Question

I’m trying to redirect https://www.example.com to http://www.example.com. I tried the following code in the .htaccess file

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

This code successfully redirects https://example.com to http://www.example.com. However when I type in https://www.example.com then it gives me a “web page not available” error in the browser.

I have also tried the following 2 codes without success

Attempt 1

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^/(.*):NOSSL$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Attempt 2

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule (.*) http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

Both above attempts failed. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Attempt 2 was close to perfect. Just modify it slightly:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule (.*) http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

UPDATE:

Above solution works from a technical point of view. BUT:

Since a few years now the user will receive a huge warning indicating that the connection is not private. That is to be expected: none of today’s browsers will silently switch from an encrypted to a not encrypted connection, for obvious reasons … You cannot get around that behavior of standard browsers. That however has nothing to do with the redirection itself. It is how the web works today, how users are protected from criminal intents.