diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 382ccb88..e26d6244 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -30,4 +30,4 @@
 /tmp
 /data*
 /src/test/resources/arbitrary/*/.qortal/cache
-apikey
+apikey.txt
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/qortal/api/ApiKey.java b/src/main/java/org/qortal/api/ApiKey.java
index 5b4217da..6a79dd20 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/qortal/api/ApiKey.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/qortal/api/ApiKey.java
@@ -86,6 +86,10 @@ public class ApiKey {
         return (this.apiKey != null);
     }
 
+    public boolean exists() {
+        return this.getFilePath().toFile().exists();
+    }
+
     @Override
     public String toString() {
         return this.apiKey;
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/qortal/api/resource/AdminResource.java b/src/main/java/org/qortal/api/resource/AdminResource.java
index ec643d3c..1d127b93 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/qortal/api/resource/AdminResource.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/qortal/api/resource/AdminResource.java
@@ -735,7 +735,7 @@ public class AdminResource {
 		ApiKey apiKey = Security.getApiKey(request);
 
 		// If the API key is already generated, we need to authenticate this request
-		if (apiKey.generated()) {
+		if (apiKey.generated() && apiKey.exists()) {
 			Security.checkApiCallAllowed(request);
 		}