Certificate expires soon

Why it matters

When the certificate expires, every visitor gets a full-page warning. Let's Encrypt normally renews thirty days before the end, so a certificate this close to its end date means something is blocking renewal.

How Snaglist checks it

This is part of the security check, a separate check next to the crawl, in Studio and Bureau, and only on a site you have verified. Snaglist only looks at what any visitor can see from outside. It never logs in, guesses no passwords and sends no attacks. It reads the end date of the certificate the server shows and reports it when fewer than 21 days are left, with the issuer.

Common causes

• The domain or its www variant no longer points to this server
• A firewall or redirect rule blocks the check of Let's Encrypt
• A paid certificate that has to be renewed by hand

How to fix it

1. Check at the host why renewal fails.
2. Make sure the domain, with and without www, points to this server.
3. Renew the certificate by hand if needed.
4. Run the security check again to confirm the new end date.

How it shows in the report

In the report for your client this appears under the heading "The security certificate expires soon". When everything is in order, the report says: "The security certificate is valid for a while".