Fixing the Plesk filemng Problem: Missing or Broken Binary

If you ever encountered a situation where Plesk-related operations like backups, extension uninstallations, or file operations hang indefinitely, the root cause could be a broken or missing filemng binary. In this article, we’ll explain why it happens, how to diagnose it, and how to fix it by manually extracting the correct binary from a Plesk RPM package.

What Is filemng in Plesk?

The filemng tool is a critical internal Plesk binary responsible for secure file operations under the correct user permissions. Virtually every file or directory manipulation within Plesk (for example, during backups, migrations, or UI file management) uses filemng under the hood.

If filemng is missing or corrupted, you will experience:

• Hanging backup tasks
• Failed extension uninstalls
• Stuck migrations
• Inability to manage hosting files properly

Symptoms of a filemng Issue

• Backups hang forever.
• Commands like /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/filemng root file_exists /path/to/file never complete.
• Manual execution of filemng returns errors like:

filemng: execve failed: No such file or directory
System error 2

• Errors during Plesk repair procedures:

Expected and actual types of file '/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng' do not match: file != symlink.

Why Does This Happen?

Normally, /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng should be a symlink to /opt/psa/admin/sbin/filemng. If the target binary is missing or the symlink is broken, Plesk tasks will break.

This can happen due to:

• Incomplete Plesk updates
• Accidental file deletion
• Filesystem corruption
• Faulty RPM packaging in some rare Plesk builds

How to Fix the filemng Problem

Here’s the complete recovery guide:

Step 1: Confirm the Problem

Check if filemng exists:

ls -lh /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng

If the binary or symlink is missing or broken, proceed.

Step 2: Download the Correct RPM

Download a working version of plesk-service-node-utilities, which includes filemng.

Example for Plesk 18.0.59 (CentOS 7):

wget https://autoinstall.plesk.com/PSA_18.0.68/dist-rpm-CentOS-7-x86_64/base/plesk-service-node-utilities-18.0-2.centos.7+p18.0.68.2+t250319.0858.x86_64.rpm

Step 3: Extract the filemng Binary

Create a folder to extract contents:

mkdir /root/unpacked_filemng
cd /root/unpacked_filemng

Extract the RPM content:

rpm2cpio plesk-service-node-utilities-18.0-2.centos.7+p18.0.68.2+t250319.0858.x86_64.rpm | cpio -idmv

Locate the extracted filemng:

ls -lh ./usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng

Step 4: Copy the Binary to the Correct Location

If the binary exists in the unpacked folder, copy it:

rm -f /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng
cp ./usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng 
chmod 755 /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng 
chown root:root /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/filemng

Ensure correct permissions and ownership.

Step 6: Restart Plesk Services

Finally, restart Plesk services to reinitialize the environment:

systemctl restart psa
systemctl restart sw-engine
systemctl restart sw-cp-server

Final Test

Now you can test filemng manually:

echo "test" > /usr/local/psa/tmp/testfile.txt

/usr/local/psa/admin/bin/filemng root file_exists /usr/local/psa/tmp/testfile.txt --allow-root

If it returns 0, it means everything works!

Conclusion

A missing or broken filemng binary can cripple your Plesk server’s basic functionalities.
By extracting it from the correct RPM package and restoring it manually, you can fully recover the system without requiring a full Plesk reinstall.

If you found this guide helpful, consider bookmarking it — these low-level fixes can save you a lot of downtime in future emergencies!