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If include 'https://…' stopped working after a move to HTTPS, PHP’s ordinary local-file include feature probably has not broken. That code asks PHP to fetch a remote URL, and the cause may be disabled URL inclusion, a changed PHP configuration, a redirect, or a different response from the server. For a file on the same server, use a filesystem path such as __DIR__ . '/file.php' instead.
First check what kind of include you are using
These statements look similar, but they do different things:
// Remote URL: asks PHP to fetch a web response
include 'https://www.example.com/folder/file.txt';
// Local file: reads from the server's filesystem
include __DIR__ . '/folder/file.txt';The https:// version is a remote URL include. It depends on PHP’s URL stream support, server configuration, network access, TLS, redirects, and the response returned by the remote server. It does not mean “open a file inside my website.” The __DIR__ version means “open this file relative to the directory containing this PHP script.”
If the file is on the same server, prefer the local form:
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