Oct 3, 2010

How to Fix Godaddy Subdomain Redirection Problem

Gary Eckstein Internet 2 domains, godaddy, hosting, htaccess, htaccess file, Linux, Redirect, URL, web

Over the past few days I have been driven (close to) insane with Godaddy subdomains not working. Here is a summary of the problem (as I posted on various forums):

I’d REALLY apprciate some help on this problem I’m having with my Godaddy Linux shared hosting:

1. I have an index.html in the root of the domain e.g. http://example.com/index.html
2. The first subdomain I added works perfectly and its index.html is accessible via http://sub1.example.com/
3. I have added more subdomains but when I try to access index.html on any of the new subdomains I see the index.html from http://example.com/ even although the address bar shows the subdomains URL (e.g. http://sub2.example.com/) i.e. I don’t see the index file of the subdomain but see the index file of the root instead.

What do I need to do to see the index file of the subdomain and not see the index file of the root?

I even double checked that there were no redirects in place and checked any .htaccess files but to no avail (I also removed WordPress from the Subdomain folder to ensure that WordPress wasn’t causing the problem)

Well, I found the answer so hopfully posting the solution will result in less crazy people on this planet:

With Godaddy hosting, when initially setting up a subdomain, Godaddy asks which folder contains the subdomain files (i.e. which folder should be referenced). When the subdomain is actually created the reference to the folder is lost so that by default the root is referenced (and this is why the index.html of the root was showing rather than any files in the subdomain folder).

To resolve this go into the Domain Manager once the sub-domain has been created and re-associate (reference) the subdomain with the required folder.

Yes, this is a very non-technical solution to an incredibly frustrating problem.

Just for reference, here is how Godaddy describes creating a subdomain:

To manage your hosting account subdomains, go to the Domain Management page in the Settings section of the Hosting Control Center.

A subdomain is an easy way to create a memorable Web address for unique content areas of your site. For example, you could create a subdomain for pictures on your site called “pics” that is accessible through the URL pics.example.com in addition to www.example.com/pics.

NOTE: This process differs for Linux shared hosting accounts running Hosting Configuration 1.0.

To Edit Subdomains