Common ACME Issues

Use this page to troubleshoot AutoSSL issuance, installation, and renewal.

EAB Validation Failed

Common causes:

• Incorrect EAB MAC ID.
• Incorrect EAB MAC key.
• Wrong Server URL.
• Extra spaces or line breaks when copying values.

Copy the Server URL, EAB MAC ID, and EAB MAC key again from the 12SSL product page.

unauthorized or validation failed

Common causes:

• The domain does not point to the current server.
• Port 80 is not reachable from the internet.
• CDN, WAF, or firewall blocks the validation path.
• The webroot path is wrong.

Check:

curl -I http://example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/test

Make sure /.well-known/acme-challenge/ is not blocked or rewritten to the wrong site.

command not found

For acme.sh, use the full path:

~/.acme.sh/acme.sh --version

Or reload the shell:

source ~/.bashrc 2>/dev/null || source ~/.zshrc 2>/dev/null || true

Certbot Cannot Find the Nginx or Apache Site

Make sure the site config has the correct server_name or ServerName.

Nginx:

sudo nginx -t

Apache:

sudo apachectl configtest

cPanel Auto Deployment Failed

Check:

• Terminal or SSH is enabled.
• The hosting provider allows UAPI.
• The domain is inside this cPanel account.
• WEBROOT points to the correct directory, such as $HOME/public_html.

Manual redeploy:

~/.acme.sh/acme.sh --deploy \
  --domain example.com \
  --deploy-hook cpanel_uapi

Windows IIS Has No HTTPS Binding

Check:

• IIS has an explicit hostname binding.
• PowerShell is running as Administrator.
• --baseuri, --eab-key-identifier, and --eab-key are correct.

Details:

& "C:\Program Files\Win-ACME\wacs.exe" --list --baseuri "your Server URL"

Renewal Failed

Test manually:

Certbot:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

acme.sh:

~/.acme.sh/acme.sh --cron --home ~/.acme.sh

If the test fails, check DNS, port 80, EAB details, and webroot.