Softaculous is a wonderful tool for managing various installed software on a web server. For a while I’ve been using it through my web host’s cPanel interface, mainly to manage different WordPress installations.
I like to create a “staging” site when making major changes to a site, so I can try things out, and than “push to live” the changes. It makes this, copying, moving, deleting, and managing WordPress sites, quite easy.
Everything was great, until one day, I look at my list of installations, and a bunch are missing in it’s list. The installations are there, but just not listed. I try re-importing them in, but Softaculous told me, I can’t, because it’s already in (despite not showing in the list of installs).
I researched the problem, and the suggestion I found involved utilizing settings in the admin Control Panel, which allows it to resync. That’s a problem, since I didn’t have admin access.
I found the list was maintained in the file “/home/USERNAME/.softaculous/installations.php”. It’s format is hard to read for a person, so I wouldn’t want to edit myself. So, I just deleted it (actually, renamed it, to have a backup). Then, I went back into Softaculous, and the entire list of installs was gone. But, all I had to do, was go into “Import Installations” (button on top right of opening screen). Click on “Manual Installations” then “Start scanning for installations”. It found all of my installations, and added them for me. Everything worked correctly after that.
Of course, there’s a few risks doing this. As always, one should be backed up beforehand. Also, it’s hugely important that you have all your login credential information, and any other info about your installs before you do this. You shouldn’t be relying on Softaculous for safekeeping such information anyhow.
Hopefully, this helps somebody else. Good luck.