Yoast Plugin Disappeared – Can't Reinstall

Maybe you broke something. Plugins dont suddenly disappear. Learning to use ftp might be good next step.

I have the exact same problem, regardless of neotrope’s comment. Apparently plugins do just disappear.

I haven’t been active modifying the site recently, so it’s nothing that I’ve done. The only thing that’s happened lately is the auto update to WordPress v 4.6. The plugin in no longer in the active or inactive plugin list. When I search for it, it is not found. However, when I go to reinstall it as a “new” plugin, the installation fails and the error message says that the “Installation failed: Destination folder already exists.”

The website is https://www.opticalLock.com

Are there any Yoast folks that can help out with this? I have a number of posts that I’ve optimized with Yoast and really need the fuctionality back.

Thanks,

Phil

The ‘Installation failed: Destination folder already exists.’ message means the plugin is installed but a required file is missing or corrupt.

Please manually update the plugin to replace missing or corrupt files.

How can I manually update my free plugin?

Thanks – will this method retain all of the SEO work that I’ve already done?

Yes, the data is stored in the database and will be retained.

Amboutwe – I did manually update the plugin, but I’m running into the same issue.

That’s strange. Perhaps we’re not understanding what you mean by disappear so let’s make sure we’re on the same page. Can you clarify what exactly is happening? Please provide as much information as possible.

Does the plugin show up in the plugin list where you can activate/deactivate plugins?

Are you not seeing the metabox when you edit a post? A page?

The plugin is not showing up in the backend in any place – on the plugins page or on individual pages/posts as meta boxes.

When I tried to reinstall it, I got the message that the folder already existed. So I looked on the server, and the folder was indeed there. So I deleted the folder and tried to reinstall it, but I keep getting the message that the folder already exists.

I tried deactivating all other plugins and the theme, but I still got the same message.

Are you using multisite? If yes, plugins work differently. This reply explains more on multisite plugins not showing up on individual sites.

If you are not using multisite, it’s possible you are uploading to the wrong plugins folder. Are they any other plugin folders on your server?

OK, it seems there were LOTS of plugin folders.

I was doing this for a client on GoDaddy, and he had folders with the same domain name all over the place. As it turns out, I was looking in the wrong one.

Thanks for the help.

Ok, I went and deleted all of the folder contents in wordpress-seo. I then went to the Yoast website, download and extracted the most recent Yoast SEO files and uploaded them to the wordpress-seo folder. I went back into the WordPress plugin dashboard, and for some reason Yoast SEO was showing up twice, neither active. I tried activating one, nothing happened, no error message or anything. just looked exactly the same. So I deleted one of the Yoast Plugins showing up in the plugin dashboard. Same result. It just doesn’t activate. Any suggestions now?

Phil

@pmorettini Please delete all copies of the Yoast SEO plugin from the WP dashboard. Then install a new copy of the plugin.

If you continue to have trouble, this sounds like a different issue than the original issue. Please create a new thread for your situation. That way it’s easier for us to match replies with a specific problem. Thanks!

Thanks, I deleted it and reinstalled it and it seems to be working now.

Same issue. Suddenly Yoast disappears from my plugins, I cannot access it, does not appear in the navigation column on the left, and when I try to reinstall it, it says the file already exists and cannot proceed.

I have a number of sites, and it’s happened on all of them.

All I have done is update the files as requested by WP.

Very, very strange.

@wrw51 If you have a similar issue, please open a new topic.