . The most common symptom is the mysterious Redirect Warning. I purchased a Google Domains site, and connected it to Blogger so it redirects my blog to my domain, no problem. The problem is now when accessing the BlogSpot URL, it now shows a redirect warning message, which is killing my web traffic. This blog is not hosted by Blogger and has not been checked for spam, viruses and other forms of malware. How do I publish my blog, and keep my readers, with this confusion?

Blogger blog owners, like everybody else, like to save money. Some blog owners prefer to save money when registering a custom domain, for their blogs. We've seen several free domain registration services, providing what is claimed to be a two level Top Level Domain "co.xx" (where "xx" == various country codes). The latest in this ongoing story appears to be "co.vu".

The Google Domains feature, possibly developed as a replacement for the long discontinued and well missed "Buy a domain for your blog", appears to have problems similar to "Buy a domain" when first developed. We're seeing a small, but steadily increasing, flow of problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Problems being reported look similar to those typically seen with domains purchased long ago using "Buy a domain", before the "Transition" period was introduced to Blogger custom domain publishing.

This blog is " blogging.nitecruzr.net ". If I wanted to dress up the URL slightly, I might tell you it's " Blogging.Nitecruzr.Net ". Either URL should work, for reading the blog, equally well - with the domain setup properly. Both blogs published to "blogspot.com" - and to non BlogSpot (aka "custom domain") - URLs are subjected to unexpected mixed case variations , from time to time.