diff --git a/main/main.ino b/main/main.ino
index ee9242342a..6b2229657a 100644
--- a/main/main.ino
+++ b/main/main.ino
@@ -1951,7 +1951,7 @@ void MQTTtoSYS(char* topicOri, JsonObject& SYSdata) { // json object decoding
         }
 #    if MQTT_SECURE_SELF_SIGNED
         if (use_ss_cert) {
-          cert_index = SYSdata.get<uint8_t>("mqtt_cert_index");
+          cert_index = SYSdata["mqtt_cert_index"].as<uint8_t>();
           if (cert_index >= sizeof(certs_array) / sizeof(ss_certs)) {
             Log.error(F("mqtt_cert_index invalid - ignoring command" CR));
             return;
diff --git a/platformio.ini b/platformio.ini
index 295cda9870..2e6aa83901 100644
--- a/platformio.ini
+++ b/platformio.ini
@@ -859,6 +859,7 @@ lib_deps =
 build_flags =
   ${com-esp.build_flags}
   '-DMQTT_HTTPS_FW_UPDATE'
+  '-DMQTT_SECURE_SELF_SIGNED'
   '-DGateway_Name="OpenMQTTGateway_TEST_MQTT_FW"'
 board_build.flash_mode = dout