Error message: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate

Support
1

There is an SSL error, even if the certificate is OK: SSL Checker

What to do?

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What do you get when you run a test connection from your Dashboard to your child? If you are not sure how check this kb link Getting started with MainWP – MainWP WordPress Management

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3

Connection test failed.

Error message: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate

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I see, like you did, that you are passing SSLShopper but your SSL has a misconfigured chain What's My Chain Cert?. This generally means the child site’s server isn’t serving the full chain of certificates, causing cURL (used by your MainWP Dashboard) to fail the SSL validation

However, before getting too deep into that let’s check if your cURL on the MainWP Dashboard Server is outdated and may be causing the issue. Click on the image in the top right of your Dashboard then select System Info and look for the cURL sections and make sure they have a green checkmark.

Is this a hosted Dashboard or are you handling the hosting?

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5

We have just switched to a hoster, everything worked before. The following info has no green tick:

cURL Timeout >=300 seconds 60

I will clarify with the hoster how we can increase the timeout.

Thanks

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6

I don’t know if that will fix the problem but it’s a good place to start before having your host track down the certificate error, but that would be the next step.

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We were able to increase the value. Unfortunately without improving the result. Perhaps you have another idea?

Thanks!

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In that case you want to reach out to your Child site host and send them a message similar to the following and Have them fix it:

I’m having trouble connecting my website (www.gem-mbh.de) to an external service MainWP due to an SSL certificate issue.

The error message I receive is:

“SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate.”

I checked my SSL using WhatsMyChainCert, and it shows that the certificate chain is incomplete or misconfigured.

This means my server is not properly sending the required intermediate certificates, even though the SSL appears valid in a browser.

Can you check and confirm:

  1. That the full certificate chain (including intermediate certificates) is installed correctly.

  2. If needed, please re-install the SSL certificate with the correct intermediate certificate(s) from my SSL provider.

  3. Restart the web server after making any necessary fixes.

Once this is corrected, I’ll retry the connection on my end. If this requires escalation to a technical team, please do so.

Thanks

Once they clean that up for you, you should be good to go based on the error messages you’ve received.

2 Likes
9

Thank you for your support. But if I send them this, they won’t know what to do with it. But I will try :slight_smile:

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10

Sorry to hear that but hopefully this part helps:

Unfortunately, there is not a lot we can do in this situation from our side.

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Hey @Elbnetz

Just to briefly follow up on this.
Dennis’ advice is good and you should try contacting the hosting support and have them investigate any potential certificate issues.

In case there’s a problem with the certificate, it should be addressed.

However, as a workaround, you can try toggling off the Verify SSL certificate option to see if that helps with adding the site:
CleanShot 2025-03-14 at 16.12.23

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To be honest: if this is the case, you should look for another host.

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