diff --git a/certbot/CHANGELOG.md b/certbot/CHANGELOG.md
index fcb68bc66..ad8a04e07 100644
--- a/certbot/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/certbot/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ More details about these changes can be found on our GitHub repo.
 * Stop asking interactively if the user would like to add a redirect.
 * `mock` dependency is now conditional on Python 2 in all of our packages.
 * Deprecate certbot-auto on Gentoo, macOS, and FreeBSD.
+* Allow existing but empty archive and live dir to be used when creating new lineage.
 
 ### Fixed
 
diff --git a/certbot/certbot/_internal/storage.py b/certbot/certbot/_internal/storage.py
index 2dac163e2..05d9e3a8d 100644
--- a/certbot/certbot/_internal/storage.py
+++ b/certbot/certbot/_internal/storage.py
@@ -1007,18 +1007,18 @@ class RenewableCert(interfaces.RenewableCert):
         lineagename = lineagename_for_filename(config_filename)
         archive = full_archive_path(None, cli_config, lineagename)
         live_dir = _full_live_path(cli_config, lineagename)
-        if os.path.exists(archive):
+        if os.path.exists(archive) and (not os.path.isdir(archive) or os.listdir(archive)):
             config_file.close()
             raise errors.CertStorageError(
                 "archive directory exists for " + lineagename)
-        if os.path.exists(live_dir):
+        if os.path.exists(live_dir) and (not os.path.isdir(live_dir) or os.listdir(live_dir)):
             config_file.close()
             raise errors.CertStorageError(
                 "live directory exists for " + lineagename)
-        filesystem.mkdir(archive)
-        filesystem.mkdir(live_dir)
-        logger.debug("Archive directory %s and live "
-                     "directory %s created.", archive, live_dir)
+        for i in (archive, live_dir):
+            if not os.path.exists(i):
+                filesystem.makedirs(i)
+                logger.debug("Creating directory %s.", i)
 
         # Put the data into the appropriate files on disk
         target = {kind: os.path.join(live_dir, kind + ".pem") for kind in ALL_FOUR}
diff --git a/certbot/tests/storage_test.py b/certbot/tests/storage_test.py
index 5aa37824d..b67c4cbce 100644
--- a/certbot/tests/storage_test.py
+++ b/certbot/tests/storage_test.py
@@ -610,17 +610,25 @@ class RenewableCertTests(BaseRenewableCertTest):
             self.config.renewal_configs_dir, "the-lineage.com-0001.conf")))
         self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(os.path.join(
             self.config.live_dir, "the-lineage.com-0001", "README")))
+        # Allow write to existing but empty dir
+        filesystem.mkdir(os.path.join(self.config.default_archive_dir, "the-lineage.com-0002"))
+        result = storage.RenewableCert.new_lineage(
+            "the-lineage.com", b"cert3", b"privkey3", b"chain3", self.config)
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(os.path.join(
+            self.config.live_dir, "the-lineage.com-0002", "README")))
+        self.assertTrue(filesystem.check_mode(result.key_path, 0o600))
         # Now trigger the detection of already existing files
-        filesystem.mkdir(os.path.join(
-            self.config.live_dir, "the-lineage.com-0002"))
+        shutil.copytree(os.path.join(self.config.live_dir, "the-lineage.com"),
+                        os.path.join(self.config.live_dir, "the-lineage.com-0003"))
         self.assertRaises(errors.CertStorageError,
                           storage.RenewableCert.new_lineage, "the-lineage.com",
-                          b"cert3", b"privkey3", b"chain3", self.config)
-        filesystem.mkdir(os.path.join(self.config.default_archive_dir, "other-example.com"))
+                          b"cert4", b"privkey4", b"chain4", self.config)
+        shutil.copytree(os.path.join(self.config.live_dir, "the-lineage.com"),
+                        os.path.join(self.config.live_dir, "other-example.com"))
         self.assertRaises(errors.CertStorageError,
                           storage.RenewableCert.new_lineage,
-                          "other-example.com", b"cert4",
-                          b"privkey4", b"chain4", self.config)
+                          "other-example.com", b"cert5",
+                          b"privkey5", b"chain5", self.config)
         # Make sure it can accept renewal parameters
         result = storage.RenewableCert.new_lineage(
             "the-lineage.com", b"cert2", b"privkey2", b"chain2", self.config)