Moving a WordPress site to SSL can sometime result in unexpected issues. If you’re adding SSL to an existing WordPress site and are running into errors, then you’re in luck. In this guide, we will cover how to fix the most common issues with SSL / HTTPs in WordPress.
What is SSL / HTTPS and Why You Should Start Using it Right Away?
SSL / HTTPS is an encryption method that secures the connection between users’ browser and your WordPress hosting server. This makes it harder for hackers to eavesdrop on the connection.
Each SSL / HTTPS enabled site is issued a unique SSL certificate for identification purposes. If a server is pretending to be on HTTPS, and its certificate doesn’t match, then most modern browsers will warn the user from connecting to the website.
Google encourages all website owners to use SSL / HTTPS in order to improve overall web security.
That’s why Google’s Chrome web browser marks all websites without an SSL certificate as “Not Secure”.
The ‘Not Secure’ label in the browser’s address bar gives a bad impression to your customers about your business.
Aside from that, you also need SSL / HTTPS enabled if you want to make an online store or want to use payment services like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, etc.
Considering the pros and cons, all websites need to switch to SSL / HTTPS.
If you haven’t already done that, then head over to our guide on how to properly move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPs for step by step instructions.
Recommended: See our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate or buy a SSL certificate at a discount from Domain.com.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the common issues with SSL/HTTPS in WordPress and how to fix them.
1. Fix NET::ERR_CERT_INVALID Error
This error message appears in Google Chrome. Other browsers display this error with a slightly different message, but it basically warn users that their connection to your website is insecure.
This error message indicates that users’ browser didn’t accept the certificate presented by the website. This could happen due to a number of reasons:
- The SSL certificate is issued to a different domain name or subdomain.
- The certificate has expired.
- Your browser doesn’t recognize certificate issuing authority.
If you purchased an SSL certificate and asked your WordPress hosting provider to install it for you, then you can contact them to fix it for you.
If you manually installed SSL certificate, then try reinstalling it or contact your SSL certificate provider for support.
2. Fix Mixed Content Errors After Moving WordPress to SSL / HTTPS
Mixed content errors are caused by sources (images, scripts, or stylesheets) that are still loading using the insecure HTTP protocol in the URLs.
If that is the case, then you will not be able to see a secure padlock icon in your website’s address bar.
There are two ways to fix SSL / HTTPS mixed content errors in WordPress. We will show you both of them and then you can pick one that works best for you.
1. Fixed mixed content errors in WordPress using a Plugin
This method is easier and is recommended for beginners.
First, you’ll need to make sure you have an SSL certificate. If you’re not sure if you have one, see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress website.
Then, simply install and activate the Really Simple SSL plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » SSL page to review plugin settings. Really Simple SSL works out of the box and will automatically take care of SSL / HTTPS settings and fix mixed content errors.
Note: The plugin attempts to fix mixed content errors by using output buffering technique. This can have a negative performance impact on your site. However, if you are using a caching plugin, then it will only impact the first page load.
2. Manually Fixed Mixed Content Errors in WordPress
This method requires manual troubleshooting, but it is more effective and better for performance.
First, you need to make sure that you are using HTTPS in WordPress settings. Go to Settings » General page and make sure that WordPress Address and Site Address options have HTTPS URLs.
If you see URLs starting with HTTP, then you need to go ahead and change them to HTTPS. Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.
Next, you need to find old HTTP URLs in your WordPress database and replace them with the new HTTPS URLs.
You can easily do that by installing and activating the Better Search Replace plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Better Search Replace page. In the ‘Search’ field, you need to add your website URL with HTTP. After that, add your website URL with https in the ‘Replace’ field.
The plugin will now update URLs in your WordPress database.
If you are still seeing mixed content errors, then the next step is to troubleshoot URLs in your WordPress theme and plugins.
Using your browser’s Inspect tool, you will need to locate the resources causing the errors and where they are loading from.
For theme resources, you will need to find them in your WordPress theme and replace HTTP with HTTPS.
This part can be a bit difficult for beginners as they will have to look for the URLs in all theme files.
If you are unable to find them yourself, then you can also reach out to theme developer and request them to update their theme. They will need to use WordPress best practices to load files, which will fix the HTTP/HTTPS issue.
Same goes for the mixed content loaded by a WordPress plugin. We don’t recommend editing plugin files yourself to change the URLs. You should notify the plugin developer and request them for an update. Meanwhile, you can disable the plugin on your site or find an alternative plugin.
3. Fix Too Many Redirects Errors After Moving to SSL / HTTPS
WordPress allows you to enforce SSL / HTTPS for the admin area by entering the following line into your wp-config.php file.
define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);
However, in some scenarios this setting alone would cause ‘Too many redirects‘ error. To fix this, you will need to add the following code to your wp-config.php file just before the line that says ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.’.
define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);
// in some setups HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO might contain
// a comma-separated list e.g. http,https
// so check for https existence
if (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'], 'https') !== false)
$_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';
4. Fix WordPress HTTP to HTTPS Redirect
WordPress will not automatically redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS unless you tell it to do so. If you are using a plugin like Really Simple SSL, then it would take care of redirects. Otherwise, you will have to manually set up redirects.
To set up HTTP to HTTPS redirect, you need to add the following code to your .htaccess file.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
</IfModule>
We hope this article helped you fix some common issues with SSL / HTTPS in WordPress. If you run into an issue that’s not covered in this article, then please leave a comment to let us know. We will update the article with the solution. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide with step by step instructions for beginners to secure their WordPress websites.
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Macor says
Interesting.
Even I had everything OK in my dashboard (step 2) I needed to update database links with Better Search plugin.
Thank you very much.
Abey says
My problem was in wordpress settings>General Thank You
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide was able to help
Admin
MK says
I have installed my free SSL on my domain provided by Hostgator. Its current status is active but my domain is not opening. it showing an error “might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address”
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to ensure you updated your site’s URL to be on HTTPS, we have a guide to help with doing this that you can take a look at below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-ssl-and-https-in-wordpress/
Admin
Vivek says
I installed ssl for my website using wordpress plugin.
When I entered url of my website on my pc, it shows secure.
When I enter url from other devices, it shows not secure.
Please help me with this.
Thank You
WPBeginner Support says
If your URL is properly set in your WordPress settings, then you would want to reach out to your hosting provider to ensure there isn’t a redirect causing an issue.
Admin
Rajendra Rana says
When I am typing http:// in browser i am getting “your connection is note private…” issue. But when I am using https:// then there is no errer. please help
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to take a look at 4 in this guide for that issue.
Admin
Antonio says
I had a 3d engine that used shortcode, SSL made it blocked, fixing the ulr in settings made it work again, thanks for the article! absolutely no one had any idea why it was not showing up, not the host not the creator of the engine .. and it was such a simple fix.. thanks again!
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide could help you find the solution
Admin
Real G says
Nice article, helped me fix the issue in a giffy.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide was helpful
Admin
Ahmad Jawad Hassaan says
it worked for me, my site already had ssl installed but, while installing wp i didnt choose https, so i went to general setttings as you have said and, changed it to https.
Thank you.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide was able to help
Admin
Pierre says
chrome displays: “access to this site is not FULLY secure”
I was thinking back to whether there were recent changes or updates.
But all I know is that someone in our department had only just changed themes!? and that there was a recent update in WordPress
Merci. Thanks in advance
WPBeginner Support says
You may want to look at 2 in this article for the most likely culprit with your theme change.
Admin
Paul says
Hi. I just got an ssl certificate for my website and after following the instructions on how to set it up in wordpress, i can’t login to my dashboard any longer. After entering my correct login details, the page will load and return to the login page again. Please I’ll need help fixing this.
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to take a look at our article below for the most common solution for that:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-wordpress-login-page-refreshing-and-redirecting-issue/
Admin
Jocie Holloway says
I just tried enabling my SSL certificates using the Really Simple SSL plugin and now I am getting this error when I try to access my website: Error code 30
The proxy failed to connect to the web server, no web server IP is defined. Do you have suggestions on how to fix this?
WPBeginner Support says
For that, we would recommend reaching out to your hosting provider for them to take a look and they can normally assist and fix this issue.
Admin
Marco says
Hi,
Any idea why if I go to home page of my website is unsecured and if I press one more time is secured…Anybody knows how to fix this issue?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to reach out to your hosting provider and they can normally assist with that if it is not caching issue with your browser or site.
Admin
Maarten Corten says
Hello,
I recently asked my provider to turn my ( WordPress) website into https. Ever since, my website (including the wp-admin backoffice) has a very long loading time on mobile devices, a few minutes. Desktop is fine.
Is this a typical problem? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
WPBeginner Support says
There are a few possibilities, for getting started we would recommend going through our speed recommendations below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-performance-speed/
Admin
nuril says
hi dude i wanna ask…
why when i upload themes from my directory pc, my website change to http.
you know how to fix this?
WPBeginner Support says
To start you would want to check with your hosting provider to ensure your SSL is set up properly.
Admin
Ajmal says
My website is showing this message. How to resolve this issue? Please help!!
This site can’t provide a secure connection ×××.com uses an unsupported protocol.
ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to reach out to your hosting provider to ensure there are no issues with your SSL certificate.
Admin
Shivam Narayan says
Thank you so much sir. My problem of “Info/Not Secure” of SSL is solved with this Amazing Article. Thank you so much.
Keep helping us.
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome, glad our guide could help you solve this issue
Admin
Gord Wait says
Brilliant! Not often you run into a tutorial that just does exactly what it says!
Site now secured!
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide could help you
Admin
Przemysław says
Thanks a lot. I did all the steps from other sources but they didn’t have more detailed stuff to search for errors. Like looking into console to find errors. Seems obvious but well. Thanks a lot!
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our article was helpful
Admin
Muhammad hamza says
My issue is solve
Thank u so much
wpbeginner.com
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide was able to help
Admin
Elisha says
Amazing, thank you so much!
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome, glad our guide could be helpful
Admin
Prashant Kashyap says
Very helpful information.
Especially, the plugin “better search replace” helped me a lot.
Thank you so much.
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome, glad you found our recommendations helpful
Admin
anurag says
After i activate the plugin and load the website, the page appears not secure on the first load. However, when i refresh the page, it shows the page as secure. This issue happens every time :/
WPBeginner Support says
You may want to ensure you’ve cleared all caching on your site. If you are not sure if you’ve cleared your cache, you would want to take a look at our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-clear-your-cache-in-wordpress/
Admin
Johanna says
Life saving tips, thank you so much!
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
Imtiyaz says
When I search my Website directly on Google it shows site not secured sign but when I search it with adding https: then it shows secured sign. So is my site secured or not , I am confused
WPBeginner Support says
Google may have cached the non-https version of your site, if you’ve submitted your sitemap you can have Google recrawl your site.
Admin
john says
It worked for me. Deeply appreciated.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our recommendations were helpful
Admin
Luis says
Hi,
Thanks for your post. I was able to fix ssl on one of my sites, however, I have another site with the woocommerce plugin and, with these steps, I couldn’t solve the problem.
I tried to deactivate all the plugins and when I deactivate the woocommerce my site works fine.
The problem is “too many redirects” and with this the page does not load.
Can anyone give me some tips on how to solve the redirects issue in the woocommerce plugin?
WPBeginner Support says
For the too many redirects error, you would want to take a look at our guide here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-error-too-many-redirects-issue-in-wordpress/
Admin
Andres says
Hi , it worked for me , Thank you.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our article could help
Admin
Regina says
Hello,
I appreciate all your guidance in this post, my truggle is taht I redirect the URLs in WP General Settings, while the status of SSL Certificate wasn’t active so now I can’t access to My WordPress administration it appears the NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID error, so I already call my webhosting to fix the SSL Certificate issiue and it will get fixed, but now I wonder if there is a chance that I cand revert the URL to HTTP in CPANEL, so I can word on the design of my webpages…
Please Help Me
WPBeginner Support says
If you don’t want to wait for the SSL certificate to be active, you would go into your phpMyAdmin and edit your Options table to revert the site url and home url. https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-wordpress-database-management-with-phpmyadmin/
Admin
vinayak says
Having problems opening my site on firefox and safari. I’ve installed SSL on one of my domains and the had it verified from the godaddy support team. They said that the ssl is installed fine. But my site doesn’t show the padlock on firefox and safari and sometimes it doesn’t even open.
WPBeginner Support says
Your browser may have cached the pre SSL address which could be the cause of your issue.
Admin
Perry says
I did all this. Set up my SSL certificate, installed and activated Really Simple, fixed the mixed content errors (or tried to) with Better Search & Replace and SSL Insecure Content Fixer. However, most of my images are still broken or not loading. They don’t even appear in my media library. The console points to the same file causing the problem—but it’s a file that flat-out does not exist. I cannot find this file anywhere, yet somehow it’s the source of all my images being broken.
WPBeginner Support says
You may want to try the troubleshooting steps in our guide here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-http-image-upload-error-in-wordpress/
Admin
Bongani Ngcobo says
The Better Search Replace did the magic thanks, guys.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our recommendation could help
Admin
Tony V says
Hi guys, first of all, thanks for your great job sharing your knowledge with noobs like me
I’ve just done all the SSL certificate stuff for the first time and got something that seems weird.On the browser that I’ve created the WordPress site and done everything, the website displays just fine . The connection appears to be fully secure and green. But when opening on any other browser or machine, it displays like rubbish. Also, here I get a “Your connection to this site is not fully secure”. When using the Inspect tool, I get 6 of those mixed content errors.
Can you cast some light upon my ignorance, please? Thanks a lot!
WPBeginner Support says
You may want to ensure you clear all caching for your site and it can take some time for the SSL to fully update
Admin
Peter says
So.. According to #2 I changed the http to https:, so since than error 404 appears when I try to visit the site with http, if I try with https, than it tells me that this is not a secure site, and it gets blocked.
I need a solution ASAP, please!!!!
WPBeginner Support says
It sounds like your SSL isn’t active for your site, you would likely want to reach out to your hosting provider to ensure the certificate is active.
Admin
Aditya says
This sorted me out on my site Thanks ever so much!
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide could help
Admin
Daniel says
Helpful. You guys keep up the good work.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our article could help
Admin
Alex says
Are there ways to fix issues like these if you cannot access the WordPress dashboard? Very often, if there is an SSL issue, the web browser will not even let you access the login page. I would assume you should be able to manually replace links in the database without using a plugin.
WPBeginner Support says
For a starting point, we recommend reaching out to your hosting provider and they can normally help with some of the issues to allow you to log in to your site.
Admin
Candace says
I have a web site that I installed Real Simple SSL and Better Search and Replace plugins. I activated both, and ran the Better Search and Replace tool. My problem is when I go to login I get the message (The page isn’t redirecting properly An error occurred during a connection)
This is in the most recent version of Firefox and I cleared cookies and cache.
I also tried this in Safari and it said that “Too many redirects occurred This might occur if you open a page that is redirected to open another page which then is redirecterd to open the original page.
What should I change or search for to get the wp-admin login page to work properly?
WPBeginner Support says
You could start by trying the solutions in our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-error-too-many-redirects-issue-in-wordpress/
for fixing the redirects, if those don’t work you may want to try the troubleshooting steps in our article: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-troubleshooting-wordpress-errors-step-by-step/
Admin
Williams says
I changed my WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) from HTTP to HTTPS.
I don’t have any SSL certificate and did not make any other change…i already made the mistake before i saw your article.
Now i cant access my domain and my website is inaccessbile and showing ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR
Please, what’s the solution?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to go into your database in the options table as one option to set the addresses back: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-wordpress-database-management-with-phpmyadmin/
Or you can add code to to your wp-config file to change the address, the required code can be found in our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-wordpress-login-page-refreshing-and-redirecting-issue/
Admin
judywilson says
Thank you.
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our article was helpful
Admin