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Subsites are not working if SSL certificate is active on the site

I have created a multisite and I was getting errors when trying to access the dashboard or the front-end of the subsites I created on it. On the front-end I was getting: "Index of/"
And on mydomain.com/wp-admin/ I was getting: "Not found. The requested URL /index.php was not found on this server."

During the chat the additional subdomains and the subfolders related to them that were added on cPanel by mistake were deleted and only the wildcard subdomain was kept, but the issue was still there.

I noticed that the subsites were pointing to http instead of https, and after disabling the SSL certificate on cPanel I can access them, but I need the certificate to be enabled on the site. How can this be fixed?

  • Ash

    Hello Spiridon Kostopoulos

    Is it wordpress managed hosting from bluehost? It seems to me SSL configuration issue. When you enable, then the SSL is pointed to a different directory than the original one for the wildcard.

    I am not sure if there is any option for wildcard SSL, but if there is, then try to use that one which usually covers all the subdomains.

    But it's better to check with the bluehost support, as they know well about their configuration. They just need to make sure that the https version of wildcard (or subdomains) must point to the same public_html directory as the main site.

    Let us know how it goes with them. Have a nice day!

    Cheers,
    Ash

  • Spiridon Kostopoulos

    Hello Ash,
    the suggested approach by bluehost was:
    1) make subdomains by cpanel (except the wildcard one)
    2) install wordpress on each different subdomain
    3) manage each subdomain separately.
    The problem with this approach it seems we can not
    1) manage all sites from a single master domain
    2) set up a languange bar to take the end user to the different subdomains which were set up for this reason.
    If you have any workaround solution to solve the above problems for example a) create language pages without the use of subdomains or b) setup a language bar although using the approach described by bluehost.
    the master site is almyridataxi.gr and the languages requested are greek, english, russian.
    (according to initial planning there will 2 subdomains el. and ru. and the master in english language)

  • David Lie

    It could be that you have chosen the force ssl, that could make problems.<If you have domain.com which has ssl, and sub.domain.com and sub2.domain.com dosent that can make problem, maby for wordpress, but i know for a fact that the hosting provider often set these up wrong! Each domain, sub domain has it host host file where ssl and other things are integrated. You could ask them about that.

    But if i was you, buy wildcard ssl certificate.

  • Nithin

    Hi Spiridon Kostopoulos,

    Hope you are doing good today. :slight_smile:

    This seems more related to the hosting side regrading the SSL not loading correctly. You'll have to double check with your hosting provider, whether WildCard SSL is configured correctly at the moment, and if there is anything specific that could be done to correct that. I'm not sure whether the above reply specifically state about checking that with your host.

    At the moment, the SSL certificate is only being authorised in the main site. LetsEncrypts offers free WildCard SSL certificates, which the most hosting providers should be using, so they should be able to implement WildCard SSL without any issue.

    The suggestion regarding creating separate subdomain, and installing WordPress separately should work, however you could also carry this within a one single site, with a help of plugins like:
    https://wordpress.org/plugins/multisite-language-switcher/
    https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/

    And WPML, which is a premium plugin:
    https://wpml.org/features/

    I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any further query regarding any. Have a great day ahead. :slight_smile:

    Best Regards,
    Nithin

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