Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

WordPress

Posted by Lee Putnam
Lee Putnam
1,329 Points

Wordpress - Having troubles updating a Plugin

Hi Everyone,

I have a website I manage for my company, and I'm having trouble updating a plugin.

The Plugin is CM Download Manager, it is a great plugin, and I'm very happy with it. However, on the latest update I can not get it to install.

When I try to update the plugin, it says it can not install because there is already a "cmdownloads" folder. They only solution I can think of is the following.

  1. Uninstall CM Download Manager
  2. Reinstall newest version

By doing that, will I lose all of my settings for the plugin? I'm not sure if the settings are stored within the plugin folder, or somewhere else. I have over 8 hours of work into the settings, and layouts, so I really do not want to start from scratch, nor do I have the time in the foreseeable future.

Background: I have about 40 users using my downloads page on a daily basis, it is almost like a life source for these people after hours. So the less time the download page is down the better.

Any advice would help! I'm stuck in the mud. :/

3 Answers

Andrew McCormick
Andrew McCormick
17,730 Points
Andrew McCormick
Andrew McCormick
17,730 Points

1st, have you contacted the guys that make the plugin or posted on the support forum on the repository. If they are of no hope, then I would clone your Wordpress install and then try updating the plugin by just copying the new files over the old ones. This works most of the time, but can cause issues depending on the nature of the update. Your settings are stored in your WP database, so as long as the update wasn't also updating those values, then everything should be ok. If the update also modified how data was stored in the DB, then you could be up a creek. However this is why you clone the install so you can test and test some more.

Lee Putnam
Lee Putnam
1,329 Points
Lee Putnam
Lee Putnam
1,329 Points

Thanks Andrew,

I have contacted the plugin developers. They were very helpful, but I'm thinking this isn't an issue with the Plugin, more an issue with the theme I'm using. Cloning my site, and then attempting to update it is a great idea, thank you for the tip!

Cheers!

Andrew McCormick
Andrew McCormick
17,730 Points
Andrew McCormick
Andrew McCormick
17,730 Points

I think that'll be your best bet. Almost every solution that I find to a problem like this with any plugin is to delete the folder and install update. However, since it's a core feature, I'd test it first.

Lee Putnam
Lee Putnam
1,329 Points
Lee Putnam
Lee Putnam
1,329 Points

Hi Andrew,

That was a success! Thanks for your help!