Here's the story so far:
- Wordpress website is on SSL using Really Simple SSL and Cloudflare SSL
- I decided to move to DigitalOcean (from Hostgator) and don't want to change the domain name servers until the migration is complete and 100% working
- I set up a non-SSL droplet on DigitalOcean with virtual hosts (due to multiple domains on single VPS)
- I'm editing my local hosts file to access and view the new Wordpress setup
- I cannot set up SSL on the droplet as you need a domain for this and my domain is still pointed at my live website
- I migrated the database across using Updraft and couldn't access the admin area due to SSL redirect and failure to connect
- I handled this by editing the WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL values in the WP-Config file and logged into Wordpress successfully
- I migrated the plugins (via Updraft), others (via Updraft) and uploads (SFTP)
- When I tried to access the site I had an SSL issue and couldn't get in
- I deactivated the plugin Really Simple SSL manually (as per their instructions) but it didn't solve the issue
- I deleted the MYSQL database and recreated it, reinstalled Wordpress and logged in then restored the database again with Really Simple SSL uninstalled
- I am now able to access the backend of the website in non-SSL but the front-end is still redirecting to SSL and failing (bizarre)
That's the journey.
Here's the other pieces of the puzzle:
- My wp-config still has the http version of the WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL
- There is no redirect in my htaccess file
- No plugins are activated
- My virtual hosts file has no reference to SSL
- I've tried multiple browsers in incognito/private mode
- I've flushed my computer DNS
Still, the backend is accessible via non-SSL but the front end redirects to SSL and fails.
I've reached the limit of my powers.
What have I missed?
Please help me solve the mystery.
Cheers!
Update:
Here's the virtualhost file for this domain (with 'domain.com' in place of my domain):
<VirtualHost *:80>
#ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName domain.com
ServerAlias www.domain.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/domain.com
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/domain.com>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined