Use .htaccess to redirect HTTP to HTTPs

Question

Please, don't recommend me the long and very detailed thread with more than 173 upvotes. It didn't work for me. I have also tried many others (1, 2, 3, 4). They all give me TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS or error 500. So, here is my issue:

With my current .htaccess, this is what happens:

https://www.dukescasino.com/ - works perfectly

https://dukescasino.com/ - redirects to the above which is great

The two options below loads fine, but it should be redirecting to the https version:

http://www.dukescasino.com/

http://dukescasino.com/

Here is the current .htaccess:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

I don't believe it is relevant, but if so, here is the list of current active plugins:

• Advanced Custom Fields
• All In One SEO Pack
• Bop Search Box Item Type For Nav Menus
• Contact Form 7
• Disable Comments
• Google XML Sitemaps
• Jetpack by WordPress.com
• Search & Filter
• Slider WD
• TablePress
• UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore
• Wordfence Security
• WPide
• WP Smush
• WP Super Cache

Edit 1 - Tests performed:

Test A:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
# First rewrite to HTTPS:
# Don't put www. here. If it is already there it will be included, if not
# the subsequent rule will catch it.
RewriteRule .* https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
# Now, rewrite any request to the wrong domain to use www.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule .* https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Result: ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

Test B:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Result: ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

Test C:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^80$
 RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Result: ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

Test D:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Result: ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

Test E:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}$1

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Result: 302 found. Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Answer 1

Problem solved!

Final .htaccess:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{ENV:HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Answer 2

Here is an alternative solution you can use if you don't want to edit .htaccess:

add_action( 'template_redirect', 'nonhttps_template_redirect', 1 );

function nonhttps_template_redirect() {

    if ( is_ssl() ) {

        if ( 0 === strpos( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'https' ) ) {

            wp_redirect( preg_replace( '|^http://|', 'https://', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ), 301 );

            exit();

        } else {

            wp_redirect( 'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 301 );

            exit();

        }

    }

}

You can place this at the bottom of your theme functions.php

Answer 3

The above final .htaccess and Test A,B,C,D,E did not work for me. I just used below 2 lines code and it works in my WordPress website:

RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.thehotskills.com/$1 [R=301,L]

I'm not sure where I was making the mistake but this page helped me out.

Answer 4

In my case, the htaccess file contained lots of rules installed by plugins like Far Future Expiration and WPSuperCache and also the lines from wordpress itself.

In order to not mess things up, I had to put the solution at the top of htaccess (this is important, if you put it at the end it causes some wrong redirects due to conflicts with the cache plugin)

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
</IfModule>

This way, your lines don't get messed up by wordpress in case some settings change. Also, the <IfModule> section can be repeated without any problems.

I have to thank Jason Shah for the neat htaccess rule.