One day I’ve been configuring SSL on my client website. It wasn’t as easy as I thought because of many errors which occured during this task.
That’s why I’m here to help you against some uncool situations you may get while enabling SSL.
First of all, check if Your SSL is recognized: Tool for checking SSL is here
Paste there Your URL address and click the button.
1. Can’t enable SSL (because of gray/grey switch button)
It looks like this:
That’s why you have to enable it via database. To do so, execute this SQL query in your phpMyAdmin:
UPDATE ps_configuration SET `value`=1 WHERE `name`="PS_SSL_ENABLED"
Then you’ll be able to select Enable SSL on all pages. It’s not neccessary however strongly recommended, because Google is increasing pagerank of website (pagerank is a measure of your page visibility in Google search results) encrypted by SSL.
Now make sure your SSL certificate is properly connected with Your website. If you’re not sure, you can ask your hosting support for more info.
2. Redirect loop
“This webpage has a redirect loop” – this may happen after enabling SSL.
What can you do to get rid of this?
– Check your .htaccess file in root directory if it has some unnecessary redirections.
– Regenerate your .htaccess file in BackOffice – Preferences > SEO & URL. Disable friendly URL, save. Enable friendly URL, save. You’ll have brand new .htaccess file.
– Again make sure SSL certificate is properly connected with Your website.
– If it still does not work, search for htaccess HTTPS issues in Google.
3. Missing green lock near URL address – can’t get certifcate
Anyone entering websites with properly configured SSL would see a green lock near its’ URL address. Something like this:
But what if it’s not visible near your URL? The answer is simple. You have to replace all http:// occurrences in your website with https://.
To do so, check your website source code and look for each “http://”. Then use some good file editor (I prefer PhpStorm) and search in your whole project those occurrences and replace them.
There is already great website which scans your website for “http://” elements and shows them for you: https://whynopadlock.com
Please note that many of those URLs are not going to be hardcoded in files, so you’ll have to figure out (via source code) which module it is. Next, look for this module in the BackOffice and replace its content.
