# Unable to renew Let's encrypt certificate
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Tags:** letsencrypt
**Created:** [February 5, 2024, 2:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192 "2024-02-05T14:11:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@peyrusse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/peyrusse)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 2:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/1 "2024-02-05T14:11:36Z")
Hello,
Today the certificat of my discourse installation expired.
I have tried to renew it by following those commands :
```plaintext
ssh root@your.discourse.server
cd /var/discourse/shared/standalone
cp -r ssl ssl_backup
rm ssl/*
cd /var/discourse
./launcher rebuild app
```
After execution, i can see that new files are available in the directory **/var/discourse/shared/standalone/ssl** however this new certificate is not loaded by the web site.
Any idea how to solve this problem ?
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 2:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/2 "2024-02-05T14:13:50Z")
> [@peyrusse](#):
>
> cp -r ssl ssl\_backup
> rm ssl/\*
These steps are usually unnecessary - the build script on its own will update your certificate as required.
I wonder if your deletion of the contents of the directory is affecting the build process?
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/3 "2024-02-05T14:52:45Z")
Are you trying to use a custom certificate rather than the one provided by let’s encrypt?
DId you follow [Allow SSL / HTTPS for your Discourse Docker setup](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-ssl-https-for-your-discourse-docker-setup/13847) (which isn’t recommended anymore) or just a [standard install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true)?
Are you using cloudflare or something else that might be interfering with the certificate renewal?
---
### Author:  [@peyrusse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/peyrusse)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 2:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/4 "2024-02-05T14:58:33Z")
It’s a certificate provided by let’s encrypt, no cloudfare at all.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 4:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/5 "2024-02-05T16:06:42Z")
You’ll need to go into the container (`./launcher enter app`) and try to run the command by hand.
```plaintext
cd /root/acme.sh && LE_WORKING_DIR="${LETSENCRYPT_DIR}" ./acme.sh --upgrade --auto-upgrade
```
You could try that.
Is something wrong with your DNS? Common wisdom is that it’s always DNS. What’s your hostname?
---
### Author:  [@frictionel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/frictionel)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2024, 1:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/6 "2024-02-06T01:41:05Z")
I had that very same problem a few months ago. I‘ve tried everything I could find on meta but in the end a simple restart of the server solved it for me.
---
### Author:  [@peyrusse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/peyrusse)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2024, 6:58am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/7 "2024-02-06T06:58:58Z")
I did this 🙂
- Reboot Server : No changes
- root@VM-Discourse-01-app:/var/www/discourse# cd /root/acme.sh && LE\_WORKING\_DIR=“${LETSENCRYPT\_DIR}” ./acme.sh --upgrade --auto-upgrade
[Tue 06 Feb 2024 06:53:56 AM UTC] Already uptodate!
[Tue 06 Feb 2024 06:53:56 AM UTC] Upgrade success!
But when i launch discourse i can see on the url that the certificate is not set.
---
### Author:  [@peyrusse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/peyrusse)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2024, 9:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/8 "2024-02-07T09:31:46Z")
It finally works. It was my port 80 from my Azure environment that was closed so the challenge response when generating the certificate was failing … thanks for you help.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2024, 9:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unable-to-renew-lets-encrypt-certificate/294192/9 "2024-03-08T09:32:43Z")
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