Upgrading Let's Encrypt Certbot to the latest version on Ubuntu

Last updated: March 10th 2021

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Introduction

In late 2020 Certbot stopped updating the Apt package version of Certbot for Ubuntu and switched entirely to packaging and distributing Certbot as a Snap package.

In this guide we show how you can easily and safely switch from the old APT package version of Certbot to the new Snap version of Certbot so you can keep renewing your certificates without problems.

Fortunately the procedure is totally safe and very easy to do, after which you can be sure Certbot is being kept up-to-date by Snap automatically, reducing the probability of issues with your Let's Encrypt Certificates.

Please note: We have created a script in the Webdock Dashboard which you can run on your Webdock server in order to complete this procedure below automatically. Find it in the Script Library in your Account.

Upgrading Let's Encrypt Certbot by going over to the Snap version

First, remove the old APT version of Certbot

sudo apt remove -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx python3-certbot-apache

Next, Install the Snap version of Certbot

sudo snap install --classic certbot

And finally, link in the Certbot binary so it can be run from anywhere

sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

That's it! Now Certbot on your system is the latest version and running through Snap. It will keep itself updated from now on.

 

If you encounter any issues with the above, try upgrading your system as a whole with the regular apt commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

After which, try re-running the above commands.

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