Plugins get wiped out when automatically updating them

  • One of my clients emailed me saying that a ton of spam was making it past our comment spam system. We pay for Akismet. I checked the WordPress installation and saw that Akismet was no longer listed as a plugin. On the server itself, there was an Akismet folder in that client’s plugins folder, but it was totally empty.

    As I was logged in I noticed that Jetpack needed updating as well. Naturally, I updated it, and then saw that the update had failed. I refreshed the page and noticed that Jetpack no longer showed up in the dashboard. Sure enough, the Jetpack plugin folder on the server’s file system was bare and the timestamp for latest activity showed just a few minutes prior.

    Updating WordPress itself doesn’t appear to do any damage.

    Has anyone else experienced something similar? To the best of my ability to detect, I haven’t been hacked. I monitor filesystem changes and nothing except updates have caused file changes that I’m aware of. Not sure what the issue could be.

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  • Sounds like the plugin update is failing at the point where the new version is copied across. Have you checked your server’s error logs for clues?

    Thread Starter Nonapeptide

    (@nonapeptide)

    Hello esmi! Do I win the award for “most belated reply”?

    The only errors I see that have any mention of PHP are “File does not exist” errors for some run-of-the-mill phpMyAdmin exploits scanning my server.

    Very strange. I haven’t had to update anything on this installation again, so not sure if the same behavior will happen again. I’ll post back when the time comes.

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