You do not have sufficient permissions to update plugins for this blog.

sorry i couldn’t help you by the way. i read your message and saw what you figured out, but i don’t understand where you copied what into where..

tammyhart, thanks for the hint. This issue has been driving me crazy – I run many WP installations and this has only come up on one. I’ve no idea why. But you’re right – for some reason the permission for “update_plugins” was missing from the Administrator role.

For anyone having this issue who needs a hand with manually editing that monstrous option_value, here’s how. I don’t recommend copy/pasting the another installation’s value unless you’re on a relatively fresh install (though it worked for Tammy).

1. In phpMyAdmin, go to your WP options table. Find the record with the option_name as “wp_user_roles” (though if you’re smart that “wp_” will be something else – it matches your prefix for all WP tables).
2. Edit this record. If you don’t know serialized data, this is what it is – an array of values coded as a plain string. To get a better idea, paste your value into http://www.functions-online.com/unserialize.html and see what the array is in a more readable form.
3. You’ll probably not find 'update_plugins' => true under the administrator capabilities. This needs to be added in.
4. In the original record’s value it’ll start something like this: a:5:{s:13:"administrator";a:2:{s:4:"name";s:23:"Administrator|User role";s:12:"capabilities";a:69:{. That last number is the number of items in the array data that comes inside the following curly braces. Increase that number by one.
5. Now, just after that curly brace, add the new item: s:14:"update_plugins";b:1;. That means: “A string with 14 characters is the key; a boolean value of “1” (true) is its value.”
6. Save the record and you should be done.

Good luck!

I tried adding ” s:14:”update_plugins”;b:1;” but this did not work for me.
here’s what it I have got it.
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a:5:{s:13:”administrator”;a:2:{s:4:”name”;s:13:”Administrator”;s:12:”capabilities”;a:34:{s:14:”update_plugins”;b:1:
{s:13:”switch_themes”;b:1;s:11:”edit_themes”;b:1;s:16:”activate_plugins”;b:1;s:12:”edit_plugins”;b:1;s:10:”edit_users”;b:1;s:10:”edit_files”;b:1;s:14:”manage_options”;b:1;s:17:”moderate_comments”;b:1;s:17:”manage_categories”;b:1;s:12:”manage_links”;b:1;s:12:”upload_files”;b:1;s:6:”import”;b:1;s:15:”unfiltered_html”;b:1;s:10:”edit_posts”;b:1;s:17:”edit_others_posts”;b:1;s:20:”edit_published_posts”;b:1;s:13:”publish_posts”;b:1;s:10:”edit_pages”;b:1;s:4:”read”;b:1;s:8:”level_10″;b:1;s:7:”level_9″;b:1;s:7:”level_8″;b:1;s:7:”level_7″;b:1;s:7:”level_6″;b:1;s:7:”level_5″;b:1;s:7:”level_4″;b:1;s:7:”level_3″;b:1;s:7:”level_2″;b:1;s:7:”level_1″;b:1;s:7:”level_0″;b:1;s:14:”manage_ratings”;b:1;s:15:”install_plugins”;b:1;s:13:”update_themes”;b:1;s:14:”install_themes”;b:1;}}s:6:”editor”;a:2:{s:4:”name”;s:6:”Editor”;s:12:”capabilities”;a:19:{s:17:”moderate_comments”;b:1;s:17:”manage_categories”;b:1;s:12:”manage_links”;b:1;s:12:”upload_files”;b:1;s:15:”unfiltered_html”;b:1;s:10:”edit_posts”;b:1;s:17:”edit_others_posts”;b:1;s:20:”edit_published_posts”;b:1;s:13:”publish_posts”;b:1;s:10:”edit_pages”;b:1;s:4:”read”;b:1;s:7:”level_7″;b:1;s:7:”level_6″;b:1;s:7:”level_5″;b:1;s:7:”level_4″;b:1;s:7:”level_3″;b:1;s:7:”level_2″;b:1;s:7:”level_1″;b:1;s:7:”level_0″;b:1;}}s:6:”author”;a:2:{s:4:”name”;s:6:”Author”;s:12:”capabilities”;a:8:{s:12:”upload_files”;b:1;s:10:”edit_posts”;b:1;s:20:”edit_published_posts”;b:1;s:13:”publish_posts”;b:1;s:4:”read”;b:1;s:7:”level_2″;b:1;s:7:”level_1″;b:1;s:7:”level_0″;b:1;}}s:11:”contributor”;a:2:{s:4:”name”;s:11:”Contributor”;s:12:”capabilities”;a:5:{s:10:”edit_posts”;b:1;s:4:”read”;b:1;s:7:”level_1″;b:1;s:7:”level_0″;b:1;s:19:”use_openid_provider”;b:1;}}s:10:”subscriber”;a:2:{s:4:”name”;s:10:”Subscriber”;s:12:”capabilities”;a:3:{s:4:”read”;b:1;s:7:”level_0″;b:1;s:19:”use_openid_provider”;b:1;}}}

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Thanks for your help in advance