Fix Forge SSL Renewal When WWW Redirect Breaks ACME
Problem
Section titled “Problem”On Laravel Forge, enabling a www redirect on the apex domain (for example, redirecting example.com → www.example.com) can cause Let’s Encrypt renewals to fail.
This happens because Let’s Encrypt validates domain ownership by requesting an ACME challenge file under:
/.well-known/acme-challenge/...
If that request gets redirected, the validator may not receive the expected response from the original domain, and the renewal fails.
Fix (temporary toggle)
Section titled “Fix (temporary toggle)”-
Disable the www redirect for the affected site/domain in Forge.
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Renew (or re-issue) the Let’s Encrypt certificate in Forge.
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Re-enable the www redirect after the certificate has been successfully renewed.
Verification
Section titled “Verification”- Visit the site and confirm HTTPS is valid on both
example.comandwww.example.com. - Check the Forge site’s certificate status and renewal date.