Solving Cannot Find Package errors

When trying to apply updates to your site, sometimes you will receive the following error message:

Watchful Remote System can't find the package

This usually results in from problems installing and/or uploading files to your site, and can be caused by a number of factors such as limited storage space on your server, incompatible file/folder permissions, and blocking the Joomla installer with a web application firewall (WAF).

Another symptom we sometimes see is the inability to install/update an add-on directly on the site itself using the Joomla extension installer.

Solution

To solve this problem, you must first ensure that installation using Joomla extension installer directly is working normally. Try the following steps and test the installation of the extension after each step to determine what was the problem.

1. One of the most common causes of insufficient storage space on your site/server is a backlog of obsolete Joomla backups. Start be transferring any critical backups to an off-site location then delete any unused backups.

Pro Tip: If you backup with Akeeba Backup Pro, explore the Quota Management options to make sure obsolete backups are cleaned up automatically.

2. Ensure there is sufficient disk space on your account. Advanced users can check this directly in their server control panel (i.e. cPanel). Other users should enquire with their hosting provider/IT department.

3. Ensure that you have the appropriate permissions set for all files and folders. This is usually done via command-line access to your server, but the free Joomla extensions Admin Tools (available from AkeebaBackup.com) offers an easy point-and-click "Fix Permissions" feature that we recommend for most users.

4. Ensure that the uploads limits have been set properly for your site. This task is important, and should be preformed by an expert user, your IT department or your web hosting provider. You need to edit your PHP.INI file(s) to make sure the upload size is supported. We recommend the following as a starting point, though the actual needs on your site may require some trial and error:

upload_max_filesize = 10M
post_max_size = 10M
memory_limit = 64M