Zoho Desk Community Portal Not Displaying Custom Styling Correctly

Zoho Desk Community Portal Not Displaying Custom Styling Correctly

Hi Zoho Community,

I’m struggling to get a custom community portal in Zoho Desk to display my branding and styling correctly, and I’d love some help troubleshooting this for a client’s support portal.

Details:

  • Setup: Zoho Desk (Professional plan, latest version as of July 2025), using the self-service portal with community enabled.
  • Environment: Configured via Admin > Channels > Community, using the drag-and-drop builder for layout and custom HTML/CSS for branding.
  • Customization: Added company logo, changed colors to match brand (hex #2E4A79), and used custom CSS in the Style tab to adjust fonts and button styles.
    .community-container { font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif; }
    .btn-primary { background-color: #2E4A79; color: #FFFFFF; }
    
  • Issue: The portal shows default Zoho styling (e.g., default fonts, colors) instead of my custom CSS when viewed on Chrome and Safari. The logo appears, but font and button styles don’t apply.
  • Steps Tried:
    • Cleared browser cache and tested in incognito mode.
    • Re-applied customizations in Admin > Community > Customize and saved.
    • Checked Visibility settings to ensure the community is public.
    • Reviewed Zoho Desk’s community setup guide (https://www.zoho.com/desk/help/community.html) but found no specific CSS troubleshooting tips.
    • Ensured no conflicting CSS in the portal’s theme settings.
  • Expected: Custom fonts (Arial) and button styles (#2E4A79) appear consistently in the community portal.
  • Actual: Default Zoho styling overrides custom CSS, except for the logo.

Questions:

  • Are there specific CSS selectors or settings in Zoho Desk to ensure custom styles apply correctly?
  • Could this be a caching issue on Zoho’s side, and how can I force a refresh?
  • Any tips for debugging community portal styling issues (e.g., logs or browser dev tools)?
  • Has anyone faced similar issues with custom CSS in Zoho Desk’s community module?

Any pointers or workarounds would be super helpful to get this portal looking right for my client! Thanks in advance.

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