Unable to Uninstall a Plugin or Install an Old Version of a Plugin

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Symptoms

Uninstalling a plugin, from the plugin repository, will fail with a window pop-up such as "Could not delete plugin [KB:Plugin Name]." The following appears in the atlassian-confluence.log:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 com.atlassian.plugin.PluginException: Could not delete plugin [Attachment Checkout Plugin]. at com.atlassian.plugin.loaders.ClassLoadingPluginLoader.removePlugin(ClassLoadingPluginLoader.java:171) at com.atlassian.confluence.plugin.DatabaseClassLoadingPluginLoader.removePlugin(DatabaseClassLoadingPluginLoader.java:114) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)

When installing the outdated plugin, the log file shows:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2008-04-22 14:32:48,259 ERROR [http-9090-Processor22] [atlassian.plugin.parsers.XmlDescriptorParser] createModuleDescriptor There was a problem loading the descriptor for module 'web-item' in plugin 'Attachment Checkout Plugin'. java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: com.atlassian.confluence.pages.DefaultAttachmentManager.getThumbnailManager()Lcom/atlassian/confluence/pages/thumbnail/ThumbnailManager; -- url: /confluence271/admin/uploadplugin.action | userName: admin | action: uploadplugin com.atlassian.plugin.PluginParseException: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: com.atlassian.confluence.pages.DefaultAttachmentManager.getThumbnailManager()Lcom/atlassian/confluence/pages/thumbnail/ThumbnailManager; at com.atlassian.plugin.web.descriptors.AbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.makeCondition(AbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.java:174) at com.atlassian.plugin.web.descriptors.AbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.makeConditions(AbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.java:139) at com.atlassian.plugin.web.descriptors.AbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.makeConditions(AbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.java:95) at com.atlassian.plugin.web.descriptors.AbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.init(AbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.java:79) at com.atlassian.plugin.web.descriptors.DefaultWebItemModuleDescriptor.init(DefaultWebItemModuleDescriptor.java:32) at com.atlassian.plugin.web.descriptors.DefaultAbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.init(DefaultAbstractWebFragmentModuleDescriptor.java:138) at com.atlassian.plugin.parsers.XmlDescriptorParser.createModuleDescriptor(XmlDescriptorParser.java:147) at com.atlassian.plugin.parsers.XmlDescriptorParser.configurePlugin(XmlDescriptorParser.java:85)

Cause

The plugin is outdated or incompatible with the version of Confluence.

Resolution

Always back up your data before making any database modifications. If possible, test any alter, insert, update, or delete SQL commands on a staging server first.

  1. Find the Plugin's pluginkey from Administration >> Plugins >> (Select the Plugin). The pluginKey is displayed in the URL.

  2. Run the following SQL statement in your database:

    1 select plugindataid, pluginkey,filename,lastmoddate from plugindata;
  3. After you have found the plugindataid for the offending plugin, run the following:

    1 delete from plugindata where plugindataid='XXXXXX';

    where XXXXXX is the plugindataid value.

  4. Restart Confluence after performing the database update.

  5. In addition, you might need to go to <confluence-home>/plugin-cache and remove the offending plugin. You can clear the entire plugin cache directory safely; it will rebuild.

Still having problems?

Related problem reports are available in APR-24 and APR-86.

Updated on April 8, 2025

Still need help?

The Atlassian Community is here for you.