What type of hardware are you using: VPS bought online
What YunoHost version are you running: 12.1.39
How are you able to access your server: The webadmin
SSH
Are you in a special context or did you perform specific tweaking on your YunoHost instance ?: no
Describe your issue
For the past few days, I have been unable to transfer domains I own to my YunoHost server. As part of a switch to a new hosting provider, I need to transfer various domains to my YunoHost server (VPS). I had booked this new VPS on 2 April, installed YunoHost on it and added two domains. Everything went smoothly. Let’s Encrypt certificates were also generated without any error messages. On 6 April, I added a few more domains. Everything went smoothly; I also corrected some minor issues in the DNS settings based on the diagnosis.
On 9 April, I carried out a tool upgrade, which also ran without any error messages. And a few hours later, I successfully added another domain.
On 15 April, as my old hosting package was due to expire soon, I wanted to migrate the remaining domains to the new VPS with YunoHost. But suddenly, without me having changed anything in the configuration, this is no longer possible. The addition via the web interface completes, but returns an error message stating that a Let’s Encrypt certificate could not be created. In the diagnostics, under the ‘Web’ section, a ‘fatal’ error message appears stating that the domain is not accessible via HTTP from the internet.
If I access the domain from the terminal using curl -I -4 http://<URL>, I receive the following output
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Server: nginx
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:29:27 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 138
Connection: keep-alive
Location: https:///yunohost/admin
Attempting to re-initiate the Let’s Encrypt certificate creation via the web interface or CLI also fails (if I ignore the diagnostic error messages) with the error message stating that the certificate could not be signed.
Example for the added domain ‘psl.pepecyb.net’:
Verifying psl.pepecyb.net...
Challenge did not pass for psl.pepecyb.net: {“identifier”: {“type”: “dns”, “value”: “psl.pepecyb.net”}, “status”: “invalid”, “expires”: “2026-04-24T09:32:33Z”, “challenges”: [{“type”: “http-01”, “url”: “https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/chall/3202980841/689522043051/6HDh3Q”, “status”: “invalid”, “validated”: “2026-04-17T09:32:35Z”, “error”:
{“type”: “urn:ietf:params:acme:error:unauthorized”, “detail”: '2a02:c207:2319:7577::1: Invalid response from https://psl.pepecyb.net/yunohost/admin/: "\\n\\n \\n \\n
Certificate installation for psl.pepecyb.net failed !
Exception: The new certificate could not be signed
I have tested this for various domains; not a single one can be set up correctly on YunoHost anymore. The following error message always appears in the diagnostics
Web (web)
[ERROR] Domain psl.pepecyb.net appears unreachable via HTTP from outside the local network.
- It looks like another machine (perhaps your internet router) responded instead of your server.
1. The most common cause of this issue is that ports 80 (and 443) are not correctly forwarded to your server.
2. On more complex setups: ensure that no firewall or reverse proxy is interfering.
A Let’s Encrypt certificate cannot be created in this way. Furthermore, any domain added in this manner is automatically redirected to the YunoHost portal under the main domain.
For testing purposes, I have installed a ‘My Webapp’ under the domain mentioned here, psl.pepecyb.net. This worked without any problems or error or warning messages. However, it (i.e. the display of the placeholder text from index.html) is not accessible. When I try to access it in a web browser, a warning appears stating that it is a self-signed certificate. If I confirm that I trust this certificate as an exception, the content of the index.html from the ‘My Webapp’ is not displayed; instead, I am redirected back to the portal page under the main domain (pepecyb.net).
I spent half the night trying to get rid of this forced redirection, but always without success.
Note: Before the error occurred, I had a total of ten domains on the server. The YunoHost main domain pepecyb.net, as well as three subdomains of pepecyb.net, the domain hubzilla.hu, as well as four subdomains of hubzilla.hu, and the domain hubzilla.net. Adding the domains went smoothly and all installations under these domains are also accessible as normal; there is no redirection. The domains/subdomains are also correctly configured in my providers’ respective DNS zone management.
However, if I now configure the domain pericles.hu correctly in the zone management, for example, for use as a domain on my YunoHost, the addition process runs normally but then ends with an error message stating that the Let’s Encrypt certificate could not be signed. The diagnostics show only a single error message, namely that the domain is not accessible via HTTP. When the subdomain is accessed, there is always a redirect (302) to the main domain and thus to the portal, even if I explicitly access the domain only via http:// (reproducible with curl).
For some reason, new domains are suddenly (I haven’t changed the system configuration or performed any updates since the last successful domain addition and the error now occurring) being redirected to the main domain without exception.
What surprises me (and is a relief) is that this does not happen with the existing domains. I have compared the nginx configuration files (/etc/nginx/conf.d/…) of functioning domains and newly added non-functioning domains and found no significant differences.
After many hours of research, trial and error, and installing and uninstalling domains, I have now reached the end of my tether. I do not understand why all new domains are being forced to redirect, and above all, I have no idea where the problem lies.
What can I do? Where might the problem lie?