WordPress Secure Connection Error — Fixing the Issue

WordPress secure connection error is one of the common issues any website administrator can face. So it is important to know what causes such an error and how to deal with it. As WordPress is a large web platform with lots of additional plugins, tools and extensions, it is not always obvious where to look in case of errors.

In this article we will analyze the possible reasons of secure connection error within a WordPress website and the methods to fix this issue. The article will be helpful for the beginners in the sphere of WordPress administration and development.

First of all we should show you the example of an error we are talking about for you to recognize it in case of appearance in your own WordPress website. The text of this error should contain the following message (or its analogue):

Warning: An unexpected error occurred. Something may be wrong with WordPress.org or this server’s configuration. If you continue to have problems, please try the support forums. (WordPress could not establish a secure connection to WordPress.org. Please contact your server administrator.) in /home/username/public_html/wp-admin/includes/update.php on line 102

And the actual view of this error can be as following:

Main Reason of Secure Connection Error Appearance

The WordPress` modus operandi presumes regular updates for the website core as well as all installed themes and plugins. To perform such updates, the preliminary update checks should occur constantly. And this checks are made by WordPress automatically. During each check your website reaches the official WordPress.org resource to verify data about all the changes on core, themes and plugins.

If there appear any obstacle or your website simply could not reach WordPress.org database, the secure connection error is pushed to your attention. As you can see, secure connection error is nothing more than the message about the inability to connect to WordPress.org official servers. Sounds simple, but the solution is not always an easiest issue to handle, especially for novice WordPress administrators.

How to Fix WordPress Secure Connection Error

The pick of a solution to WordPress secure connection error should be based on the peculiarities of your website. As the problems lies in the connection aspect, you should know the way your WordPress website hosts on internet. There could be 3 most popular possibilities: shared hosting, cloud or VPS server, localhost. Our solutions will be based on these 3 types of hostings.

Solving WordPress Secure Connection Error on Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is a common choice of novice WordPress administrators because of its cheap prices and customer support. Unfortunately, WordPress admin can not influence the secure connection issue while using shared hosting. The wisest decision in this case will be sending a ticket to your hosting provider`s customer support, providing a screenshot of the error.

You can also take into the account the possibility of DDoS attack on your hosting. It means you should check your website connection to WordPress.org in a few minutes later, not sending a ticket just after observing an error report.

Solving WordPress Secure Connection Error on Cloud or VPS Server

Using any Cloud of VPS server technology allows a WordPress admin to influence the bug fixing personally. Cloud and VPS servers having WordPress secure connection error often are referenced to DNS issues. To deal with the problem you need to connect your server directly with WordPress.org.

First of all you should download and install a tool that provides secure connection between servers (using SSH protocol). The examples of such tools are: PuTTy and FileZilla. If you are a Mac or Linux user, you can deal with the issue via the terminal app.

Any of the above tools (or their analogues) will require your personal access information (login and password) to connect with the server database. To acquire needed information you can visit your client panel in hosting provider`s resource or ask your provider via ticket or email. If you are using terminal app, you can log in via the following command:

ssh username@example.com.

“Username” and “example.com” should include the corresponding information for your website.

Once you have logged in (do not forget to use SSH connection type!) you should search for the “hosts” file. PuTTy and FileZilla provide you with easy-to-use search tools and if you are using terminal app you should insert the following instruction to the command line:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

When the hosts file are found you need to open it and add the following string to end of the input:

66.155.40.202 api.wordpress.org

Do not forget to save the result on hosting. After that it is time to check the result on your WordPress website.

Solving WordPress Secure Connection Error on Localhost

There is of course an opportunity to host your WordPress website on the local computer or even server. If you experience the WordPress secure connection error while using the local hosting, then it could be two possible ways to solve the problem.

First of all, you should check your php.ini file. The folders which contain this particular file can be named as Mamp, Xampp, or WAMP. If you are using Windows on the hosting computer, then you should look for such a string:

;extension=php_curl.dll

If you are using Mac or Linux, the string will look a bit other:

;extension=curl.so

But in both cases you need to delete semicolon at the beginning of these strings. Do not forget to save the result and restart the Apache server to see the changes.

Second step will involve the Firewall check. This step is not required, if the previous one has resolved the issue with secure connection to WordPress.org. The problem with firewall can be caused by blocking connections between local hosting and WordPress.org.

Visit your firewall options and find the Apache HTTP Server strings (there should be more than one in firewall settings). Allow all actions for this strings in firewall preferences. The changes will be seen only after Apache server restart.

Conclusion

As you can see, the WordPress secure connection error can be solved easily. But there can appear some rear cases when all this tips do not help. In such a case we advice you to appeal to professionals. This method involves two ways: sending a ticket to your hosting provider or asking for help of professional WordPress developers. Either way you should be able to solve the issue.