How to fix E: Package 'apt-transport-https' has no installation candidate in APT

Run lsb_release -a or cat /etc/os-release to determine your system version. If you are on Ubuntu 17.10 or later, or Debian 10 or later, apt-transport-https is not needed.

lsb_release -a

Run apt update to refresh your package lists. This ensures apt is aware of all available packages:

sudo apt update

If the issue is a missing apt-transport-https dependency in a script, running this command first often resolves the problem.

For Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) or later, do not attempt to install apt-transport-https. HTTPS support is already built into apt. If a script or tutorial tells you to install it, simply remove that line from the instructions.

If you are setting up a custom HTTPS repository, ensure you have ca-certificates installed instead. This package provides the SSL/TLS certificates needed for HTTPS connections:

sudo apt install ca-certificates

This is sufficient for HTTPS support in modern apt versions.

If you encounter this error in a Docker build or automated script, remove the apt-get install apt-transport-https line. Replace any references to apt-transport-https with ca-certificates:

# Before (outdated)
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates

# After (current)
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y ca-certificates