Title: Automatic Update Created New Plugin Folder
Last modified: September 23, 2024

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# Automatic Update Created New Plugin Folder

 *  [2chicks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/2chicks/)
 * (@2chicks)
 * [1 year, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-update-created-new-plugin-folder/)
 * I need to understand exactly how auto updates work for plugins. I have all my
   plugins set to auto update, but a recent update of one plugin caused a fatal 
   error on the site, so I FTP’d in and appended the plugin folder name with -p 
   to deactivate the plugin so I could log into the backend. I forgot to toggle 
   off auto update, so that was still on. I put in a ticket with the plugin dev 
   and overnight a second (new) folder of the plugin, only a newer version that 
   was released over that same night, coincidentally, was created on the server.
   I looked at the backend and there were two instances of the plugin on the plugins
   page. Both deactivated, both set to auto update, one was the next to last version
   and one was the latest version released over night. 
   My question is: Is this 
   normative behavior that a deactivated, rename plugin set to auto update would
   install a whole other plugin folder with the latest version in it?
    -  This topic was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by [2chicks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/2chicks/).

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [1 year, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-update-created-new-plugin-folder/#post-18034364)
 * If you’ve renamed the plugin’s folder, then yes, an update will create the correct
   folder name. When WP scans the plugins folder for possible updates, it’s looking
   for plugin names in the plugin’s main file’s header information, the folder names
   are irrelevant for this process. But when a plugin updates, its files must go
   into its proper folder name. If none exist, one is created.
 * This situation is rare since many WP users are not as knowledgeable as you and
   are unaware of how to deactivate plugins as you did. Presumably if you know enough
   to do this, you also know you ought to remove the older version and go with the
   latest 🙂
 * I imagine you do know this and you’re just trying to better understand what had
   happened. Hopefully this has helped some.
 *  Thread Starter [2chicks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/2chicks/)
 * (@2chicks)
 * [1 year, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-update-created-new-plugin-folder/#post-18034512)
 * [@bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/) I had to chuckle. When
   being a more advanced user causes more confusion. In 20 years I have never experienced
   this before, so the stars must have aligned in just the right way for me to observe
   this. I did delete the older versioned folder and all is well. Thanks for validating
   my hunch.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Automatic Update Created New Plugin Folder’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [2chicks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/2chicks/)
 * Last activity: [1 year, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automatic-update-created-new-plugin-folder/#post-18034512)
 * Status: not resolved

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