403 forbidden when activating plugin.

  • Resolved wcp

    (@wcp)


    5 years, 12 months ago

    Hi,
    I installed my SSL certificate and https is active. My site was still in http.

    When i activate ‘really simple SSL’ and go to the homepage, it goes to https but it gives me a 403 forbidden error. I have checked file permissions, deactivated all plugins by renaming the plugins folder, and checked my .htaccess file but none of that indicates a problem with http / https interference.

    I had to do the deactivate plugin method described here:
    https://really-simple-ssl.com/knowledge-base/uninstall-websitebackend-not-accessible/

    And now the normal http site works again. What could be the problem?

    Also when i changed another site to HTTPS without a plugin, I had to move the whole site to a private_html folder and put a http to https redirection rule in the htaccess in the public_html folder.
    What does this plugin do that it is not necessary for the files to be in the private_html folder? Maybe this is what breaks my site, that a server side rule doesn’t allow files in public_html to be loaded into private_html or something? Just brainstorming here, I don’t have any knowledge about this subject.

    Could you let me know what could possible be the reason this plugin doesn’t work? Is it a server side rule that breaks it?

    Thanks.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Thread Starter wcp

    (@wcp)

    This is the 403 message i got:

    Forbidden
    You don’t have permission to access / on this server.
    Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

    Plugin Author Mark

    (@markwolters)

    Hi,

    some servers (often using DirectAdmin) have a public_html and private_html folder for the https:// and https:// version of the site. An easy fix is to enable the “Use a symbolic link from private_html to public_html” in DirectAdmin. Setting a symbolic link will make the content of the https:// folder the same as https://.

    In regards to the 403 error, that is often caused by a misconfiguration. It could be caused by a rule in your .htaccess file. If the .htaccess file looks normal, I’d suggest to contact your hosting provider about this.

    Mark

    Thread Starter wcp

    (@wcp)

    Thanks for the quick solution. I am indeed running Direct Admin, so I enabled the ‘use a symbolic link’ option, activated the plugin again and now it works perfectly.
    Thanks again, great support!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • The topic ‘403 forbidden when activating plugin.’ is closed to new replies.

Tags