## **Overview**

When you connect a custom domain to Search Atlas, our platform performs a DNS verification check to confirm you own the domain. If your domain is managed through **Cloudflare**, its proxy setting (the orange cloud icon) can interfere with this process — causing verification to fail or your site to become unreachable inside the platform.

This article explains how Cloudflare proxying affects domain verification and what information to have ready so our team can help you resolve it quickly.

## **How Cloudflare Proxying Affects Verification**

Cloudflare offers two DNS modes for each record:

- **Proxied (orange cloud):** Traffic is routed through Cloudflare's network. The real IP address of your server is hidden from external lookups.
- **DNS Only (grey cloud):** DNS resolves directly to your server's IP. No Cloudflare proxy is applied.

Search Atlas needs to resolve your domain to our servers to verify ownership and route traffic correctly. When Cloudflare's proxy is active, it returns Cloudflare's own IP addresses instead — so our verification check can fail even if your DNS record appears to be configured correctly.

## **What You Can Check on Your End**

Before contacting support, review the following in your Cloudflare DNS settings:

- Confirm whether the record pointing to Search Atlas is set to **Proxied (orange cloud)** or **DNS Only (grey cloud)**.
- Note the record type currently in use (CNAME or A record) and the value it is pointing to.
- Check whether there are multiple conflicting records (for example, both a CNAME and an A record) for the same hostname.

Because the correct DNS configuration depends on details specific to your Search Atlas account and project setup, our support team will need to confirm the exact record type and target value for your domain before you make any changes. Making changes without confirmed instructions from our team may cause additional downtime.

## **What to Have Ready When You Contact Us**

To help our team resolve this as quickly as possible, please have the following information ready:

- The domain or subdomain you are trying to connect to Search Atlas
- The current DNS record type (CNAME or A record) and the value it points to, as shown in your Cloudflare dashboard
- Whether Cloudflare proxying is currently set to orange cloud (Proxied) or grey cloud (DNS Only)
- Any error message shown in Search Atlas when verification fails
- The approximate time you first noticed the issue

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type **human teammate** to be connected with a member of our team.