Available on every plan · Updated 12 September 2026
Also asked as: “records look right but nothing happens” · “what does record present mean” · “domain says not resolving” · “cant check status” · “my domain says pending”
While a domain is connecting, the records table on Settings → Custom Domain gives every row its own state. They are not degrees of the same thing: each answers a different question, and two of them are about us rather than about you.
The five record states
| State | What it is claiming | Is it yours to fix? |
|---|---|---|
| Verified | We asked, and the answer proves this record is pointing at us. | No, it is done. |
| Record present | Something is there, and DNS alone cannot prove it is ours. | No. Expected on the bare domain row during setup. |
| Incorrect | A record exists with that name and it names something else. | Yes. Replace the value. |
| Not found | Nothing is there yet. | Yes, if you have not added it. It is also the normal starting state. |
| Can't check | Our own lookup failed. | No. This is ours, never a fault of yours. |
Two of those deserve more than a row.
Record present, and why the bare domain stops there
Only the routing row of a root domain ever shows this, and only while you are setting up.
A bare domain cannot carry a CNAME, so your provider answers with addresses instead of a name. The addresses that serve storefronts here sit in an enormous shared pool that is not ours alone, so seeing them proves something is answering; it does not prove it is your store. Record present states exactly the fact we have and claims no verdict either way. It is not a tick, and it is not a warning.
Once your store is actually being served on the domain, we can ask the question a different way and get a real answer, and the row settles to Verified on its own. That usually happens within minutes of going live. A live connection never leaves a row sitting at Record present.
Not found is grey, not amber
A record you have not added yet is where everybody starts, not a problem. Three grey rows on a fresh root domain connection is what a correct beginning looks like. Red is kept for a record that is genuinely wrong.
Can't check is ours
If our lookup could not reach a resolver, we say so rather than reporting your records as missing. It is never counted against you, and it clears by itself.
The status at the top is a different question
The pill beside your domain describes the connection, not one record.
| Pill | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | We are waiting for your records, or one of them needs fixing. We keep checking. You can close the page. |
| Issuing SSL | Your records are confirmed and the certificate is being issued. A few minutes, nothing for you to do. |
| Live | Connected and serving, with HTTPS on and a certificate that renews itself. |
| Not resolving | It was live, and a routing record has stopped pointing at us. Your store is still reachable at its Shoponent domain. |
| Not connected | We stopped checking after three days without the records appearing. Start again gives a fresh set. |
Below the pill there is always exactly one message, never two, and it names the rows to fix rather than describing the kind of fault.
How often we look
While a domain is pending we keep checking on our own, so you can leave the page. Check now looks immediately, and disappears once a domain is live, because there is nothing left to poll.
Once live, we check daily, and we only tell you something is wrong after two consecutive daily failures. One failed lookup is far more often weather on the internet than your records being gone, and we would rather be a day slow than cry wolf about your shop being down.
One thing we cannot see
Our checks run from our own network. If your records are correct everywhere except in the caches near you, or near your customers in one country, we will read the domain as healthy while those visitors get an error.
This is real, it is usually the aftermath of moving DNS provider, and the giveaway is "it works for my friend abroad but not for me". It clears on its own, and it is the reason we ask you to have the old DNS host delete the zone rather than merely stop using it.
If it does not work
- Everything reads Verified and the pill still says Pending: the certificate is being issued. Give it a few minutes.
- A row reads Incorrect: your provider has a record with that name pointing somewhere else. Replace the value rather than adding a second record with the same name.
- The pill says Not resolving: the message names the rows that stopped pointing at us. Restore them at your provider.
- Check now says everything is fine and your shop is down: try a private window, and see the note above about caches near you.
- We stopped checking: three days passed. Get the records in place, then Start again.
Email support@shoponent.com with the domain and a screenshot of your provider's records if anything here does not match what you see. We read and answer every message.