# Certbot renew failed

**URL:** <https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certbot-renew-failed/109854>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [January 4, 2020, 10:05am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certbot-renew-failed/109854 "2020-01-04T10:05:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![martin.brunn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@martin.brunn](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/martin.brunn)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 10:05am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certbot-renew-failed/109854/1 "2020-01-04T10:05:59Z")

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Please fill out the fields below so we can help you better. Note: you must provide your domain name to get help. Domain names for issued certificates are all made public in Certificate Transparency logs (e.g. [https://crt.sh/?q=example.com](https://crt.sh/?q=example.com)), so withholding your domain name here does not increase secrecy, but only makes it harder for us to provide help.

My domain is: [web-brain.de](http://web-brain.de) , \*.web-brain.de

I ran this command: certbot renew

It produced this output: Cert is due for renewal, auto-renewing…  
Could not choose appropriate plugin: The manual plugin is not working; there may be problems with your existing configuration.  
The error was: PluginError(‘An authentication script must be provided with --manual-auth-hook when using the manual plugin non-interactively.’,)  
Attempting to renew cert ([web-brain.de](http://web-brain.de)) from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/web-brain.de.conf produced an unexpected error: The manual plugin is not working; there may be problems with your existing configuration.  
The error was: PluginError(‘An authentication script must be provided with --manual-auth-hook when using the manual plugin non-interactively.’,). Skipping.

My web server is (include version): nginx 1…14.0

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): ubuntu 18.04

My hosting provider, if applicable, is: Strato

I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don’t know): yes

I’m using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel): no

The version of my client is (e.g. output of `certbot --version` or `certbot-auto --version` if you’re using Certbot): certbot 0.27.0

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**Author:** ![JuergenAuer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/juergenauer/32/26491_2.png) [@JuergenAuer](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/JuergenAuer)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 10:29am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certbot-renew-failed/109854/2 "2020-01-04T10:29:57Z")

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Hi @martin.brunn

> [@martin.brunn](#):
>
> My domain is: [web-brain.de](http://web-brain.de) , \*.web-brain.de
> 
> I ran this command: certbot renew

if you want to create a wildcard certificate, dns validation is required.

> [@martin.brunn](#):
>
> Could not choose appropriate plugin: The manual plugin is not working; there may be problems with your existing configuration.  
> The error was: PluginError(‘An authentication script must be provided with --manual-auth-hook when using the manual plugin non-interactively.’,)

But last time you have used `--manual`. So you can't use only `renew`.

Use your last complete command again, if your dns provider doesn't support an API.

Perhaps add `--cert-name` to overwrite the existing certificate (instead of creating a new folder with -0001, -0002 ....).

[https://certbot.eff.org/docs/using.html](https://certbot.eff.org/docs/using.html)

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**Author:** ![martin.brunn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@martin.brunn](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/martin.brunn)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 10:45am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certbot-renew-failed/109854/3 "2020-01-04T10:45:40Z")

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My DNS provider is 1und1 Ionos.  
Do you know whether they provide an API?  
How can I find out?

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**Author:** ![JuergenAuer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/juergenauer/32/26491_2.png) [@JuergenAuer](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/JuergenAuer)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 11:10am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certbot-renew-failed/109854/4 "2020-01-04T11:10:32Z")

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> [@martin.brunn](#):
>
> How can I find out?

Ask the support of Ionos.

But acme.sh supports a lot of DNS API-solutions, there

> **[dnsapi](https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/dnsapi)**
>
> A pure Unix shell script implementing ACME client protocol - acmesh-official/acme.sh

is no IONOS listed -\> may not exist -\> use `--manual`.

PS: Do you really need a wildcard? If not, switch to http validation.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/original/3X/c/a/ca6c06ea1ea201324bba7048c6841ce60236468d.png) [@system](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 11:10am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certbot-renew-failed/109854/5 "2020-02-03T11:10:48Z")

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