How to Combine the httpdocs and httpsdocs Folders in Plesk 11

When the Plesk Panel for my virtual dedicated server was updated recently from an old version to the new 11.x version, I was left with a huge problem. I was running a WordPress website on the server which accepted credit card payments and thus needed the ability to SSL encryption on the site. Obviously only some pages are encrypted and this caused a problem.

My site was contained within a single folder, httpdocs. And the way the old Plesk version worked is that it would separate my content so that visitors would get redirected to my httpsdocs folder when accessing an SSL encrypted page. But since most of what WordPress does is dynamic, that wasn’t really an option for me. A little workaround I had was just putting all the files in BOTH folders, but this created many problems of its own that I won’t go into now.

So what is the solution? After much time spent with technical support and many frustrated Google searches, it was finally given to me by Faris Raouf over at the  Plesk forums.

Combine the httpdocs and httpsdocs Folders

1. Log into your Plesk Panel.
2. Click “Websites & Domains.”
3. Click “Show Advanced Operations.”
4. Click “Website Scripting and Security”
5. Uncheck the box that says something along the lines of “Compatibility mode for legacy option to separate SSL content.”
6. Click “OK.”

That’s all there is to it! It’s amazing this isn’t mentioned more often, it’s so simple! Hopefully no one else will have to go through this again. The behavior now should be that your site ONLY points to httpdocs, regardless of whether the page in encrypted or not. Let me know if this helps you out!

About Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson is a website developer and designer living in Minneapolis, Minnesota with a passion for code and WordPress. He spends his days building WordPress websites for small businesses, developing new code with the online community, and living life.

6 Comments on “How to Combine the httpdocs and httpsdocs Folders in Plesk 11”

  1. Many thanks for this. I’ve been banging my head against a wall trying to figure out why *some* of my domains stopped working. Flicking this setting off fixed it in all cases!

    I’m using Plesk Version 17.8.11, and this setting is now under each domain’s ‘Hosting Settings’. LIke you mentioned above, the setting disappears once you’ve unticked it.

    Many thanks for your help!

  2. On my panel that option was gone, but there was an option called enable ssl support. when its unchecked, the https seems to point to the httpsdocs folder, once you check that option that behaviour stops. Wasted 30 minutes of my life.

  3. It looks like this option may be gone now. I’ve tried looking in the specified place and don’t see a checkbox for it.

    1. I know the option disappeared for me once I actually DID the change. You can’t go backwards with it. And of course, this may only apply to Plesk 11, I’m not sure about other versions.

      1. @Brian Johnson:

        yes, you can go backwards:

        %plesk_bin%/subscription -u YOURSUBSCRIPTION.TLD -same_ssl false

        works on plesk 10.4.x and 11.x
        sometimes manuals are not complete..

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