How come all my http URLs are turned to https?

Question

Even though I type "http://aoafinc.org/wp-admin" into the address bar, it was turned into "https://aoafinc.org/wp-admin". Also, all the links to images on my site are "https" instead of "http". Since my SSL certificate has expired, all these images can't be loaded.

I just take over this website from someone and don't want to renew the SSL, also I am not very familiar with WP or SSL either, but I guess I don't have to manually edit all the image links, there should be somewhere on WP's back end to set the website as non-ssl and hopefully all links will become "http". And more essentially, why the browser is requesting HTTPS url even though I type in a HTTP url?

Answer 1

I think you should just get the certificate renewed, and if you need a free one go to letsencrypt.com. A growing number of hosts offer Lets Encrypt certificates as an "easy click" type option on their control panel too.

If you're real keen on taking down the TLS/SSL functionality, I hope you'll at least mention that to your client before removing a good part of their websites security all on your own.

Answer 2

• Check your .htaccess file and remove the https. e.g:

  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80 
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://url.com
  

• Check the wp-config.php file and remove define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true); if exists

• Also, you can change the URL from WordPress backend: General Settings -> General

• Lastly, If you can't access the wp-admin then you should check the WordPress table options. There are two options you have to change:

  1. siteurl
  2. home

Make sure these two options have http url not https.

Answer 3

For multisite, you can only change this in the database. Go to your database, and look for table:

_options

Then look for rows

siteurl

home

And change https to http.

Then look for table

_sitemeta

and look for row siteurl and change the https to http

I would do a database backup before editing your database.

If it's still showing https after this, you might need to clear the browser cache, for chrome go to settings > clear browsing data > tick 'browsing history, cached images and files' and clear the history.