Enabling Custom Domain for WorkDrive Account

Custom Domain in WorkDrive

Custom Domain feature in WorkDrive lets the admin users create customized URL for their WorkDrive account. This will allow the team members to access their WorkDrive account via domain name relevant to their organization or team.

You can share files and folders with external users using a customized domain name, which can include your company name. This will effectively promote your brand, as your company name will now be present in your download and external access links.

For example, if you are from the organization Zylker, instead of the typical WorkDrive domain, which is https://workdrive.zoho.com/ , you can log in to your WorkDrive account via a custom URL https://workdrive.zylker.com/ or https://documents.zylker.com/.


Here's how the sample WorkDrive account links will look:
Support for custom domain is only available in WorkDrive's Business plan. Check the details of all plans of WorkDrive here .

Steps to create a customized domain URL

  1. Click Admin Console in the bottom-left corner of your WorkDrive account.
    The Admin Console page will open in a new tab. Dashboard will be selected by default.
  2. Click Settings in the left panel. The Profile settings will be displayed by default.
  3. Select Custom Domain.
  4. In the new section at the right, enter the new URL under Domain Name. The URL should have a sub-domain and be in the format: https://xxx.yyy.com/.
  5. Click VERIFY DOMAIN.

  6. On the next page, you will see two CNAME values. Enter those details in your domain name provider's website to set up a CNAME record. 
  7. Click MAP DOMAIN.
  8. After successfully mapping your domain name in your domain name provider website, WorkDrive will initiate the SSL certificate purchase for your new domain.

  9. Once the SSL certificate installation is complete, the custom domain will be automatically enabled for your account. Your team can then access your WorkDrive account through the provided customized domain URL directly.


Here's why you should add two CNAME records to your domain's DNS records

  1. The first CNAME record is for mapping the user domain with the WorkDrive domain. Once mapped, the DNS will redirect the request from the user domain to the WorkDrive domain.
  2. The second CNAME record is for security purposes, providing an encrypted ID for the user domain and the user's org ID. This value will be different for each org and domain, and will be used to verify the domain ownership.
Steps to include CNAME records to your domain's DNS records:
  1. Sign in to your domain host website.
  2. Go to your DNS settings and select Create a New Record, choosing CNAME as the record type.
  3. Enter the provided unique CNAME values from WorkDrive's custom domain page to your DNS record.
  4. Paste both the copied contents into the Name and Value field.
  5. Save your record.
CNAME record changes will usually reflect in a time range from 5 minutes to 1 hour based on your DNS TTL (time to live) setting. You can also seek help from the domain host's support team.
  1. When a custom domain is enabled, users accessing the WorkDrive domain (workdrive.zoho.com) will be redirected to the custom domain, and all their files and folders will be rendered with the custom domain.
  1. While using the custom domain feature, you may experience an error in uploading, downloading, or previewing your data. Since domains are different for Custom domain enabled orgs, the actions mentioned above will not work correctly if third-party cookies are blocked. We suggest you follow these steps to solve this problem.

Steps to disable and delete custom domain

Once the custom domain is enabled for your team's WorkDrive account, you can either disable or delete the custom domain if the requirement comes.
  1. If you click the DISABLE button on your custom domain page, team members who access the WorkDrive team account through the custom domain will be redirected temporarily to the default WorkDrive domain (https://workdrive.zoho.com/). You can enable this custom domain later in this case.

  1. If you click the DELETE button on your custom domain page, team members who access the WorkDrive team account through the custom domain will be re-directed permanently to the default WorkDrive domain. In this case, the Admin needs to re-configure a custom domain to access the custom domain.