Are you facing 'Internal error: Account :: getPassword cannot decrypt password to be plain'?

This guide is for you.

Basically, Internal error: Account :: getPassword cannot decrypt password to be plain error happens when we try to import/export a database dump in Plesk.

Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Server Management Services, we regularly help our Customers to handle similar Plesk errors.

How to resolve Plesk  'Internal error: Account :: getPassword cannot decrypt password to be plain' ?

Before going into the steps to fix this error we will see how this error looks like and what causes it.

The typical error message is given below:

Internal error: [Account::getPassword] cannot decrypt password to be plain.

This will be seen when we migrate a domain from non-Plesk hosting.

As a result, the website stops working and shows ‘Error establishing database connection’.

Further, we can see the following errors from the log /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/panel.log when we enable the debug mode:

ERR [panel] Task failed: id=130, pid=111288, type=database-download, error=Internal error: [Account::getPassword] cannot decrypt password to be plain.
DEBUG [panel] PleskFatalException: Internal error: [Account::getPassword] cannot decrypt password to be plain.
file: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/Account.php
line: 73
...

Also, we can see this error when the password of the domain database user is encrypted:

# plesk db "select * from db_users where login=ibmimedia;"
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------+--------+--------+--------------+--------+-------------+-----------+
| id | login | account_id | db_id | status | dom_id | db_server_id | passwd | external_id | role |
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------+--------+--------+--------------+--------+-------------+-----------+
| 10 | ibmimedia | 15 | 0 | normal | 12 | 1 | | NULL | readWrite |
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------+--------+--------+--------------+--------+-------------+-----------+
# plesk db "select * from accounts where id='15';"
+-----+-------+-------------------------------------------+
| id | type | password |
+-----+-------+-------------------------------------------+
| 15 | crypt | *ED642519186D3D29C6089E1D01B592D76B1EEC12 |
+-----+-------+-------------------------------------------+

What triggers this Plesk error?

This was a product issue and was fixed in Plesk Obsidian. A database user whose password is encrypted cannot import and export the domain database.

Tips to fix this Plesk error?

We can update Plesk via the Plesk interface or via the command-line interface to fix this issue.

Updating Plesk can be done in two ways:

1. From Plesk

2. From command-line interface

1. Using Plesk

We can update Plesk from the Plesk panel using the following steps:

i. Firstly, we must ensure that port 8447 is open in the firewall.

ii. Then take Plesk and go to Tools & Settings.

iii. From there click Updates and Upgrades.

iv. After that, on the Upgrades page, click Update Components.

v.  Finally, click Continue to begin the update procedure.

2. Using command-line interface

We can update Plesk via command-line interface using the following steps:

i. Firstly. Connect to Plesk server via SSH (Linux)/RDP (Windows Server).

ii. And run Plesk Installer Update (on Windows Server, start a command prompt as an Administrator):

plesk installer update

During the update process, Plesk may go offline for some time, if updates require a Plesk restart However, the websites will stay online.

If a service component is going to be updated, its service will be restarted.

To find out what Plesk update is currently installed on the system, go to the Home page > System Overview.

Alternatively, execute the following command in a command-line interface:

plesk version

If update is not possible for some reason, we can try resetting the database user password:

We can do this using the following steps:

1. Firstly, log in to Plesk.

2. And go to Domains > example.com > Databases > User Management and click the user name.

3. Finally, update the password.

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