{"id":131951,"date":"2026-04-24T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/support\/?p=131951"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:01:30","slug":"fix-curl-error-60-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/support\/product-guides\/wordpress-hosting\/fix-curl-error-60-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Fix cURL Error 60 in WordPress: SSL Certificate Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"How<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When WordPress shows \u201cUpdate Failed: Download failed. cURL error 60: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate<\/strong>\u201d the server\u2019s certificate authority (CA) bundle is missing or outdated. PHP cannot verify the SSL certificate on the remote download server, so every plugin update, theme download, and WordPress core update fails. The fix depends on your hosting plan: on a VPS or Dedicated server, you can run two commands over Secure Shell (SSH); on Shared or Reseller hosting, InMotion Hosting support applies the fix at the server level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a server-level issue, not a problem with your WordPress installation or your site\u2019s SSL certificate. Your site may load fine over HTTPS but still trigger this error because outbound cURL calls use the server\u2019s CA bundle rather than your site\u2019s certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Causes cURL Error 60 in WordPress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When WordPress downloads an update, PHP\u2019s cURL library connects to downloads.wordpress.org<\/code> over HTTPS. Before sending any data, cURL checks that the remote server\u2019s SSL certificate was signed by a trusted certificate authority. That list of trusted authorities lives in a CA bundle file on your server. On AlmaLinux 8 and 9, the conventional path is \/etc\/pki\/tls\/certs\/ca-bundle.crt<\/code>, which is a symlink to the consolidated bundle generated by the system trust tools. If that file is absent, empty, or contains expired root certificates, cURL cannot complete the verification and returns error 60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Fix Applies to Your Hosting Plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The right fix depends on what level of server access you have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hosting Plan<\/th>Root Access<\/th>Fix Path<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Shared Hosting<\/a><\/td>No<\/td>Contact InMotion Hosting Technical Support<\/td><\/tr>
Reseller Hosting<\/a><\/td>No<\/td>Contact InMotion Hosting Technical Support<\/td><\/tr>
VPS Hosting<\/a><\/td>Yes<\/td>Run the update commands yourself (Step 2)<\/td><\/tr>
Dedicated Server<\/a><\/td>Yes<\/td>Run the update commands yourself (Step 2)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Confirm the Error<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Confirm the error code is 60, not a different cURL code, before running any commands or opening a ticket. The full message in the WordPress admin screen reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update Failed: Download failed. cURL error 60: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You may see this error when you try to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n