Unable to renew Let's Encrypt certificate on Plesk server: The authorization token is not available

Symptoms

• Unable to renew Let's Encrypt with the following error:

  PLESK_ERROR: The authorization token is not available at http://example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. The token file 'C:\inetpub\vhosts\example.com\httpdocs\\.well-known\acme-challenge\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX' is either unreadable or does not have the read permission.

• Authentication with the password is enabled on the domain.

Cause

The Let's encrypt token file is not reachable due to the enabled authentication for the domain.

Resolution 

1. Connect to the server via RDP

   Note: if direct RDP access to the server is not possible, contact server administrator for further assistance.

2. Click Start and open IIS Manager:
   
   
   

3. Navigate to IIS > Server name > Sites > example.com > Authentication
   
   
   

4. Disable all kinds of the authentication:
   
   
   

OR

1. Navigate to IIS > Server name > Sites > example.com > .well-known > Authentication
   
   
   
   
2. Disable all kinds of authentication using the above instruction on the 4th step.

Also, the directories within httpdocs folder can be protected as the Password-protected directory in Plesk. Refer to the following article for details: How to set up password-protected directory.