Custom domain NotServedByPagesError after 24+ hours — everything configured correctly

[VanguardCraftworks]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

Body

Hey all, hoping someone can help me figure out what I'm missing here.
I've been trying to get a custom domain working on my GitHub Pages site for over 24 hours and keep hitting a wall with NotServedByPagesError.
My setup:

Repo: vanguardcraftworks/vanguardcraftworks.github.io
Custom domain: vanguardcraftworks.com
Registrar: Namecheap

What I've done:

Four A records pointing to 185.199.108.135, 185.199.109.135, 185.199.110.135, 185.199.111.135
CNAME record for www pointing to vanguardcraftworks.github.io
CNAME file in repo root containing vanguardcraftworks.com
Domain verified at account level via TXT record — verified successfully
Custom domain added in repo Pages settings

What I get:
"Both vanguardcraftworks.com and its alternate name are improperly configured. Domain does not resolve to the GitHub Pages server. (NotServedByPagesError)"
When I visit the domain directly I get: "Fastly error: unknown domain: vanguardcraftworks.com"
DNS checker tools confirm all records are propagating correctly worldwide. Site loads fine at vanguardcraftworks.github.io. Everything looks right but GitHub won't accept it.
Has anyone seen this before? Am I missing something obvious?

[ankit227060]

The Fastly error: unknown domain message usually means GitHub Pages hasn’t successfully linked the domain to your Pages deployment yet — even if the DNS records themselves are correct.

A few things I’d double-check:

• Make sure there are no conflicting AAAA/IPv6 records at Namecheap. GitHub Pages only supports the specific A records they provide, and stray IPv6 entries can trigger NotServedByPagesError.
• Remove and re-add the custom domain in the GitHub Pages settings, then wait a few minutes for GitHub to regenerate the Pages configuration.
• Verify the repo visibility/settings didn’t accidentally disable Pages after adding the domain.
• Confirm the CNAME file exactly matches vanguardcraftworks.com with no extra spaces or line breaks.
• Try temporarily removing the www CNAME record, let the apex domain validate first, then add www back afterward.

Also, since the DNS propagation already looks correct globally, this may actually be a stale Fastly edge cache/configuration issue on GitHub’s side rather than your DNS setup itself. A few users have reported needing 24–48 hours before GitHub finally serves the domain properly even when everything is configured correctly.

One more useful check:
Run:

dig vanguardcraftworks.com
dig www.vanguardcraftworks.com

and confirm the responses contain only GitHub Pages IPs with no hidden parking/default registrar records mixed in.