Why Does .htaccess Redirect Work but DirectAdmin Site Redirection Does Not?

[iPwsite]

Hello DirectAdmin Community,

I'm having an issue where the DirectAdmin Site Redirection feature is not working as expected for my domain, example.com, but a manual .htaccess rule works fine. I need help understanding why this is happening and how to fix the Site Redirection feature.

My Setup​

• Domain: example.com
• Server IP: 192.168.1.3
• DirectAdmin Version: Latest
• Web Server: Apache
• SSL: Let’s Encrypt certificate installed via DirectAdmin, covering example.com
• Website: Used for a small business

Issue​

• Problem: example.com works. www.example.com does not work consistently with HTTPS, and https://example.com sometimes fails. I want to redirect all traffic (http://, www, etc.) to https://example.com.
• DirectAdmin Site Redirection: I set up redirects in DirectAdmin under Account Manager > Site Redirection:
  • Redirect : http://example.com to https://example.com (301 Permanent)
  • These redirects do not work as expected; www URLs still fail or don’t redirect consistently.
• .htaccess Fix: I added the following to .htaccess in public_html, and it works perfectly:
  RewriteEngine On<br>RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]<br>RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\. [NC]<br>RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]<br>
• DNS: Confirmed with my domain provider that DNS is correct, pointing to my nameservers, with A records for both example.com and www.example.com set to 192.168.1.3.

Questions​

1. Why does the DirectAdmin Site Redirection feature fail to redirect www and HTTP traffic to https://example.com, while the .htaccess rule works?
2. Is there a specific configuration in DirectAdmin (e.g., Apache virtual host settings, rewrite module, or SSL settings) that I need to check or enable?
3. Could this be related to how DirectAdmin handles Let’s Encrypt certificates or Apache configurations?

Additional Notes​

• I’ve updated the Let’s Encrypt certificate to include www.example.com.
• Tested in incognito mode to rule out caching issues.
• My hosting provider manages the nameservers.

Any insights or suggestions on fixing the Site Redirection feature would be greatly appreciated! I’d prefer to use DirectAdmin’s built-in tool to avoid manual .htaccess edits for simpler management.


Thank you!

 

[zEitEr]

Redirect : http://example.com to https://example.com (301 Permanent)

As far as I know DirectAdmin under Account Manager > Site Redirection can redirect only http://example.com/anything to http://another-example.com/anything

For redirecting HTTP -> HTTPS you should choose "Force SSL with https redirect" on a domain management page

 

[DrWizzle]

As far as I know DirectAdmin under Account Manager > Site Redirection can redirect only http://example.com/anything to http://another-example.com/anything

For redirecting HTTP -> HTTPS you should choose "Force SSL with https redirect" on a domain management page

If you have an SSL certificate for the domain, you can also use the option in the SSL page to force a HTTPS redirect. I believe you'll get errors if you have a force redirect on and no certificate installed.

Pic taken from my production server and I use this as some of my software refuses to operate properly without HTTPS.