Apache Virtualhost preferring the "default" server for new site - apache

Question

I have a DigitalOcean droplet running Ubuntu.
On it, I host three sites using Apache. I am trying to add a fourth, "newsite.com", swapping from another host. This fourth site is live on another environment with SSL enabled.
The existing three sites run fine. They have SSL enabled using LetsEncrypt and I use virtual hosts to set up multiple domains with the same IP. However, for the fourth one, the new site, if I try to view the site (by editing my Win10 hosts file to point at the server IP) I see one of the other three sites, "oldsite1.com", which is the highest in the list sorted alphabetically. I understand Apache works its way down the list of enabled sites to select one. The new site does not have SSL enabled as I cannot run LetsEncrypt until the DNS has been changed.
The .conf file for the new site looks like this:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster#newsite.com
ServerName newsite.com
ServerAlias www.newsite.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/newsite.com/public_html
<Directory /var/www/newsite.com/public_html>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
<IfModule mod_dir.c>
DirectoryIndex index.php index.pl index.cgi index.html index.xhtml index.htm
</IfModule>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =newsite.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.newsite.com
RewriteRule ^ http://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>
This matches the .conf files of the other sites.
My newsite .htaccess file:
#Force SSL
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# Prevent Directory listing
Options -Indexes
#Whitelist IP
#RewriteEngine On
#RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} [removed]
#RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/error.html -f
#RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/error.enable -f
#RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !error.html
#RewriteRule ^.*$ /error.html [R=503,L]
#ErrorDocument 503 /error.html
#Header Set Cache-Control "max-age=0, no-store"
# Prevent Direct Access to files
<FilesMatch "(?i)((\.tpl|\.ini|\.log|(?<!robots)\.txt))">
Require all denied
## For apache 2.2 and older, replace "Require all denied" with these two lines :
# Order deny,allow
# Deny from all
</FilesMatch>
# SEO URL Settings
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml$ index.php?route=extension/feed/google_sitemap [L]
RewriteRule ^googlebase.xml$ index.php?route=extension/feed/google_base [L]
RewriteRule ^system/download/(.*) index.php?route=error/not_found [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*\.(ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|js|css)
RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA]
### Additional Settings that may need to be enabled for some servers
### Uncomment the commands by removing the # sign in front of it.
### If you get an "Internal Server Error 500" after enabling any of the following settings, restore the # as this means your host doesn't allow that.
# 1. If your cart only allows you to add one item at a time, it is possible register_globals is on. This may work to disable it:
# php_flag register_globals off
# 2. If your cart has magic quotes enabled, This may work to disable it:
# php_flag magic_quotes_gpc Off
# 3. Set max upload file size. Most hosts will limit this and not allow it to be overridden but you can try
# php_value upload_max_filesize 999M
# 4. set max post size. uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields
# php_value post_max_size 999M
# 5. set max time script can take. uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields
# php_value max_execution_time 200
# 6. set max time for input to be recieved. Uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields
# php_value max_input_time 200
# 7. disable open_basedir limitations
# php_admin_value open_basedir none
###Compression stuff###
# Enable Gzip Compression
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/text
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
# Leverage Browser Caching
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"
</IfModule>
# Remove Browser Bugs
#BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
#BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
#BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
#Header append Vary User-Agent
Running sudo apache2ctl -S returns:
VirtualHost configuration:
*:443 is a NameVirtualHost
default server oldsite1.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/oldsite1.com-le-ssl.conf:2)
port 443 namevhost oldsite1.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/oldsite1.com-le-ssl.conf:2)
alias www.oldsite1.com
port 443 namevhost oldsite2.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/oldsite2.com-le-ssl.conf:2)
alias www.oldsite2.com
port 443 namevhost oldsite3.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/oldsite3.com-le-ssl.conf:2)
alias www.oldsite3.com
*:80 is a NameVirtualHost
default server 127.0.0.1 (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
port 80 namevhost 127.0.0.1 (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
port 80 namevhost oldsite1.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/oldsite1.com.conf:1)
alias www.oldsite1.com
port 80 namevhost oldsite2.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/oldsite2.com.conf:1)
alias www.oldsite2.com
port 80 namevhost oldsite3.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/oldsite3.com.conf:1)
alias www.oldsite3.com
port 80 namevhost newsite.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/newsite.com.conf:1)
alias www.newsite.com
ServerRoot: "/etc/apache2"
Main DocumentRoot: "/var/www/html"
Main ErrorLog: "/var/log/apache2/error.log"
Mutex ssl-stapling: using_defaults
Mutex ssl-cache: using_defaults
Mutex default: dir="/var/run/apache2/" mechanism=default
Mutex mpm-accept: using_defaults
Mutex watchdog-callback: using_defaults
Mutex rewrite-map: using_defaults
Mutex ssl-stapling-refresh: using_defaults
PidFile: "/var/run/apache2/apache2.pid"
Define: DUMP_VHOSTS
Define: DUMP_RUN_CFG
User: name="www-data" id=33
Group: name="www-data" id=33
I have tried emptying the newsite .htaccess and restarted apache multiple times but I am always shown oldsite1.com when I try to view newsite.com.
Assuming there is nothing wrong with my .conf or .htaccess, why is Apache preferring the vhost of the first site in the list?

Answer 1

You are forcing ssl. The moment you load http://newsite.com you are being redirected to https://newsite.com.
You only have a vhost for newsite.com on port 80 and not on port 443.
Since there is no vhost for the requested domain on port 443 you will be served the default site.
You will get your site as expected if you comment out this part:
#Force SSL
RewriteEngine On
#RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]