# Duplicate certificate limits - is the private key generated?

**URL:** <https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/duplicate-certificate-limits-is-the-private-key-generated/62173>\
**Category:** Issuance Policy\
**Created:** [May 18, 2018, 6:03am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/duplicate-certificate-limits-is-the-private-key-generated/62173 "2018-05-18T06:03:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mgoms](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mgoms/32/23363_2.png) [@mgoms](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/mgoms)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 6:03am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/duplicate-certificate-limits-is-the-private-key-generated/62173/1 "2018-05-18T06:03:54Z")

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Hi, we’ve had a few domains hit the duplicate renewal limit due to a bug in our application. It appears the certificate was generated by checking crt.sh, but as limit means our configuration didn’t complete the process, we did not receive the certificate/private key. Is there a manual way to retrieve the private key? If so, where can it be found?

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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:** [May 18, 2018, 6:08am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/duplicate-certificate-limits-is-the-private-key-generated/62173/2 "2018-05-18T06:08:24Z")

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The ACME client generates the private certificate locally in order to submit a CSR to Let’s Encrypt.

if you don’t have the private key saved, then it’s impossible to retrieve.

If you’re using Certbot, you can look in `/etc/letsencrypt/keys` to see if one matches, but you’ll have to manually test them against the certificates to find out which, if any, match.

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**Author:** ![mgoms](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mgoms/32/23363_2.png) [@mgoms](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/mgoms)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 6:14am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/duplicate-certificate-limits-is-the-private-key-generated/62173/3 "2018-05-18T06:14:04Z")

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Thanks, that makes sense. Will check via your suggestion

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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:** [June 17, 2018, 6:14am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/duplicate-certificate-limits-is-the-private-key-generated/62173/4 "2018-06-17T06:14:07Z")

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Closed on June 17, 2018, 6:14am UTC

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