How to Use Your Domain with an Unknown AWS Distribution

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If you get the error message stating, “One or more of the domains you provided are already in use by another CloudFront distribution,” it means that your domain is already set up as an alternate domain name (CNAME) on a CloudFront distribution that you don’t have control over.

To find out which CloudFront distribution is using your domain, you can run some commands through the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI). One way is to use this command:

aws cloudfront list-conflicting-aliases –distribution-id –alias

Replace <your-distribution-id> with your distribution’s ID and <your-domain-name> with your domain name. This will tell you which account and distribution are currently using your domain, giving you a partial account ID and distribution ID.

Another helpful command is:

aws cloudfront list-domain-conflicts –domain –domain-control-validation-resource

This will show details about the conflict, including the type of resource, its ID, and the account involved.

If you discover that someone else’s CloudFront distribution in another AWS account is using your domain, your best option is to contact AWS Support. Keep in mind, support plans come with a fee, but they can help you resolve the issue by claiming ownership of your domain and clearing the conflict.

Before reaching out to support, you should also check a few things:

If you recently deleted a CloudFront distribution that used this domain, wait about 15 to 48 hours to let DNS caches update.
Make sure you don’t have any AWS Amplify apps that might be creating CloudFront distributions with your domain.
Confirm that your DNS settings are correct.
Ensure your SSL/TLS certificate is valid and properly configured for your domain.

Resolving domain conflicts can be tricky, but following these steps and working with AWS Support if needed can help you get everything set up correctly.