# certbot-dns-hetzner does not work under Ubuntu 24.04

**Project:** Bugs | **Board:** Live | **Votes:** 1
**URL:** https://roadmap.ploi.io/projects/7-bugs/items/1288-certbot-dns-hetzner-does-not-work-under-ubuntu-2404

---

Error message:
```
The following plugins are using an outdated python version and must be updated to be compatible with Certbot 3.0. Please see https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certbot-3-0-could-have-potential-third-party-snap-breakages/226940 for more information:
  * certbot-dns-hetzner
usage: 
  certbot [SUBCOMMAND] [options] [-d DOMAIN] [-d DOMAIN] ...

Certbot can obtain and install HTTPS/TLS/SSL certificates.  By default,
it will attempt to use a webserver both for obtaining and installing the
certificate. 
certbot: error: unrecognized arguments: --dns-hetzner-credentials /home/ploi/.ploi/.certbot-hetzner
```

The plugin certbot-dns-hetzner is installed through a snap created by a third party. This [repository](https://github.com/BigMichi1/certbot-dns-hetzner) was archived in 28/02/2023 so the snap is outdated.

Trying to install with pip (as recommended by the [plugin repo](https://github.com/ctrlaltcoop/certbot-dns-hetzner)) does not work because it would involve uninstalling system python packages.

Any solution?

---

## Comments

**Wiener Bildungsserver** (2026-01-21T11:37:07+00:00):
I got it to work by manually installing certbot standalone:

1. `snap remove certbot`
2. `snap remove certbot-dns-hetzner`
3. Manually install certbot the official way: https://certbot.eff.org/instructions?ws=nginx&os=pip
4. Install the certbot-dns-hetzner package into the venv: `sudo /opt/certbot/bin/pip install certbot-dns-hetzner`
5. `certbot --version # should not throw an error`
6. `certbot plugins # should list certbot-dns-hetzner`

There is another issue with this, though, because of API changes at Hetzner: https://roadmap.ploi.io/projects/7-bugs/items/1363-hetzner-changes-dns-infrastructure