You open a website and Safari stops you with a dialog: "Safari can’t verify the identity of the website." It lists the site name, shows a certificate, and asks whether you want to continue. It feels like a virus warning. Usually it is not — it is a mismatch between the site’s security certificate and what your Mac expects, and the most common cause is embarrassingly simple: your clock is wrong.
Here is what the warning actually means and how to clear it safely, fastest fix first — plus the one situation where you should never click "Continue."
What "Can’t Verify the Identity" really means
Every secure (https) site presents a certificate that proves it is who it claims to be. Safari checks three things: the certificate is signed by a trusted authority, it has not expired, and the name on it matches the site you are visiting. If any of those checks fails, you get this dialog. That can happen for innocent reasons (a wrong date on your Mac, a captive hotel Wi-Fi page, an expired certificate on the site) — or, rarely, because something is intercepting your connection. The steps below fix the innocent causes and help you tell the difference.
The fixes, fastest first
1. Check your date, time, and time zone — the #1 cause
Certificates are valid only within a date range. If your Mac’s clock is off — even by a day, and especially by months or years — every certificate looks "not yet valid" or "expired," and you get this warning on every secure site. Open System Settings > General > Date & Time, turn on Set time automatically, and confirm the time zone is right. If the clock keeps resetting after every shutdown, the Mac’s internal battery is likely dying — see our MacBook clock showing the wrong time guide.
2. Is it one site, or every site?
This tells you where the problem is. One site only usually means that site’s certificate expired or is misconfigured — not your Mac. Every secure site points at your Mac (clock, a proxy/VPN, or intercepted Wi-Fi). Try loading two or three known-good sites (apple.com, google.com) to check.
3. Reload in a Private window
A cached, stale copy of the certificate can trigger the warning after a site renews. Open File > New Private Window (Shift-Command-N) and load the site there. If it works in Private, clear the site’s data (step 5).
4. Are you on public or hotel Wi-Fi? Log in first
Airport, hotel, and cafe networks route you through a login (captive) page before granting internet access. Until you accept it, Safari can be handed the wrong certificate and shows this warning. Open a plain http page (like example.com) to force the login page to appear, sign in, then reload the secure site.
5. Clear this one site’s data (not everything)
Go to Safari > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data, search the site’s name, select it, and click Remove. This drops the stale certificate and cookies for that one site without logging you out of everything else. Reload.
6. Turn off any VPN, proxy, or content blocker
VPNs and proxies re-sign traffic with their own certificate; if your Mac does not trust it, you get an identity warning. Disconnect the VPN (or disable the proxy in System Settings > Network > your connection > Details > Proxies) and reload. Content blockers and some "security" extensions do the same — disable them temporarily to test.
7. Restart your Mac and your router
A full restart clears in-memory network state and forces a fresh certificate handshake. Restart the Mac, and if it is every site, power-cycle the router too.
8. Check the certificate details before trusting anything
In the warning dialog, click Show Certificate. Look at "Issued to" and "Expires." If the name does not match the site you typed, or it expired long ago, do not continue — that is exactly what a fake or intercepted site would look like. If it matches a well-known site and only just expired, the site owner has a lapsed certificate; it is their bug, and you can usually wait a few hours or try again later.
9. Update macOS
Apple ships the list of trusted certificate authorities with macOS. A very old, un-updated Mac can distrust certificates the rest of the internet accepts. Check System Settings > General > Software Update.
When you should NOT click "Continue"
If the warning appears on your bank, email, or any login page — on a network you do not fully trust (public Wi-Fi, someone else’s hotspot) — and the certificate name does not match, close the tab. Do not enter a password. A real bank does not serve a broken certificate; a mismatch on a login page over untrusted Wi-Fi is the one scenario worth taking seriously.
The honest part: when it is the Mac or the OS
If your clock will not hold the correct time, or your Mac can no longer install the macOS update that carries current certificate roots, you are running into age, not a website bug. A very old Intel MacBook that has dropped off Apple’s security-update list will keep hitting certificate walls no site can fix. If you have chased every step here and it is still every secure site, it may be time to upgrade — a certified refurbished MacBook Air (M1) runs current macOS and starts at $569.99 on our Apple clearance page, with our own one-year warranty.
Related fixes
- Safari "This Connection Is Not Private" on Mac
- Safari "Cannot Establish a Secure Connection"
- MacBook clock showing the wrong time
Frequently Asked Questions
Does "Can’t Verify the Identity of the Website" mean my Mac has a virus?
Almost never. The most common cause is a wrong clock on your Mac, followed by an expired certificate on the site itself or a captive Wi-Fi login you have not completed. It is a certificate check failing, not malware.
It happens on every secure site. What now?
That points at your Mac, not the sites. Fix the date and time first (step 1), then disable any VPN or proxy (step 6), then update macOS (step 9). If the clock keeps drifting after every shutdown, the internal battery is failing.
Should I ever click "Continue" past this warning?
Only if you understand why it appeared — for example, a personal site or device with a self-signed certificate you trust. Never continue on a bank or login page over public Wi-Fi when the certificate name does not match.
Why does Chrome load the site but Safari shows the error?
Safari and Chrome can cache certificates differently and Chrome may already trust a proxy certificate Safari does not. It usually still points back to a clock, VPN, or stale-cache issue — work through the steps above.