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How to Fix the Mixed Content Error in WordPress (Step by Step)

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Are you seeing the mixed content error in WordPress?

The mixed content error in WordPress is caused by incorrect HTTPS/SSL settings. Often, it doesn’t affect your website’s functionality, but it can have adverse effects on your website’s SEO and user experience.

In this article, we will show you how to fix the mixed content error in WordPress.

How to fix the mixed content error in WordPress

What Is the Mixed Content Error in WordPress?

The mixed content error happens when your WordPress website is supposed to be secure (using HTTPS/SSL), but it still serves some stuff, like images or scripts, using an insecure connection (HTTP).

Adding SSL and HTTPS in WordPress is important because it encrypts the info going between your website and people’s browsers, making it harder for hackers to grab personal info. Google also prefers secure sites for search rankings.

All the best WordPress hosting companies offer free SSL as part of their packages. If your hosting company doesn’t provide that, then you can get free SSL through Let’s Encrypt for your WordPress site.

If your SSL is set up right, you will see a little green padlock in the address bar, showing it’s secure.

Secure content sign

But if not, you might see a broken padlock and a message saying your connection isn’t fully secure.

Like so:

Not fully secure due to mixed content

You can find out which content is served through an insecure protocol by using the Inspect tool.

The mixed content error will be displayed as a warning in the console with details for each mixed content item.

Mixed content displayed in developer tools

Not fixing the mixed content error can make your site more likely to get hacked and cause visitors to not trust your brand. Plus, it could make your site harder to find in search results.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily fix the mixed content error in WordPress.

Fixing the Mixed Content Error in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SSL Insecure Content Fixer plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » SSL Insecure Content page from your WordPress admin sidebar to configure the plugin’s settings.

SSL secure content plugin settings

This plugin provides different levels of fixes to the mixed content error. We will explain each one of them, what they do, and which one is best for you.

1. Simple

This is the fastest and most recommended level for all beginner users. It automatically fixes the mixed content error in WordPress for scripts, stylesheets, and WordPress media library images.

2. Content

If the Simple level doesn’t fix the mixed content error on your website, then you should try the Content setting. It will use all the features of Simple, along with checks for fixes inside WordPress content and text widgets.

3. Widgets

This level includes all fixes applied in the Content level, plus an additional fix for resources loaded in the WordPress widgets on your website.

4. Capture

This method captures everything on every page of your website, from header to footer, and replaces all URLs with HTTPS. It is slower and can affect the performance of your WordPress website.

5. Capture All

When all the above levels fail, then you can try this setting. It attempts to fix everything which may result in unexpected behaviors on your website. It will also have the most negative impact on performance.

After selecting a content fix level, you can move down the page and find the ‘Fixes for specific plugins and themes’ section.

If you use the WordPress plugins or themes listed in this section, then you can check the boxes here. This will ensure that the content supported by these plugins doesn’t have insecure content warnings.

Next, if your website includes links or resources that are hosted on external sites (not your own), you can enable the ‘Only fix content pointing to this WordPress site’ setting.

This will prevent the plugin from attempting to change those links to HTTPS.

SSL Insecure Content plugin settings for specific plugins, themes, and external sites

Now, let’s scroll down to the ‘HTTPS detection’ section.

Here, you can choose how to detect the HTTPS content on your website.

HTTPS detect

The default option is to use a standard WordPress function, which will work for most websites.

Below that, you will find other options that are useful if you are using Cloudflare CDN, an Nginx web server, and more.

Go ahead and select the method that you think applies to your website, depending on your particular setup.

Finally, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

You can now visit your website to see if this has resolved the insecure content issues on your website. Make sure to clear your WordPress cache before checking your website.

If the mixed content error in WordPress is not fixed, then you will need to revisit the plugin’s settings page and readjust the fix levels.

Are you still seeing the mixed content error? You may need to check your site for other SSL-related problems. We recommend checking our article on how to fix the most common SSL issues for WordPress beginners.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix the mixed content error in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to get a free SSL certificate for your website and see our ultimate WordPress security guide.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

46 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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  2. Blue says

    I had to select the “capture all” option, but it fixed the mixed content issue I was having with my dropdown menu! Thank you!

  3. Tiya says

    My site is AdSense approved. If I use it to fix my mixed content issue. Will it affect my ads?
    Please solve my query.

  4. Nilla says

    Installed the SSL Insecure Content Fixer and ran Simple option, which cleared everything in Chrome for my test site. Installed the plugin on the live (identical) site but only cleared certain pages.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would want to clear any caching and resave your permalinks for the most common solutions but you would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for assistance

      Admin

  5. theinformativo says

    Thanks a lot, for the help, I was stuck with the mixed content issue but after this method, everything got fixed thanks a lot.

  6. Alex says

    Thank you Capture Helped me solve the issue. But i am wondering if there is any way to make the site’s Performance improved. Thanks

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You may want to ensure the plugin is installed and activated and you are an admin user of your site for the most common reasons

      Admin

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It would depend on what file is causing the error, if it is a theme file you would likely need to reach out to your theme’s support for fixing the file.

      Admin

  7. James Haselhofer says

    What happens when you want to display insecure links on your secure site but the SSL certificate is preventing them from showing?

    I want to include links to California’s Caltrans traffic cams on my site but since they’re insecure, they show up on the backend. No mixed content warnings, it just won’t show them on the front end.

    I can’t just call the state of California and tell them to add security to their traffic cam links, so is there any fix for this?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You could use a URL shortener such as Bitly to link to the HTTP link through an HTTPS shortened link

      Admin

  8. Herman says

    The plugin didn’t work with simple option but did with content option. How do I identify and fix the files or should I just leave as is? If so, does the plugin cause slower loading times?

  9. Harmeet Singh says

    Thanks,
    It solved my mixed content problem when I have selected the
    setting “Capture” in the SSL Insecure Content plugin. So do
    I leave it as it is or do I change it back to simple.

    Regards

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would go back to the default once you fixed the files that were causing the issue.

      Admin

  10. Ana says

    Hey, I switched to https with the plug in downloaded the plug Really Simple SSL and have issues with Mixed content. I’ve downloaded the plug in as indicated and have ended trying all the available options up until capture all, but I’m afraid that it is not working. Any ideas why, or any possible solutions? Thank you.

  11. Advait says

    Great article, it helped me fix our mixed content issue. Recently we switched our WordPress site to https. I had to use the plugin on “Capture” level before our mixed content errors got fixed. Is that the end of the issue? Or do I need to research and fix the underlying issues that created the mixed content problem in the first place?

    Thanks again for a very useful article.

    • Colin says

      I pointed that out after yours and they deleted it as they can’t answer that question.

      They also have mix content issues and won’t fix them…..why?

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