E: Release file for http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/InRelease is not valid yet (invalid for another 115d 15h 10min 22s). Updates for this repository will not be applied. means the machine's clock is behind the date the repository signed its index. Correct the clock and run apt-get update again; in the test the same update passed as soon as apt saw the real time.

Run date first. If it shows a day, month or year in the past, fix the time. This post used a fake clock in a container; a drifted WSL clock was not tested.

The error

$ faketime '2024-01-01 00:00:00' date
Mon Jan  1 00:00:00 UTC 2024
exit code: 0
$ faketime '2024-01-01 00:00:00' apt-get update
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease [256 kB]
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease [126 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease [126 kB]
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease [126 kB]
Reading package lists...
E: Release file for http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/InRelease is not valid yet (invalid for another 115d 15h 10min 22s). Updates for this repository will not be applied.
E: Release file for http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble-updates/InRelease is not valid yet (invalid for another 1047d 3h 21min 15s). Updates for this repository will not be applied.
E: Release file for http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble-security/InRelease is not valid yet (invalid for another 1047d 3h 19min 32s). Updates for this repository will not be applied.
E: Release file for http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble-backports/InRelease is not valid yet (invalid for another 1045d 17h 24min 14s). Updates for this repository will not be applied.
exit code: 100

Why it happens

apt downloaded all four InRelease files (the Get: lines), then compared the date in each with the time it was given: 1 January 2024, set with faketime for that command. Every file was dated after that, so apt rejected each one and returned 100. The noble file showed about 115 days, the others about 1,047 days. A separate read of the files' Date: lines with curl in a fresh container showed why: 

$ curl -s http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/InRelease | grep -m1 '^Date:'
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 15:10:33 UTC
exit code: 0
$ curl -s http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble-updates/InRelease | grep -m1 '^Date:'
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2026  3:21:26 UTC
exit code: 0

In this run the bracket matched the file's date minus the fake clock: 25 April 2024 is about 115 days after 1 January 2024, and 13 November 2026 about 1,047 days after it.

The fix

$ date
Fri Nov 13 05:31:50 UTC 2026
exit code: 0
$ apt-get update
Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease
Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease
Reading package lists...
exit code: 0

Without faketime the same container saw the real date, 13 November 2026, and the update returned 0 with four Hit: lines. In the test, correcting the clock meant no more than dropping the fake time. On a real machine, set the date and time right, then run the update again and look for Hit: or Get: lines with no E: line after them.

How it was reproduced

The capture was made in an ubuntu:24.04 container (Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS, apt 2.8.3) on Docker Engine 29.9.3, standing in for Ubuntu in WSL. The computer's own clock was left alone; the time was moved back for two commands, date and apt-get update, with faketime 0.9.10 (the faketime package, installed with apt-get); then the update was run again without it.

Frequently asked

How do I fix 'Release file is not valid yet'?
Check the clock with date and correct it, then run apt-get update again. In the test the update failed with the clock set to 2024 and passed with the real date.
What does 'invalid for another 115d' mean?
It is how far in the future the release file's date was compared with the clock apt saw. With the clock set to 1 January 2024 the noble file was 115 days ahead.
How can I test apt with a wrong date?
Install the faketime package and run faketime with a date in front of apt-get update. In the test faketime '2024-01-01 00:00:00' made all four sources fail with not valid yet.

More decoded errors in the Fixes category. If the update fails on the signature instead of the date, see NO_PUBKEY, the public key is not available.