diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/copycerts/copycerts.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/copycerts/copycerts.go
index 229be0a22f..13ac88790e 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/copycerts/copycerts.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/copycerts/copycerts.go
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ func getSecret(client clientset.Interface) (*v1.Secret, error) {
 	secret, err := client.CoreV1().Secrets(metav1.NamespaceSystem).Get(kubeadmconstants.KubeadmCertsSecret, metav1.GetOptions{})
 	if err != nil {
 		if apierrors.IsNotFound(err) {
-			return nil, errors.Errorf("Secret %q was not found in the %q Namespace. This Secret might have expired. Please, run `kubeadm init phase upload-certs` on a control plane to generate a new one", kubeadmconstants.KubeadmCertsSecret, metav1.NamespaceSystem)
+			return nil, errors.Errorf("Secret %q was not found in the %q Namespace. This Secret might have expired. Please, run `kubeadm init phase upload-certs --experimental-upload-certs` on a control plane to generate a new one", kubeadmconstants.KubeadmCertsSecret, metav1.NamespaceSystem)
 		}
 		return nil, err
 	}