Let’s Encrypt certificate installation failing with 404 (CloudPanel + GoDaddy)

[Nemesis]

Hi all,
I’m trying to install a Let’s Encrypt certificate on my domain fishbids.com.au using CloudPanel on a Vultr Ubuntu server.
The domain is registered with GoDaddy, and DNS is pointing correctly to the server IP (139.180.162.241). However, the certificate issuance fails with this error:

Domain could not be validated, error message: 
error type: urn:ietf:params:acme:error:unauthorized 
error detail: 139.180.162.241: Invalid response from https://fishbids.com.au/.well-known/acme-challenge/MvCBfCVxqeunlaZ5NnaJoN96x8n0NU5cSL-XAHoCVSk: 404

It looks like the ACME challenge URL returns a 404 instead of being served correctly.
Has anyone seen this before or knows how to resolve it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rootali]

That error usually means the Let's Encrypt verification file isn’t accessible under the required /.well-known/acme-challenge/ path.
Let’s go step-by-step:

1. Confirm DNS is working​

You already mentioned that DNS points to 139.180.162.241, so that’s good. Just in case, run:

dig +short fishbids.com.au

Make sure it resolves to your server.

2. Don’t force redirect HTTP to HTTPS (yet)​

During certificate issuance, Let’s Encrypt makes a request to:

http://fishbids.com.au/.well-known/acme-challenge/...

If your server redirects HTTP → HTTPS, and the HTTPS site doesn’t have a cert yet, the validation fails with a 404 or SSL error.
Fix:

• Temporarily disable forced HTTPS redirects in CloudPanel or your .htaccess / Nginx config.
• Then retry the certificate issuance.
• Once the cert is installed, you can re-enable HTTPS redirection.

3. Check file serving works from .well-known/​

You can test this by manually creating a file in your site’s public/.well-known/acme-challenge/ folder:

mkdir -p /home/cloudpanel/htdocs/YOUR_DOMAIN/public/.well-known/acme-challenge
echo "test-ok" > /home/cloudpanel/htdocs/YOUR_DOMAIN/public/.well-known/acme-challenge/testfile

Then visit:

http://fishbids.com.au/.well-known/acme-challenge/testfile

If that gives a 404, your web server is blocking access to that path. Check your web server rules (like a location block in Nginx or .htaccess rules in Apache).

4. Cloudflare in the middle?​

If you’re using Cloudflare proxy, it can interfere with Let's Encrypt verification. Make sure:

• Proxy is disabled (gray cloud in DNS tab)
• Or use DNS challenge method instead of HTTP challenge.

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Let me know if you try the above and still face the issue — happy to dig deeper.
Once it’s working, don’t forget to re-enable your HTTPS redirect.