Custom Domain Field Clears Every Time I Deploy

[eszabo12]

Select Topic Area

Question

Body

This is my repo link: https://github.com/eszabo12/eszabo12.github.io

My custom domain is http://elleszabo.com

I'm using gh-pages branch created by the npm gh-pages package. When I deploy from my local computer to the remote using npm run deploy, it works and it updates to master. However, when I do this it says that it's being deployed at https://eszabo12.github.io instead of my custom domain, which I had already saved and had been approved.

Every time I deploy, the custom domain field in the github pages setting page clears, and I have to completely reenter it in order for the site to deploy on my custom domain. The "save" button is misleading because it really does not save at all. I have a CNAME file in the root of my directory, and have done everything I thought I was supposed to do. It works when I reenter the custom domain, but how do I get it to save the domain between deploys?

Thanks.

[yoannchaudet]

1. Delete your CNAME file
2. Go to your Pages settings and make sure the custom domain field contains your custom domain
3. Try again and let us know if that still happens

[eszabo12]

It still happens.

[andreslagarcavilla]

I have the same problem. Every time I use the UI to add the custom domain and hit Save, it is not added

[zhugejun]

Same issue here. Can anyone help?

[yoannchaudet]

Nowadays, you don't really need this Action anymore. Pages natively supports Actions. You end up having two workflows running to make a single deployment of your site now. Take a look at https://github.blog/2022-08-10-github-pages-now-uses-actions-by-default/. We do have a Hugo starter workflow too.

When a Pages site builds with Actions, we actually don't even look at the CNAME file anymore. This is a fragile system we are sunsetting (for all the kind of troubles you had in the first place with it).

[zhugejun]

Wow, thanks for the info. I didn't know that. I will disable my customized action instead.

[zhugejun]

@yoannchaudet I have another question about the default Action. When does it run? I pushed some changes, but it seemed that it didn't run immediately. How do I trigger the Action? Can I run it manually? Thank you.

[yoannchaudet]

When the Pages source is set to "GitHub Actions" then your workflow is defining when it runs. In our starter workflows, it's configured by default to run on a push to the default repo branch (see here). You can also add a workflow_dispatch trigger so you can run the workflow manually yourself (see doc).

[N2IT]

I was recently running into the same issue where the custom domain was clearing out any time I redeployed. To address I added a CNAME file with to the root calling out the custom domain, www.example.com, and updated the package.json file with, ``"predeploy": "npm run build && cp CNAME build/CNAME".

This did the trick. Now anytime I make changes and push the custom domain field within the pages section does not clear out.

[dolanbs1959]

I had a similar issue with my Angular app. I had to add "src/CNAME" to the angular.json file and then run a new build. This added the CNAME file in the build output directory, and when I pushed it to the remote repo the custom domain was intact.

The issue I'm having now is that my app won't run with my (verified) custom domain. When I remove the CNAME file it works. I can't figure it out, nor have I been able to find any solutions.

[jdevfullstack]

Copilot suggests this, though I'm just trying to help, not sure about this,

---

The issue you're experiencing is likely due to the gh-pages package deleting and recreating the gh-pages branch each time you deploy, which also deletes the CNAME file in that branch. The CNAME file is what GitHub uses to associate your custom domain with your GitHub Pages site.

To fix this, you can modify your deploy script to automatically create the CNAME file each time you deploy. Here's how you can do it:

1. Create a CNAME file in your source code directory (not in the gh-pages branch, but in the branch where you run your deploy script from). This file should contain your custom domain (elleszabo.com).

2. Modify your deploy script to copy the CNAME file to the build directory before deploying. If you're using Create React App, the build directory is usually build/.

Here's an example of how you can modify your scripts section in package.json:

"scripts": {
  "predeploy": "npm run build && cp CNAME build/",
  "deploy": "gh-pages -d build",
  "start": "react-scripts start",
  "build": "react-scripts build",
  // ...
}

In this example, the predeploy script runs before the deploy script. It builds your app and copies the CNAME file to the build directory. Then, the deploy script deploys the contents of the build directory (including the CNAME file) to the gh-pages branch.

Now, each time you run npm run deploy, the CNAME file should be included in the gh-pages branch, and your custom domain should persist between deploys.

[dolanbs1959]

I found the problem I was having was due to the order in which I was making modifications. I would push to the repo, then add the subdomain. When I launched from gh pages, it worked fine. But whenever I would push a new build to the repo I found the subdomain was missing. The step I was skipping was to sync the local repo and the remote repo. I had to run a pull after adding the subdomain, which added the CNAME file to the local repo. From then on, I haven't had any issues.