Fixing Faulty Plugins

Over on Sciencebase.com, I use a range of WP plugins to provide what are hopefully useful additional tools and content for the site’s visitors. As with ScienceText, I decided to upgrade to the new version of Wordpress (2.1.x). Most things worked right away after hitting the upgrade screen, but one very useful plugin RebelPixel’s Recent Links wouldn’t work from its PressIt link in my browser toolbar. Instead it was just showing the blog (including future posts, intriguingly).

The problem and solution I discovered is quite generic to a lot of plugins, so listen carefully if you have recently upgraded and are having issues with Recent Links or any other plugins. This could be the answer you are looking for.

When upgrading WP, they advise you to completely delete the old wp-admin folder and various other files and then upload the entirely fresh ones from the Wordpress site. Of course, while we all know to make sure we have a backup of wp-config.php and to keep the modified files in wp-content, it is easy to overlook the fact that several plugins files require additional files in wp-admin. Once you realize this, you can simply replace the missing file and the plugin should quickly be back up and running.

So, normal service has been resumed over on Sciencebase, at least until I spot the next error page.