Search that exact phrase and you’ll find a wall of forum posts assuming the worst — custom DNS is broken, switch back to default, never touch it again. Nobody actually runs the test. So for this NordVPN DNS settings not working test, I did exactly that: default DNS, then custom DNS, same websites, same conditions, screenshots at every step.
The setup
- VPN: NordVPN
- DNS test 1: Custom DNS, set to 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare)
- DNS test 2: Default (NordVPN’s own DNS)
- Test site: nytimes.com — a heavier, subscription-gated page rather than something simple that would load regardless
Step 1: Turn on custom DNS
Custom DNS switched on, 1.1.1.1 entered and saved. The app shows its usual warning here — “using third-party DNS may limit website availability” — which is exactly the kind of line that makes people assume something’s already wrong before they’ve even tested anything.
Step 2: Load a real site on custom DNS
nytimes.com loaded fine — full page, subscription prompt and all, which means the DNS lookup, the connection, and the page render all worked correctly. No error, no blank page, no “can’t reach this site.”
Step 3: Switch back to default DNS
Back to Default. The previously entered custom servers are still listed here, just inactive now — worth noting in case you’re checking your own settings and see old entries sitting there grayed out. That’s normal; it doesn’t mean they’re still active.
Step 4: Load the same site on default DNS
Same result. Same site, fully loaded, no difference from the custom DNS test.
NordVPN DNS Settings Not Working: What This Test Actually Found
In this test: nothing. Both settings resolved the same site without any issue. That’s not a dead end — it’s actually useful information, because it narrows down what “NordVPN DNS settings not working” is really pointing to for most people who search it.
If your own experience matches forum complaints about this exact phrase, the setting itself passing a clean test in this case means the real cause is more likely to be one of these instead:
- A typo in the custom DNS address. The format has to be exact — a single wrong digit in 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 and the setting will fail silently instead of throwing an obvious error.
- Not reconnecting after the change. NordVPN’s own DNS screen shows a “Reconnect to apply changes” prompt — skip that step and the old setting can keep running even though the new one looks saved.
- The specific site you’re testing, not DNS at all. Some sites block VPN traffic outright regardless of which DNS is being used, which looks identical to a DNS failure from the outside but has nothing to do with this setting.
- A one-off network hiccup. Mobile connections drop packets and stall requests for reasons that have nothing to do with any app setting, and it’s easy to blame the most recently touched setting for something unrelated.
How to run this test yourself
- Open NordVPN’s DNS settings and note whatever it’s currently set to
- Switch to Custom DNS, enter a known-good address like 1.1.1.1, and make sure you reconnect afterward
- Load two or three different sites, not just one — screenshot the results
- Switch back to Default, reconnect again, and repeat the same site checks
- Compare all four results side by side
If everything loads both ways, the setting isn’t your problem — something else is. If one configuration consistently fails and the other doesn’t, now you have real evidence pointing at the actual cause instead of a guess.
Quick answers
Are NordVPN DNS Settings Not Working actually broken?
Not in this test. Both Default and a manually set Custom DNS (1.1.1.1) loaded the same site without any issue.
Why does NordVPN warn that custom DNS “may limit website availability”?
It’s a general caution, not a guarantee of failure — third-party DNS servers can behave differently from a VPN’s own infrastructure on some networks, but that doesn’t mean every custom DNS setup will break.
I switched to custom DNS and now nothing works — what should I check first?
Confirm you reconnected after saving the setting, double-check the address was typed correctly, and test a second website before assuming DNS is the cause.
Does this mean nobody actually has this problem?
No — it means this specific test, on this setup, didn’t reproduce it. DNS issues can be network-specific, so someone else’s exact conditions could still trigger a real failure this test didn’t catch.
Related: see our NordVPN DNS leak test and NordVPN DNS not resolving fix for the rest of this DNS troubleshooting series.
