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Certbot: The requested nginx plugin does not appear to be installed

Fix the Certbot nginx plugin conflict between snap and apt package managers on Ubuntu.

Certbot reports "The requested nginx plugin does not appear to be installed" when the Certbot binary and the Nginx plugin were installed from different package managers (snap vs apt).

What Causes This Error

Certbot installed via snap cannot see plugins installed via apt, and vice versa. The snap sandbox isolates Certbot from system-wide Python packages. This conflict is common on Ubuntu systems that upgraded from older Certbot installations.

How to Fix

  1. Remove the conflicting apt installation:
sudo apt remove certbot python3-certbot-nginx
  1. Install Certbot and the Nginx plugin via snap:
sudo snap install --classic certbot

The snap version of Certbot includes the Nginx plugin by default.

  1. Verify the plugin is available:
certbot plugins

The output should list nginx as an available plugin.

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