<p>Craft 3 knows about available plugins via the <code>vendor/craftcms/plugins.php</code> file, which stores info about all Composer packages that were installed with <code>type: craft-plugin</code> in composer.json.</p>

<p>If that file doesn’t exist or is just returning an empty array, then make sure that the <code>craftcms/plugin-installer</code> Composer package is installed, and try re-requiring each of your Craft plugins. As they are (re-)installed, they should get added to <code>plugins.php</code>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-09T08:35:48.887Z
I'll check that if it happens again. Thanks!
Matthias Redl-Mann
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-07T20:14:29.200Z
This worked for me. Thanks! I ran `composer remove <plugin>` and then ran `composer require <plugin>:<version>`. The plugins.php file now exists. For some reason it wasn't there before.
Andrew
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-08T23:07:46.517Z
2017-08-08T23:07:46.517Z
Brandon Kelly
<p>Due to problems I had with Craft 3 Beta 23 I switched back to version Beta 22 (I did this a couple of times)</p>

<p>I do this by importing an sql dump of beta 22 and by directly requesting Beta 22 via composer.</p>

<p>The strange thing: Craft forgets about Plugins it had installed. They simply do not appear anymore in the plugins list, although they are installed via composer and nothing changed in them.</p>

<p>I cleared storage/runtime and I also cleared the DB cache via utilities, that does not help.</p>

<p>Any hints why Craft does not show the plugins anymore in the list? Is there another cache?</p>

<plugin-development><craft3><composer>
Craft 3 forgets plugins
# Craft 3 forgets plugins

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-08-08)

Due to problems I had with Craft 3 Beta 23 I switched back to version Beta 22 (I did this a couple of times)

I do this by importing an sql dump of beta 22 and by directly requesting Beta 22 via composer.

The strange thing: Craft forgets about Plugins it had installed. They simply do not appear anymore in the plugins list, although they are installed via composer and nothing changed in them.

I cleared storage/runtime and I also cleared the DB cache via utilities, that does not help.

Any hints why Craft does not show the plugins anymore in the list? Is there another cache?

**Tags:** plugin-development, craft3, composer


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-08-08. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

Craft 3 knows about available plugins via the `vendor/craftcms/plugins.php` file, which stores info about all Composer packages that were installed with `type: craft-plugin` in composer.json.

If that file doesn’t exist or is just returning an empty array, then make sure that the `craftcms/plugin-installer` Composer package is installed, and try re-requiring each of your Craft plugins. As they are (re-)installed, they should get added to `plugins.php`.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I'll check that if it happens again. Thanks!  
> **username_2**: This worked for me. Thanks! I ran `composer remove <plugin>` and then ran `composer require <plugin>:<version>`. The plugins.php file now exists. For some reason it wasn't there before.  

---

