My certificate expired unexpectedly
If your site suddenly shows a full-page security warning, the certificate has expired. Why this happens:
- Free plan = manual renewal. Let's Encrypt certificates last 90 days by design. On the Free plan nothing renews by itself — the plugin emails a reminder 30 days out, but the re-verify + re-install steps are yours to do. If the reminder went to spam or an old address, the expiry arrives "unexpectedly."
- The plugin may show "82 days remaining" while the browser shows expired — this happens when a renewal was *generated* in the plugin but the new certificate files were never *installed* on the server. The plugin is reporting the certificate it issued; the browser reports the one your server actually serves. Fix: redo Step 3 (download the three files) and install them in your hosting panel, replacing the old ones.
- Premium plan expired anyway? Check SSL Zen → Account → your license is active, then Settings → renewal logs. Auto-renewal can fail if cPanel credentials changed or the license lapsed — sync the license and run renewal manually once, and contact support so we can check the renewal logs from our side.
To get secure again right now: run through Steps 1–4 in the plugin from the start (expired certificates restart the flow), or if you want this to never happen again, Premium renews automatically ~30 days before expiry.