SSL will expire email, but renewing is the same as getting a new one?

[Seashell042]

I let my SSL certs expire last time, had to install from scratch again. So this time, when I got my “SSL cert will expire in 7 days” email, I immediately clicked on the link therein, thinking “this will save me time, no having to install from scratch this time, I’ll just click renew and I’m all set”.

But instead, it takes me to the same exact screen for installing one from scratch. And I’m scratching my head, thinking “I don’t get it; why the Easy Renewal on the list of features for 3 of the 4 providers, if renewing is exactly the same as installing from scratch?”

So I went ahead with the process: apparently, if you follow the screens that the email link sends you to (after you log in, natch), you click on ‘renew’, then next page on ‘check domain’, then ‘choose provider’ (for the same provider as the current one, mine was Let’s Encrypt): you get to a page (the “Verify your domain” page) with the new Cname records, which you then copy and paste in via control panel. Then go back to the “Verify your domain” page/tab the new cnames are on, and refresh the page. If the red ‘not ready’ message next to the ‘current destination’ field changes to the green ‘ready’ message, it worked. Also, the ‘current destination’ string text will be updated to reflect the new text string, and should now be the same as the ‘destination’ text string above it.

On one of my two domains (the second one I did all this on), it turned green immediately upon refresh. On the other, I’m still waiting. Hopefully it will update to ready status within a few hours; if not, I’ll just do it all over again in the morning. No idea why one worked and not the other, they are both on the same account. Easier than from scratch, but not so intuitive (are you listening, keeper of the Infinityfree Knowledgebase?)

And this, boys and girls, seems to be the renewal process - at least for the Let’s Encrypt SSL. So if you google, like I did, “renew SSL infinityfree”, I hope you come upon this post and it saves you some scrolling and banging your head on the desk.

[HELPINDIA]

@Seashell042

No idea why one worked and not the other

Records are not updated every second.
It having certain time interval between each refresh on the server side.
that’s why one domain turned green immediately and another took time.

@Seashell042

if renewing is exactly the same as installing from scratch?

Its depends upon Provider which we use for ssl. some provider will renew with same cname records.(Mostly all premium ssl)

[Seashell042]

I kinda thought the delay was normal, but my cron jobs don’t seem to be working right as well. Both are wordpress sites, and the auto-updates don’t update, and one tells me to update WP, but both are 5.9.3. They still work ok, and manually updating works, but as I go, I’ll want cron working.

[HELPINDIA]

@Seashell042

They still work ok, and manually updating works, but as I go, I’ll want cron working.

that also automatically happen when you leave for a while.
I can agree with you all sites are not up-to-date with new releases of WP with immediate effect

[jaikrishna.t]

The update from WordPress dash mostly doesn’t work. Use softaculous to update your WP install

[Seashell042]

Good to know. I’ve had a couple of updates freeze, and one disabled the site; I had to re-install WP by downloading 5.9.3 from Worpress.org and replacing all the files via ftp. It worked, thankfully, but it was a pain. I’ll use softaculous next time.

[HELPINDIA]

@Seashell042

it was a pain

Always take backup is the only pain killer!!!

[Admin]

@Seashell042

But instead, it takes me to the same exact screen for installing one from scratch. And I’m scratching my head, thinking “I don’t get it; why the Easy Renewal on the list of features for 3 of the 4 providers, if renewing is exactly the same as installing from scratch?”

The Easy Renewal refers to the domain validation. For Let’s Encrypt and ZeroSSL, you generally only have to setup a CNAME record once. If you leave it in place, then when it comes time to renew you can skip the verification and immediately request the new certificate. For GoGetSSL, you need to setup a new CNAME record every time.

Renewing SSL certificates in place is sadly not possible. The expiration date of a certificate are baked into the certificate itself, so to renew a certificate, you always need to replace the certificate installed on your site. Since we cannot install certificates automatically, you’ll still need to upload the new certificate yourself.