Disable SSL if locked out WordPress with WP Security Plugin

Over the weekend, I implemented SSL through Cloud Flare and configured WP Security plugin to have SSL on a front end and admin dashboard.

It was all ok until I decided to disable the WP Security plugin for the time being to troubleshoot my Thrive Leads issue. My WordPress admin dashboard was locked out and giving “Redirect lookup” error.

The front end was giving problem too but I was able to make my website operational by removing HTTP to https redirection. But this didn’t work for admin dashboard.

If you are having a similar situation then not to worry, here is how you can escape this issue.

As usual, don’t forget to take a backup of existing configuration, which you will be modifying shortly.

• Login to your server (if you are on shared hosting then it would be your cPanel)
• Go to htdocs or root location of your WordPress website
• Edit wp-config.php
• You will notice following two lines where SSL is defined as true

// iThemes Security Config Details: 2
define( 'FORCE_SSL_LOGIN', true ); // Force SSL for Dashboard - Security > Settings > Secure Socket Layers (SSL) > SSL for Dashboard
define( 'FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true ); // Force SSL for Dashboard - Security > Settings > Secure Socket Layers (SSL) > SSL for Dashboard
// END iThemes Security - Do not modify or remove this line

• Change that true to false so it should be like below.

// iThemes Security Config Details: 2
define( 'FORCE_SSL_LOGIN', false ); // Force SSL for Dashboard - Security > Settings > Secure Socket Layers (SSL) > SSL for Dashboard
define( 'FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', false ); // Force SSL for Dashboard - Security > Settings > Secure Socket Layers (SSL) > SSL for Dashboard
// END iThemes Security - Do not modify or remove this line

That’s all. Try to access to your admin dashboard and it should be ok.