[David Stang]

I purchased and installed CMap and the Extension Pro Pack around May 13, installed and configured everything, and built a database of several thousand entries. All was working great until just now, when WordPress told me that an update was available. I installed it, and now get the error “ERROR: Connections must be installed and active” for each plugin.

When I try reinstalling the base plugin, I get
“Downloading install package from https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/connections.zip…

Unpacking the package…

Installing the plugin…

Destination folder already exists. D:/inetpub/wwwroot/Biorational.Solutions/wp-content/plugins/connections/

Plugin install failed.”

What should I do next?

[Steven Zahm]

@ David

Apologies for the trouble! It appears WordPress was not able to proper update or install Connections which left the folder. WordPress will not install a plugin into an existing folder as a safety measure.

You need to login to your site with FTP and navigate to the ../wp-content/plugins/ folder.

In that folder you will find a connections folder. Delete that folder, you data is safe.

After you delete that folder, WordPress will be able to install Connections normally.

Hope that helps, please let me know.

[David Stang]

That advice solved my problem, and Connections is working again.

I’d recommend that the installer should to ensure that it the destination drive is accessible, and that it has write permission in the intended directory, and report back if not. And if the Connections directory already exists, a more graceful failure would provide the user with information along the lines you provided in your solutions.

I like Connections, and it is a good improvement to my site. You can see it in action here: http://www.biorational.solutions/?page_id=149 Thanks for your quick and helpful response.

[Steven Zahm]

@ David

re: I’d recommend that the installer should to ensure that it the destination drive is accessible, and that it has write permission in the intended directory, and report back if not

I would, however I have no control over the WordPress plugin install/upgrade process.

re: And if the Connections directory already exists, a more graceful failure would provide the user with information along the lines you provided in your solutions.

This is a safety measure enforced by WordPress. I am unable to alter the process or change the resulting error messages.

Again, apologies for the trouble! Glad to hear my instructions helped to get the site back up and running.

ps. WordPress 4.6 might have muched improved plugin installation/update process. YOu can preview it by installing the Shiny Updates plugin. I do not advise installing this on a production site as it is for testing only. Even though installation/updates will be vastly improved, plugins will still not be able to override or change the process. I have not tested it myself yet… I hope one of the things they do fix is improving the error messages as will as instructions on how to fix (the instructions I age your apply to any/every plugin when that error is encountered, it is not Connections specific).

pss. nice site!

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