Install fails – could not remove the old plugin

[JenniferParticipant]

I’ve tried several times to install UpdraftPlus Premium according to the following link https://updraftplus.com/support/installing-updraftplus-premium-your-add-on/, but it keeps failing at step 5:

Installing the latest version…
Removing the old version of the plugin…
Could not remove the old plugin.
Plugin update failed.

Afterwards UpdraftPlus no longer exists on the plugins page. When I look at the plugins folder, the UpdraftPlus folder is there but it only contains one folder called udaddons.

Before I tried the update process a second time, I changed the permissions of both the UpdraftPlus and the udaddons folders to 777 but this made no difference, it still failed with message ‘could not remove old plugin’.

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi John,

That bit is handled by WordPress core, so there must be something odd with the WordPress setup. Anyway, regardless of the cause, instead of changing the permissions of those folders, first just delete it all. i.e. Just go in via FTP and remove the folder wp-content/plugins/updraftplus entirely. Then re-try. If it fails again, then give me a shout, and I’ll email you a zip with the add-ons already included.

Best wishes,
David

[JenniferParticipant]

Hi David,

Thanks for getting back so quickly, wow that was fast!

I’ve deleted the entire folder and gone through the entire installation process several times but no luck. If you could send me the folder then that would be fantastic :)

Thanks,

John

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi John,

I’ve emailed it to you – you will still need to use FTP to
completely remove the wp-content/plugins/updraftplus folder before-hand.

Best wishes,
David

[JenniferParticipant]

It worked!
Thanks so much,
John

[UpdraftplusParticipant]

Hi David – similar problem. Stalled at ‘Removing old version of the plugin’. I went into FTP and deleted the plugin directory, then FTP’d my most recent backup of the updraftplus folder there instead. Then tried running the auto update. Still no joy – stalled at the same point. (On each occasion, UpdraftPlus gets removed from my list of installed plugins).

Thanks, Laurie

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi Laurie,

I think the problem is that some webservers have a maximum pathname length, and some of the files in UpdraftPlus (in particular, in the Rackspace Cloud files toolkit) have very long names.

I’ve just moved some stuff around, to deal with this. If you restart with fresh downloads (see: https://updraftplus.com/support/installing-updraftplus-premium-your-add-on/) – the version number won’t change, but things have moved around – then I think all should be fine now.

Best wishes,
David

[UpdraftplusParticipant]

Thanks for the quick response, David. I deleted the old plugin folder again via FTP and then tried installing from the local file downloaded from that link. This time appeared to stall during installation:

Installing Plugin from uploaded file: updraftplus.zip
Unpacking the package…
Installing the plugin…

However, after a few minutes I checked my plugins list and 1.8.2 was there waiting to be activated. When I did so it then prompted me to update again… I clicked the link… it stalled again at the same point… so I waited and went to plugins page, and I was able to activate 1.8.2.13. Now running a trial backup, so it seems to have fixed it – many thanks.

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi Lawrence,

Great – glad it’s working!

Best wishes,
David

[JohnnyKruegerParticipant]

This reply has been marked as private.

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi Alexander,

As a developer licensee, you can download the full plugin zip from your downloads page, here:
https://updraftplus.com/my-account/downloads/

David

[Author]

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