plugin_not_installed errors after upgrading from 6.3.0

[alexp25]

Bug Report

Problem

I have upgraded my project from [email protected] to @7.1.0, and apparently managed to build the project. However, when I run on my iOS device, it seems that none of the cordova plugins are recognized anymore.

What is expected to happen?

The cordova plugins should work as they used to work with @6.3.0.

What does actually happen?

The cordova plugins are not being recognized: I get 'plugin_not_installed' errors in the console.

Information

When running the commands cordova platform add [email protected] && cordova build ios everything seemed fine, no errors that would point to any issues with plugins.

Command or Code

cordova platform add [email protected] && cordova build ios

Environment, Platform, Device

build on macOS
run on iOS

Version information

Ionic:

Ionic CLI : 5.4.15 (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ionic)
Ionic Framework : @ionic/angular 5.8.5
@angular-devkit/build-angular : 0.1102.15
@angular-devkit/schematics : 11.2.15
@angular/cli : 11.2.15
@ionic/angular-toolkit : 3.1.1

Cordova:

Cordova CLI : 12.0.0 ([email protected])
Cordova Platforms : ios 7.1.0
Cordova Plugins : cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard 2.2.0, cordova-plugin-ionic-webview 5.0.0, (and 44 other plugins)

Utility:

cordova-res : not installed
native-run (update available: 2.0.1) : 0.2.8

System:

ios-deploy : 1.9.4
ios-sim : 8.0.2
NodeJS : v16.15.1 (/usr/local/bin/node)
npm : 8.11.0
OS : macOS
Xcode : Xcode 15.1 Build version 15C65

Checklist

• [ x ] I searched for existing GitHub issues
• [ x ] I updated all Cordova tooling to most recent version
• [ x ] I included all the necessary information above

[breautek]

I've had this happen to my projects as well for years... I don't think it's exclusively a 7.x issue, i've encountered it on 5.x and 6.x over the years.

I've never could reproduce it in a simple project and when it does occur the errors doesn't make any sense. e.g. all the files appear to be in place but the runtime seems to think it doesn't exists.

I believe it has something to do with restoring plugins and a plugin install erroring during the restore (e.g. when installing plugins from a cordova platform add command).

When this occurred for me, doing a cordova plugin add ... for each plugin that it's complaining about not being installed/found during runtime worked around the issue for me, so you could try that as a workaround.

In efforts to avoid this issue, I try not to destroy/remove my platform, although obviously you need to when doing platform updates.

[alexp25]

I did try to add each plugin one by one with cordova plugin add but nothing changed. Moreover, not even HTTP requests seem to work, and the splash screen is not showing (the app loads without error though, and I can see the landing page, but then it doesn't work properly due to all these native calls not working). Could all of this have something to do with the splash screen, or am I missing something?

[alexp25]

I also found out that the build is now in platforms/ios/build/Debug-iphoneos instead of platforms/ios/build/device so could this be a path issue?

[erisu]

I also found out that the build is now in platforms/ios/build/Debug-iphoneos instead of platforms/ios/build/device so could this be a path issue?

Regarding to the output path change, this should be correct and expected. This breaking behavior change was added in 7.0.0 release. Here is the PR that made this change: #1310

[alexp25]

It seems that it's not related to the cordova-ios version after all, as I tried to revert to 6.3.0 and the same thing happens (although the splash screen is working, so there might also be a red herring). Is there a way to check what is the root cause of this issue?

[breautek]

It seems that it's not related to the cordova-ios version after all, as I tried to revert to 6.3.0 and the same thing happens (although the splash screen is working, so there might also be a red herring). Is there a way to check what is the root cause of this issue?

Like I said in my previous comment, it's an issue that has stumped me. I don't know why it occurs. I just know it sometimes occurs when restoring a platform. It's an issue that has happened to me on my work projects periodically since 4.x, which is about when I started using Cordova myself. I've never reproduced the issue in a simple project either. Only in my work projects. That leads me to think it's some kind of nuance interaction when a project has several plugins, perhaps conflicting somehow in an obscure way. But it's strange that isn't consistently reproducible.

did try to add each plugin one by one with cordova plugin add but nothing changed. Moreover, not even HTTP requests seem to work, and the splash screen is not showing (the app loads without error though, and I can see the landing page, but then it doesn't work properly due to all these native calls not working). Could all of this have something to do with the splash screen, or am I missing something?

When it gets into this kind of broken state, this is kind of what I do (and hope it works):

Disclaimer: Unsaved to the native project modifications might be lost following these steps.

1. Make note of cordova plugin ls -- we will be nuking all plugins and if you happen to have a plugin installed, but not pinned in your package.json or config.xml, those plugins won't be restored automatically.
2. Delete platforms/ directory
3. Delete plugins/ folder. Doing this will ensure that all plugins will be refetched from the network, at the pinned version. If you have an updated version pin, but already have a copy (even of a different version) stored here, it will use the stored copy.
4. Delete node_modules/ folder
5. delete package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json
6. Run npm install to reinstall your dev dependencies.
7. Run cordova platform add ios - pay attention to the plugin restore log mesages, if anything fails, at this point it's a good opportunity to investigate.

On cordova-ios@7 specifically, there will be warnings "apple-ios version check failed", these warnings can be safely ignored.

8. Assuming there isn't anything bad printed out during the platform add command, try building and deploying the app. At this point sometimes the build works as expected, sometimes despite the plugins being added, the runtime still can't find the plugin. Running cordova plugin add ... will state that the plugin is already added, but it seems to correct the bad state after building and redeploying.

I know how ridiculous this sounds, but it's a series of steps that usually works for me whenever I do encounter this, as a workaround obviously. Not a solution.

I don't think I've ever encountered this issue on the android platform, only when removing and re-adding the ios platform, so I do believe it's ios specific. I have different bundle ids for different environments, e.g. a dev, staging and production environment. Changing bundle ids requires removing and re-adding the platform and that's generally when the issue reproduces for me.

Is there a way to check what is the root cause of this issue?

I don't really work on the cordova projects as much as I used to (someone else in my company does), but I'll try to remember to zip up my project the next time it does occur. So that I can investigate further off company time.

[alexp25]

Tried that but didn't work. And I even just installed a few basic plugins so I ruled out any rogue plugins but they were still not being recognized. My aging Mac is also too slow to go through the process again with my huge project. It means that finally, after 5 years of app development with Cordova and wrestling with many outdated plugins and breaking changes, I'll give Capacitor a try. I also hope that this will be solved at some point.

[nqduy96]

I have the same problem when use yarn to install node-modules, I solved it by use npm.
maybe have conflict when I install node-modules by yarn and cordova use npm to install other library