Can't build Solar2D project with plugins (Windows 10, Android) - plugins not loading, missing folders

Solar2D Android
1

Hello, I can’t build a project with plugins (plugin.utf8, plugin.zip) in Solar2D Build 2025.3718 on Windows 10. The simulator doesn’t load the plugins, the folder C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Solar2DPlugins is not created, and the Android build fails with an error. The log shows:

WARNING: there was an issue while downloading simulator plugin placeholders:  
Unable to find plugin 'plugin.utf8' for platform 'win32-sim':  
  Locally: no directory C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Solar2DPlugins\com.coronalabs\plugin.utf8  
  Solar2D Marketplace Directory: skipped because marketplaceId is not set  
  Solar2D Directory: directory was not fetched

My build.settings:

settings = {  
    plugins = {  
        ["plugin.utf8"] = { publisherId = "com.coronalabs" },  
    },  
    android = { usesPermissions = { "android.permission.INTERNET" } },  
    orientation = { default = "portrait", supported = { "portrait" } },  
}

What I’ve tried:

  • Reinstalled Solar2D, deleted C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Corona Labs\ and C:\Temp\Corona Labs\.
  • Checked internet connection (it works, also tried VPN).
  • Tested with a new project—same error.
  • Without plugins, the build succeeds.

Every time I restart the simulator, there’s a 5-second plugin loading delay before launch. The plugin works in the simulator even if I don’t specify it in build.settings, but as soon as I add it, the 5-second delay appears and the build fails.

I completely deleted all Solar2D-related folders I could find, including Gradle, and downloaded the latest version, but new projects with any plugin still won’t build.

The folder C:\Users\User\AppData\Local no longer gets created even after a fresh Solar2D install. I really need help with this.

2

try also to delete those folders and build again (not sure about the folders in blue rectangle, but delete the 2 folders above

after deletion … first build will take long because it will download them again

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3

I have just had same issue. That is why I found this very post… I went to this forum and could not access it because Cloudflare issues! I reloaded the page a few times and tried to recompile my project. Once Cloudflare error page was gone, the compilation error went away by itself, too! Is it a coincidence? So what I think is that when you compile a project all the plugins are checked online… if the system cannot access them (Cloudflare issue, for example), the project will not be compiled… So there it could be firewall issue as well… The question is if the system can be off-line for compiling? :slight_smile:

4

Here’s what @Siu said over on Discord:

If you’re on Windows, you can copy the cached plugins from %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Solar2DPlugins\Caches\Solar2Directory\solar2d\ (or coronalabs if it’s a Corona plugin, other folders might exsist here)
into %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Solar2DPlugins; this is the location it looks for during build process with no internet access.

For Android builds, you would still need an additional workaround to skip server timestamp lookup, see more here: "unable to sign jar: no response from the Timestamping Authority." - #6 by Siu

With those two, you’re pretty much set for offline builds on Windows, but in order to have each plugin cached you must build at least once for the specific platform and plugin while online.

Also, for reference, plugins hosted by Solar2D are actually fetched from the GitHub repo, not the solar2d.com web server. :slightly_smiling_face:

If you’re on Mac, I would assume the process would be similar, I just don’t know where the cache location is.