Fixing the E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/https Could Not Be Found Error

A server running a Debian system has suddenly encountered an error when trying to use the apt-get command: E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/https could not be found. This blog post is written to explain the issue, what might have caused it, and how to solve it.

The Error

Anytime you are using the apt-get command on Debian systems, you may come across the error “E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/https could not be found“. This error is caused when the apt-get command is trying to access something over an HTTPS connection. Generally this means the system is trying to receive a package over an HTTPS connection, as opposed to an HTTP connection.

What Might Have Caused The Error

The most common reason this error would be encountered is due to the apt-get command not having the necessary library installed, or an incorrect version. When the apt-get command is trying to access a package over an HTTPS connection, it needs a special library called apt-transport-https. Additionally, the correct version of the library must be installed.

Finding The Source Of The Problem

In order to solve this error, it’s important to figure out the source of the problem. The best way to do this is to use the ifconfig command on the system, which will give us a general overview of the network configuration. We can use that information to troubleshoot the issue.

Solution

Once we have determined that the source of the problem is likely the apt-transport-https library, we can resolve the problem by installing the library and the associated package.

The first step is to install the apt-transport-https library and its dependencies. We can do this with the following commands:

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https 
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev 

Next, we need to install the apt-get package and its associated files. We can do this with the following command:

sudo apt-get install apt-get

Finally, we can test to make sure the problem is solved by running the following command:

apt-get update

If the command runs without giving an error, then the issue should be solved!

Conclusion

In this blog post, I discussed the error “E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/https could not be found“. I discussed what could have caused the error, and how to use the ifconfig command to diagnose the issue. Finally, I walked through the steps to solve the error by installing the apt-transport-https library and the associated package.