How To Fix Bluehost SSL Certificate Temporarily Unavailable Error
Bluehost offers a free SSL Certificate when you sign up for their hosting, however, on occasion it fails to activate correctly meaning that your site shows users a warning that ‘your connection is not private’ and tells them that your site is unsafe, advising them to ‘go back’ and not visit. Below, I show you two ways to fix this problem.
Sometimes, it’s as simple as flicking a switch in your BlueHost panel. To access this, go to My Sites -Manage Site -Security.
If this switch is off, simply turn it on, wait for the changes to take effect and you are good to go.
However, on occasion, instead of an on/off switch you see a message here saying that the SSL certificate is unavailable and to try back later. This usually occurs when the SSL certificate authentication was attempted before any DNS changes had fully propagated. Luckily there is a simple fix:
Within your Bluehost panel, go to Advanced which will take you to your CPanel. (circled below in red)
Within the CPanel scroll down to the security section and look for SSL/TLS Status (see image below circled in red) then click through.
On the SSL/TLS Status page scroll down to see which of the SSL certificates are not correctly activated. Instead of being green as in the image below, they will be red with a warning message.
Next to any domain addresses that are red click the checkbox on the far left. Once any checkboxes are clicked a new option will appear at the top called ‘Run AutoSSL’
Click the ‘Run AutoSSL’ button and the SSL activation will re-run. This will correct any errors that were encountered during the first automatic run.
If you have just pointed your DNS at Bluehost it may take some time for the changes to fully filter through. If the fix above does not work first time and you just pointed your DNS at BlueHost you may need to wait until the DNS changes are ready (which can take a few hours) and then try again. Once you re-run your SSL certificate should be correctly authenticated and your users will be able to access your site without a warning.
Please let me know in the comments below if you were able to follow these simple steps.
