# Cannot generate certificate for passing student (Sumac)

**URL:** <https://discuss.openedx.org/t/cannot-generate-certificate-for-passing-student-sumac/17654>\
**Category:** Tutor Help\
**Tags:** tutor, certificates, lms, sumac\
**Created:** [November 18, 2025, 5:00am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/cannot-generate-certificate-for-passing-student-sumac/17654 "2025-11-18T05:00:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ssin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/ssin/32/9054_2.png) [@Ssin](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Ssin)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 5:00am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/cannot-generate-certificate-for-passing-student-sumac/17654/1 "2025-11-18T05:00:50Z")

</div>

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to generate a certificate for a student in a course on our Tutor/Open edX instance, but I keep running into issues. I’ve tried marking the user as passed manually and running `cert_generation`, but the LMS still shows the course as incomplete, and the certificate is not being generated.

**Environment:**

- Open edX / Tutor instance (2025)

- Python 3.11

- Using Docker containers for LMS/Studio

**Steps I’ve taken:**

1. Attempted generating certificate via command line:

```auto
./manage.py lms --settings=tutor.production cert_generation --user 49 --course "course-v1:SSVN+SCC002+2025"

```

Output:

```auto
49 does not have a passing grade in course-v1:SSVN+SCC002+2025. Certificate cannot be generated.

```

1. Tried marking user as passed in Python shell:

```auto
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from opaque_keys.edx.keys import CourseKey
from lms.djangoapps.grades.models import PersistentCourseGrade
from lms.djangoapps.courseware.models import StudentModule

user = User.objects.get(id=49)
course_key = CourseKey.from_string("course-v1:SSVN+SCC002+2025")

# Set grade
grade, _ = PersistentCourseGrade.objects.get_or_create(user_id=user.id, course_id=course_key)
grade.percent_grade = 1.0
grade.letter_grade = "Pass"
grade.passed = True
grade.save()

# Mark all course blocks completed
StudentModule.objects.filter(student_id=user.id, course_id=course_key).update(grade=1.0, done=True)

```

1. Attempted to recalc course grade using `CourseGradeFactory()`:

```auto
from lms.djangoapps.grades.course_grade_factory import CourseGradeFactory
from openedx.core.djangoapps.content.course_overviews.models import CourseOverview

course = CourseOverview.get_from_id(course_key)
CourseGradeFactory().update(user, course)

```

Output:

```auto
AttributeError: 'CourseOverview' object has no attribute 'grade_cutoffs'

```

Tried using `generate_certificate_for_user` and other suggested methods from documentation/examples, but either imports fail or the commands don’t exist on Tutor.

**Problems I’m facing:**

- The LMS still shows the course as incomplete for the user.

- Certificate cannot be generated via `cert_generation` because either:

- Cannot locate the generated PDF anywhere in the container.

- Celery worker commands either don’t exist or cannot be run due to the Tutor setup.

- Python shell approaches fail due to import errors or attribute errors.

**What I want:**

- To generate a certificate for a user manually for testing purposes.

- To locate the certificate PDF to download/view.

Has anyone successfully bypassed the “passing grade” / “enrollment mode” checks for testing certificates in a Tutor/Open edX 2025 instance?

Any guidance on the **correct sequence of steps in Tutor** to get a test certificate would be extremely helpful.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sarina](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/sarina/32/2308_2.png) [@sarina](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/sarina)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/cannot-generate-certificate-for-passing-student-sumac/17654/2 "2025-11-18T14:45:40Z")

</div>

Hi @Ssin and welcome to the community.

> [@Ssin](#):
>
> Open edX / Tutor instance (2025)

Do you mean by this the Teak version / Tutor 20? We do two releases per year so simply saying the year isn’t quite enough detail. And, you could still be running an older release. So it’s best to be specific about the Tutor version you’re running.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ssin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/ssin/32/9054_2.png) [@Ssin](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Ssin)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/cannot-generate-certificate-for-passing-student-sumac/17654/3 "2025-11-19T03:02:28Z")

</div>

Hello, I am using version 19.0.0.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sarina](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/sarina/32/2308_2.png) [@sarina](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/sarina)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/cannot-generate-certificate-for-passing-student-sumac/17654/4 "2025-11-19T14:27:34Z")

</div>

I’ve edited your post title to reflect Sumac version. I am sorry I can’t help further.