What to do when you have trouble updating a component
Many of the components on this site get updated on a regular basis with new enhancements. All you should need to do is follow the installation instructions to bring the component version up to date in your own orgs. Unfortunately, the methods and versions of the packaging tools we’ve used to produce these updated releases have changed over time. Things have finally settled down a bit and we are trying to be much more consistent in how the updates get packaged.
If you do run into issues there are a few things you can try. Unofficialsf.com contributor, Jack Pond, wrote this article a while back that may do the trick for you.
Another possible issue pops up when you have already created Flows that use the component you are trying to upgrade. Here’s an error you might see when trying to upgrade from v2.0 of the QuickChoice component:
This means you will have to Uninstall the current version before you can re-Install the new version. That’s OK if you haven’t already created Flows that use the component. What happens then is that you might get a message like this, “Unable to uninstall package” followed by one or more “Component is in use by another component in your organization. My_Flowname“.
If you are seeing this, you will need to first Delete any Flows that already use the component you are trying to update. Rather than having to recreate them from scratch, you can temporarily Export them then Import them back in after you have installed the updated component. Do this by first installing my Import/Export Flow Utility Flow.
The Import/Export Utility works with the most recent or active version of the Flow. You might also find that you have a number of older, inactive versions of the Flow that you have to delete as well. This can be a time-consuming manual process that can be avoided if you install my Flow and Process Builder List View with Batch Delete App.
It will be a fairly painless process once you have the right helper utilities installed in your org.
- Export your affected Flows
- Delete the inactive versions of the Flows
- Uninstall the old Component
- Install the new Component
- Import your saved Flows