# Can't renew by certbot: Could not decode 'status' (u'ready')

**URL:** <https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cant-renew-by-certbot-could-not-decode-status-uready/65442>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [June 28, 2018, 5:35am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cant-renew-by-certbot-could-not-decode-status-uready/65442 "2018-06-28T05:35:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![\_az](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/22d042/32.png) [@\_az](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/_az)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 6:31am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cant-renew-by-certbot-could-not-decode-status-uready/65442/4 "2018-06-28T06:31:28Z")

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> [@Could not decode 'status' when performing a renew dry run](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/could-not-decode-status-when-performing-a-renew-dry-run/64863/20):
>
> …

The reason certbot-auto didn't work is because it doesn't ship with the Cloudflare plugin.

You can do this to force certbot-auto to work

```
sudo su -
cd /opt/eff.org/certbot
source venv/bin/activate
pip install certbot-dns-cloudflare
deactivate

```

and then try renew.

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_[View the full topic](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cant-renew-by-certbot-could-not-decode-status-uready/65442)._