How to Delete a Custom Domain

[Asif Shiraz]

I had a custom domain verified for use in gcloud, but I have moved hosting elsewhere now.

I came to https://console.cloud.google.com/appengine/settings/domains?project=xxx and see that my domain is listed. But when I hover over delete (trash) icon, it says You do not have permission to remove this domain.

I thought I might need to re-verify to it. So I went to custom domains tab and verify domains and it took me here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/verification/verification?authuser=0&domain=xxx

It shows different options to verify domain and after clicking around, I see this help page on how to do it: https://support.google.com/a/answer/183895#generic_TXT

But interesting thing is that it says : If you have a G Suite address, please sign out of asifs...@gmail.com and log back in with your G Suite address to receive more personalized instructions.

But on this page, https://support.google.com/a/answer/6208960?hl=en I also see that my account isn't managed by an administrator.

So here is the dilemma: 

a) Even though I see my custom domain in the list for this account, but I do not have permissions to manage it. (Wonder how I lost those permissions in the first place, because they are definitely part of my account since I can see them listed there).

b) But if I do not have an administrator, there isn't anyone else to give me permissions to manage it, and I am the only user for it. So how do I manage/modify my custom domain?

[Amandeep Kaur(Cloud Platform Support)]

Hi,

   If you are the user who verified the domain and you still can’t delete it then can you try clearing all cookies, log in again and retry. This can be done easily from an       incognito window in chrome (Ctrl+Shift+N). Also, is it possible that your user account was previously using a different email address which has now been changed       then it’s possible that might be causing some kind of conflict when trying to remove the custom domain.

[John Murphy]

I'm getting the same issue.  I have a domain registered through Google Domains and pointed at an app that runs on App Engine.  As soon as I added A and AAAA records on Google Domains via DNS settings, I lost permissions to delete the custome domain on App Engine.  I thought maybe I needed to delete the A and AAAA records first, but it's been 12 hours and I still can't delete on App Engine.

[John Murphy]

I wound up solving this myself.  

For whatever reason in my case App Engine stopped accepting the auto-verification of domain ownership from Google Domains and wouldn't recognize me as the owner of those domains.  

In App Engine settings, go to the custom domains tab and click the "Add a custom domain" button.  On the following page, select verify domain ownership from the dropdown and select the specific domain that you're locked out of (in my case it was api.mydomain.com).  This will take you to Webmaster Central* where you will need to click on the specific domain.  Ignore the message that says you are the verified owner of the domain and click "Verify using a different method."  On the following page I selected Google Domains from the list of providers and got a TXT verification code to copy.  

I opened Google Domains in another browser tab.  In order to add the TXT to my DNS configuration, I had to delete the associated CNAME records first (api.mydomain.com).  Once you have added the TXT record, go back to the Webmaster Central tab and hit the verify button.  It will probably take > 5-10 minutes for it to pick up the TXT record.  I left and came back.  Once it verifies you as the owner, go back to App Engine settings > Custom domains tab and the greyed out trash can next to your domain should be clickable again.  Delete the mapping.  Once the mapping is gone you can go back and delete the TXT record in Google Domains.

I had to do this process twice, once for "api.mydomain.com" and "www.mydomain.com."

*Note: I think it might be important to come to Webmaster Central via GAE instead of going directly to the site in another browser window.  I could be misremembering, but when I went to Webmaster Cental directly and reverified my domain I did not regain access in GAE.

Hope this helps somebody.