# Renew does not create new files in acme-challenge

**URL:** <https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/renew-does-not-create-new-files-in-acme-challenge/87746>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [March 4, 2019, 11:15am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/renew-does-not-create-new-files-in-acme-challenge/87746 "2019-03-04T11:15:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tobie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@tobie](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/tobie)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 11:15am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/renew-does-not-create-new-files-in-acme-challenge/87746/1 "2019-03-04T11:15:54Z")

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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: vibrant.co.za

I ran this command: sudo certbot renew --dry-run

It produced this output: Attempting to renew cert (vibrant.co.za) from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/vibrant.co.za.conf produced an unexpected error: Failed authorization procedure. vibrant.co.za (http-01): urn:ietf:params:acme:error:unauthorized :: The client lacks sufficient authorization :: Invalid response from [http://vibrant.co.za/.well-known/acme-challenge/rk-kUX2R3Q9AhWdxjIr8tn\_3vJ6dJ3NFfYuCGqqxkq8](http://vibrant.co.za/.well-known/acme-challenge/rk-kUX2R3Q9AhWdxjIr8tn_3vJ6dJ3NFfYuCGqqxkq8) [188.226.217.55]: “\n\n404 Not Found\n\n

# Not Found
\n\<p”. Skipping.

My web server is (include version): Apache 2

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:

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 0.28.0

I can see why [http://vibrant.co.za/.well-known/acme-challenge/rk-kUX2R3Q9AhWdxjIr8tn\_3vJ6dJ3NFfYuCGqqxkq8](http://vibrant.co.za/.well-known/acme-challenge/rk-kUX2R3Q9AhWdxjIr8tn_3vJ6dJ3NFfYuCGqqxkq8) produces 404 : It is because eventhough [http://vibrant.co.za/.well-known/acme-challenge/](http://vibrant.co.za/.well-known/acme-challenge/) is web accessible, the only files in there are from january - it is not creating new challenge files!

I’ve upped permissions buut to no avail, and I cannot find a log entry stating it failed to create the challenge file, juust the one about the 404 trying to access it.

---

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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:** [March 4, 2019, 11:22am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/renew-does-not-create-new-files-in-acme-challenge/87746/2 "2019-03-04T11:22:24Z")

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Hi @tobie

> [@tobie](#):
>
> My domain is: vibrant.co.za

> [@tobie](#):
>
> It is because eventhough [http://vibrant.co.za/.well-known/acme-challenge/](http://vibrant.co.za/.well-known/acme-challenge/) is web accessible, the only files in there are from january - it is not creating new challenge files!

then Certbot may add internal location definitions or doesn't understand your configuration.

But your main configuration looks ok - /.well-known/acme-challenge/unknown-file answers with a correct 404. So check your vHost to find your DocumentRoot, then use it:

```nohighlight
certbot run -a webroot -i apache -w yourDocumentRoot -d www.vibrantmedia.co.za -d vibrantmedia.co.za

```

Your certificate has only one domain name:

```nohighlight
CN=www.vibrantmedia.co.za
	02.12.2018
	02.03.2019
2 days expired	www.vibrantmedia.co.za - 1 entry

```

But your www-version should always have the non-www - version too.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tobie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@tobie](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/tobie)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 11:57am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/renew-does-not-create-new-files-in-acme-challenge/87746/3 "2019-03-04T11:57:53Z")

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> [@JuergenAuer](#):
>
> certbot run -a webroot -i apache -w yourDocumentRoot -d www.vibrantmedia.co.za -d vibrantmedia.co.za

Thank you thank you thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [March 4, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/renew-does-not-create-new-files-in-acme-challenge/87746/4 "2019-03-04T15:17:21Z")

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Happy to read that it works.

But: There are some errors: You have one certificate with 4 domain names ( checked with [https://check-your-website.server-daten.de/?q=vibrant.co.za](https://check-your-website.server-daten.de/?q=vibrant.co.za) ):

```auto
CN=www.vibrantmedia.co.za
	04.03.2019
	02.06.2019
expires in 90 days	vibrant.co.za, vibrantmedia.co.za, 
www.vibrant.co.za, www.vibrantmedia.co.za - 4 entries

```

Your `vibrant.co.za` uses that certificate. But your `vibrantmedia.co.za` doesn’t use that certificate, instead, a certificate with the www-version is used. So the non-www-version isn’t secure.

And you have a lot of content loaded via url(http://…). Change these http -\> https.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/original/3X/c/a/ca6c06ea1ea201324bba7048c6841ce60236468d.png) [@system](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/renew-does-not-create-new-files-in-acme-challenge/87746/5 "2019-04-03T15:23:53Z")

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