Fix “Your Connection is Not Private” Error in Google Chrome

Having used a relatives computers recently I discovered their Google Chrome web browser was constantly throwing a “Your connection is not private” error message on many web pages, thereby preventing the page from loading unless they chose to ignore and reload the ‘not private’ page. The “not private” message can be a little disconcerting, so it’s no wonder it can alarm some users. Interestingly, this error was turning up both on their Mac OS X Chrome browser, as well as a separate Windows computer that was also using the Chrome web browser, and they were convinced they had been the victim of some elaborate hack.
Well, rest assured there was no hack. It turns out this is a remarkably simple error message to fix in Google Chrome, and so if you experience the “your connection not private” error message on any computer, you can quickly resolve it regardless of the error being encountered on a Mac or Windows PC.

Fixing Your Connection is not private Error in Chrome by Correcting the System Clock

The primary reason you may encounter this error message is due to the computer system clock being set incorrectly. This can happen by accident, by power loss, when a computer is turned off for an extended amount of time, by the onboard battery dying, by time travel (just kidding, maybe), or by simply erroneously setting the clock to the wrong time. This is so easy to fix that it really doesn’t matter how it happened, here’s how to do on Mac and Windows:

Fixing the Error in Chrome for Mac OS X by Correcting Clock Date:

  1. Quit Chrome
  2. GO to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” then click on “Date & Time”
  3. Under the Date & Time tab, choose “Set date and time automatically” and be sure it is checked, configured to the appropriate time zone for your location
  4. Relaunch Chrome and revisit the website in question, the error message should be gone


If this keeps happening after a Mac has been turned off for a while or has rebooted, it may be because the onboard CMOS battery is dying or is dead, this can be particularly true with older Macs. The easiest solution would be to either take it to Apple for repair, or simply to be sure the Mac is connected to the internet regularly so it can pull the new accurate date and time from the remote server to set it correctly.

Fixing the Error in Chrome for Windows by Correcting the Clock:

  1. Exit the Chrome browser
  2. Right-click on the system clock in the Start bar, located in the bottom right corner of the screen
  3. Choose to change the date and time settings, then set the date to be accurate (or better yet, if the version of Windows supports it, set it to configure this automatically by syncing to a time server* so you don’t have to mess with it again)
  4. When the clock has been set to the proper date and time (todays date, this moment in time), relaunch Chrome and visit the web page(s) again, the error message should be gone
* Windows time server syncing can be enabled in Control Panel > Clock > Date and Time > Internet Time > and choosing “Synchronize with an Internet time server”, choosing Update Now, then clicking OK
As mentioned, if the error message keeps coming back after the Windows PC has been rebooted or shut down, it’s almost certainly because the onboard battery is dead or dying. This can be replaced by a local tech, but another solution is to just be sure the Windows computer is connecting to the internet on boot where it can accurately set the time and date, and having that process complete before attempting to use the web.

RECOMMENDED: Update Chrome to the Latest Version

When possible, update the Google Chrome browser to the latest version available at http://chrome.com. This may not be possible with older hardware that is stuck on an older system software release or an older version of the browser, but new versions better explain this error message and make it a bit more obvious it’s a system clock issue, as the error message will often say “Your clock is behind” or “Your clock is ahead”, with a “Net::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID” blurb to go along with it. That’s pretty straight forward, but sometimes you’ll see the “”Your connection is not private” message or Net:ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID or Net:ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID instead, particularly on earlier versions of Chrome, or depending on how far in the past or future the clock is set.
That’s all it took to troubleshoot the “connection not private” message on a household of computers (for those wondering, in this case it likely happened on both the Mac and Windows PC because they had both been turned off and unplugged for several months in storage), so if you encounter this message yourself, fix the date, update Chrome, and you’ll almost certainly be back browsing again, trouble free.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Recover a Forgotten AOL Password

Image
Email service has taken an important part of life. It is considered as an identity nowadays. Our daily activities are highly dependent on it whatever service we take or use. Email services are used in a transaction also to keep records. There are many email services available in the market but AOL Mail is considered as the most trust-able email service in the world. It is mainly used by adults and that also, more than 40 years of age. If email is stopped for a moment, almost everything will be stopped. By now you might have understood that email is really an important aspect of today’s life. What happens if your account is hacked? Read further to know how AOL mail customer service can help you. Is your AOL Mail account really hacked – How will you recognize? If you open your AOL Mail and notice that some of the emails are already read or some of the emails are deleted, it’s a sign that your account is compromised. It means your account has been hacked and you need to contact “A
Read more

Wondering How to Contact Facebook Technical Support

Image
Be aware first of all that Facebook, American company, is a social network that allows you to keep in touch and exchange your thinking and expressions with your friends at any time. Facebook has become most used social networks because Facebook has also become a daily need of people. This is one of the most visited sites and many users are victims of hacking their account due to attack of hackers and scammers. In order to complain to  Facebook help center , here are several ways in this tutorial. Facebook is using by large number of users and if you want to enjoy socializing so you have to opened your own account to share your ideas, photos, videos with your friends, Nowadays some users also encounter problems with this social network, due to the lack of best advice to explore Facebook that’s why we created this tutorial that gives you everything to Explore Facebook. You may also contact to Facebook teams and get instant assistance by experienced and professional experts at the e
Read more

Bellsouth Technical Support Number

Get Instant Support from Bellsouth Technical Support Number Bellsouth users get the advantage of using varied range of services apart from the general mail service. This has been only done in order to meet the changing taste of the customers with time. But there have been instances reported when users are not being able to explore the features of their email account or manage the features of their mail account in an effective manner. Such issues generally arise because users have never dealt with that particular feature previously. Bellsouth customer support number can prove to be fruitful under these tough circumstances as then effective guidance will be offered to the users for exploration or management of the email account. As the number of users of email account is increasing on daily basis so is the congestion in the server. This has resulted in some sort of technical glitches with the users of the email account. Some users may find easy solution to their issues but some o
Read more