This guide suggests solutions to resolve common issues and frequent errors that may occur when you try to display your website in https after activating an SSL certificate.

The web browser automatically displays the http version of the site when you try to access it via https

It is recommended to perform the following actions:

• Clear the cache of your applications or your site.
• Check that the pages and scripts of the site do not contain redirects to the http version of the site.
• Check that the site's .htaccess file does not contain redirects to the site's http version.
• Set the https address of the site as the default:
  • with WordPress Infomaniak
  • for other cases

The website is displayed incorrectly (missing images, unsupported stylesheets, etc.) or displays a warning in the address bar

It is recommended to perform the following actions:

• Clear the cache of your applications or your site.
• Check that the pages and scripts do not point to external resources in http; the site whynopadlock.com can help you identify the unsecured elements of your site.

"This web page has a redirect loop", "ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS"

If your web browser displays this error, it is recommended to perform the following actions:

• If the site runs on a web application like WordPress or Joomla, disable the extensions one by one to identify the problematic one
• Check that the pages and scripts of the site do not redirect to the http version of the site
• Try to disable HSTS
• If Prestashop is used, you must activate SSL on all pages:
  1. Add your SSL domain:
     • Go to Preferences > SEO & URLs.
     • In the "Shop URL" section, enter your site address in the "SSL Domain" field (without the https://, just www.yoursite.tld).
  2. Activate SSL:
     • Go to Preferences > General Settings.
     • At the top of the page, click on "Click here to use the HTTPS protocol before activating SSL mode."
     • A new page will open with your site in secure HTTPS version.
  3. Force the use of SSL on the entire site:
     • Go back to Preferences > General Settings.
     • Set the option "Enable SSL" to YES.
     • Also set "Force the use of SSL for all pages" to YES.

An old SSL certificate is displayed - clear the SSL cache

Web browsers cache SSL certificates to speed up navigation. Normally, this is not a problem. However, when you develop pages for your website or install a new certificate, the SSL state of the browser can hinder you. For example, you might not see the padlock icon in the browser's address bar after installing a new SSL certificate.

The first thing to do in this case is to ensure that the domain is correctly pointing to the server's IP address (A and AAAA records) and if it is still the wrong SSL certificate that is being returned, clear the SSL cache:

• Chrome: go to Settings and click on Settings. Click on Show advanced settings. Under Network, click on Change proxy settings. The Internet Properties dialog box appears. Click on the Content tab. Click on Clear SSL state, then click OK. More tips in this other guide.
• Firefox: go to History. Click on Clear Recent History then select Active Logins and click on Clear Now.

Loss of CSS formatting

If the website displays without CSS styling, analyze the page loading with the browser's Console. There might be mixed content errors related to your .css styles, which you will need to resolve to load them correctly again.