Knowledgebase: SSL
New SSL Lifetime Limit
Posted by Valarie S. on 22 June 2021 09:10 PM

Starting from 1st September 2020, several popular web browsers, led by Apple’s Safari will stop trusting SSL certificates issued for longer than 398 days (a 1-year certificate).

To provide SSLs that are supported by popular browsers, major Certificate Authorities (CA) will stop issuing 2-year SSL certificates.

1. All SSLs purchased for longer than 1 year and activated on August 18th, 2020, or later, will require annual reactivation.

2. The change will only affect newly issued SSL. Any SSL purchased will be issued for 398 days if activated on August 18th or after. If you have a 2-year SSL that was issued before September 1st, it will be trusted in all browsers until its original expiration date.

3. If you reissue an SSL issued for 2-years on August 18th or after, new SSL will be issued for 1 year. If there is any time left on your certificate when the 398 days are up, you will need to reactivate your SSL to use it.


What is “Reactivation”?

The reactivation process is the same as activating an SSL before installing it on your website. Through reactivation you will be able to use the remaining period you paid for and get a new SSL issued for the period of maximum validity CA supports (currently 1 year). You will get an email reminder to issue a new SSL 30 days before the previous one expires. You need to re-install the new certificate on your server.


What Happens if You Don’t Reactivate?

If you don’t reactivate, your SSL initially issued for 1 year will expire. Your website will no longer have encryption protection and your site will be flagged as “Not secure”. The certificate status in your dashboard will change to “Paused”. To restore the secure connection, you need to issue another SSL for free and reinstall it on your website.

If you reactivate and install a new SSL before your initially issued SSL expires, your certificate status will not switch to “Paused” and you will not experience any service interruption.


How to Reactivate?

30 days before your 1 year SSL is due to expire, you’ll get an email reminder. The option to reactivate will be also available in your user account’s dashboard. When it’s time, click the “Reactivate” button and follow the system guidance steps.

Once reactivated, you will either get a new pause date if you still have pre-paid time left on your SSL, or expiration date, which is when you’ll need to renew your SSL next.


How is “Reactivate” Different From “Renew”?

When you reactivate, you get a new SSL issued within the period you already paid for. Once this paid period is over, you will need to renew the whole SSL — which means paying once more for another period of your choice.

Both actions involve sending activation requests to the Certificate Authority, getting an SSL issued, and installing the issued SSL on your site. Whether you need to reactivate or renew your SSL, you will get an email reminder from us and will be guided through the corresponding process.

(1 vote(s))
Helpful
Not helpful

Comments (0)
Copyright © 1998 - 2021 Shinjiru International Inc. All Rights Reserved.