# Error 500 when activating plugins (asset not found in the load path.)
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-500-when-activating-plugins-asset-not-found-in-the-load-path/397370
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** unsupported-install, hosting
**Created:** [March 1, 2026, 11:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-500-when-activating-plugins-asset-not-found-in-the-load-path/397370 "2026-03-01T11:42:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sistason](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sistason)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2026, 11:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-500-when-activating-plugins-asset-not-found-in-the-load-path/397370/1 "2026-03-01T11:42:44Z")
Hi,
whenever I activate a plugin, the site thows a 500, leading me to have to deactivate the plugin again.
/logs shows: `ActionView::Template::Error (The asset ‘plugins/discourse-translator.js’ was not found in the load path.) lib/freedom_patches/propshaft_patches.rb:16:in ‘compute_asset_path’ app/helpers/application_he`
→
```plaintext
propshaft (1.3.1) lib/propshaft/helper.rb:50:in 'Propshaft::Helper#compute_asset_path'
lib/freedom_patches/propshaft_patches.rb:16:in 'compute_asset_path'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/helpers/asset_url_helper.rb:204:in 'ActionView::Helpers::AssetUrlHelper#asset_path'
app/helpers/application_helper.rb:94:in 'ApplicationHelper#script_asset_path'
app/helpers/application_helper.rb:144:in 'block in ApplicationHelper#preload_script'
app/helpers/application_helper.rb:143:in 'Array#map'
app/helpers/application_helper.rb:143:in 'ApplicationHelper#preload_script'
app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:51
app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:50:in 'Array#each'
app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:50
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/base.rb:278:in 'Kernel#public_send'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/base.rb:278:in 'ActionView::Base#_run'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/template.rb:284:in 'block in ActionView::Template#render'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:212:in 'ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/template.rb:583:in 'ActionView::Template#instrument_render_template'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/template.rb:272:in 'ActionView::Template#render'
rack-mini-profiler (4.0.1) lib/mini_profiler/profiling_methods.rb:90:in 'block in ActionView::Template#profile_method'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/renderer/template_renderer.rb:77:in 'block in ActionView::TemplateRenderer#render_with_layout'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:210:in 'block in ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:58:in 'ActiveSupport::Notifications::Instrumenter#instrument'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:210:in 'ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/renderer/template_renderer.rb:75:in 'ActionView::TemplateRenderer#render_with_layout'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/renderer/template_renderer.rb:59:in 'ActionView::TemplateRenderer#render_template'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/renderer/template_renderer.rb:11:in 'ActionView::TemplateRenderer#render'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/renderer/renderer.rb:58:in 'ActionView::Renderer#render_template_to_object'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/renderer/renderer.rb:31:in 'ActionView::Renderer#render_to_object'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:136:in 'block in ActionView::Rendering#_render_template'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/base.rb:305:in 'ActionView::Base#in_rendering_context'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:135:in 'ActionView::Rendering#_render_template'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/streaming.rb:179:in 'ActionController::Streaming#_render_template'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:122:in 'ActionView::Rendering#render_to_body'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:186:in 'ActionController::Rendering#render_to_body'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/renderers.rb:140:in 'ActionController::Renderers#render_to_body'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/abstract_controller/rendering.rb:28:in 'AbstractController::Rendering#render'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:167:in 'ActionController::Rendering#render'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:31:in 'block (2 levels) in ActionController::Instrumentation#render'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/benchmark.rb:17:in 'ActiveSupport::Benchmark.realtime'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:31:in 'block in ActionController::Instrumentation#render'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:100:in 'ActionController::Instrumentation#cleanup_view_runtime'
activerecord (8.0.4) lib/active_record/railties/controller_runtime.rb:46:in 'ActiveRecord::Railties::ControllerRuntime#cleanup_view_runtime'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:30:in 'ActionController::Instrumentation#render'
app/controllers/categories_controller.rb:75:in 'block (2 levels) in CategoriesController#index'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/mime_responds.rb:224:in 'ActionController::MimeResponds#respond_to'
app/controllers/categories_controller.rb:50:in 'CategoriesController#index'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/basic_implicit_render.rb:8:in 'ActionController::BasicImplicitRender#send_action'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:215:in 'AbstractController::Base#process_action'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:193:in 'ActionController::Rendering#process_action'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:261:in 'block in AbstractController::Callbacks#process_action'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:120:in 'block in ActiveSupport::Callbacks#run_callbacks'
app/controllers/application_controller.rb:442:in 'block in ApplicationController#with_resolved_locale'
i18n (1.14.7) lib/i18n.rb:353:in 'I18n::Base#with_locale'
app/controllers/application_controller.rb:442:in 'ApplicationController#with_resolved_locale'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:129:in 'block in ActiveSupport::Callbacks#run_callbacks'
app/controllers/application_controller.rb:1088:in 'ApplicationController#ensure_dont_cache_page'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:129:in 'block in ActiveSupport::Callbacks#run_callbacks'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:140:in 'ActiveSupport::Callbacks#run_callbacks'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:260:in 'AbstractController::Callbacks#process_action'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/rescue.rb:27:in 'ActionController::Rescue#process_action'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:76:in 'block in ActionController::Instrumentation#process_action'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:210:in 'block in ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:58:in 'ActiveSupport::Notifications::Instrumenter#instrument'
activesupport (8.0.4) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:210:in 'ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:75:in 'ActionController::Instrumentation#process_action'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal/params_wrapper.rb:259:in 'ActionController::ParamsWrapper#process_action'
activerecord (8.0.4) lib/active_record/railties/controller_runtime.rb:39:in 'ActiveRecord::Railties::ControllerRuntime#process_action'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:152:in 'AbstractController::Base#process'
actionview (8.0.4) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:40:in 'ActionView::Rendering#process'
rack-mini-profiler (4.0.1) lib/mini_profiler/profiling_methods.rb:90:in 'block in ActionController::Base#profile_method'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:252:in 'ActionController::Metal#dispatch'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:335:in 'ActionController::Metal.dispatch'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:67:in 'ActionDispatch::Routing::RouteSet::Dispatcher#dispatch'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:50:in 'ActionDispatch::Routing::RouteSet::Dispatcher#serve'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_dispatch/routing/mapper.rb:32:in 'block in '
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_dispatch/routing/mapper.rb:62:in 'ActionDispatch::Routing::Mapper::Constraints#serve'
actionpack (8.0.4) lib/action_dispatch/journey/route
```
This happens with:
- [GitHub - communiteq/discourse-scheduled-readonly · GitHub](https://github.com/communiteq/discourse-scheduled-readonly)
- [GitHub - communiteq/discourse-prevent-posting · GitHub](https://github.com/communiteq/discourse-prevent-posting)
- [GitHub - discourse/discourse-translator · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-translator)
some old community plugins failing would lead me to believe them being too old, but the discourse-translator failing leads more to a problem of plugins and assets being “wrong”. These plugins are the only non-preinstalled plugins, so it’s a general “I cannot install plugins” problem.
I tagged as unsupported-install, as I use the discourse/discourse:2026.1.1 (esr) docker image, which works perfectly but with this plugin issue. I did mount a docker volume to the plugins-directory (`- plugins:/var/www/discourse/plugins`). I installed plugins via `rake plugin:install[https://github.com/…]`
The error message tells me about a missing asset, which is actually there (see below). Maybe there is a rake-command missing?
I did a rake `db:migrate` (none of the plugins have extra tables) and did `rake assets:precompile`(which is also done on container restart, which was done multiple times already). logs show discourse-translator and discourse-prevent-posting get precompiled, the scheduled-readonly does not as it has no assets (but still fails because its .js is not found in the assets load-path?)
Below shows that discourse-translator was precompiled and should be in the right places, I think? Any pointers towards what I can look at next?
```bash
discourse@59c1450786e0:/var/www/discourse$ find . -type f -name "*discourse-translator*"
./frontend/discourse/dist/assets/plugins/discourse-translator.map
./frontend/discourse/dist/assets/plugins/discourse-translator.js
./public/assets/plugins/discourse-translator-528f7bc3.js.gz
./public/assets/plugins/discourse-translator-528f7bc3.js.br
./public/assets/plugins/discourse-translator-528f7bc3.js
./public/assets/plugins/discourse-translator-62208e74.map
./tmp/stylesheet-cache/discourse-translator_rtl_66ab73aaa7b3ab50cd6f88921264d7933487aa18.css
./tmp/stylesheet-cache/discourse-translator_66ab73aaa7b3ab50cd6f88921264d7933487aa18.css
./tmp/stylesheet-cache/discourse-translator_cc99d90d66ec528a261e18f38cdc144b5ecfddc7.css.map
./tmp/stylesheet-cache/discourse-translator_rtl_cc99d90d66ec528a261e18f38cdc144b5ecfddc7.css
./tmp/stylesheet-cache/discourse-translator_66ab73aaa7b3ab50cd6f88921264d7933487aa18.css.map
./tmp/stylesheet-cache/discourse-translator_cc99d90d66ec528a261e18f38cdc144b5ecfddc7.css
```
---
### Author:  [@Jagster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jagster)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-500-when-activating-plugins-asset-not-found-in-the-load-path/397370/2 "2026-03-01T14:05:25Z")
My **bet** is translator plugin is eithet broken or shouldn’t use anymore 🤷♂️ Do not use it in app.yml?
> [@Discourse Translator](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-translator/32630/446):
>
> The Discourse AI provider on the translator plugin has been moved to Discourse AI itself. This simplifies configuration by a lot, and allows us to tap on Discourse AI’s LLM usage / persona functionalities. As for the functions moved to Discourse core, they were all experimental features that had been in heavy development from the beginning of this year. Our team has decided to conclude this experiment. It was a successful one and we are seeing many requests for first-class multilingual support. …
---
### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-500-when-activating-plugins-asset-not-found-in-the-load-path/397370/3 "2026-03-01T16:56:25Z")
> [@sistason](#):
>
> some old community plugins failing would lead me to believe them being too old
We are using these plugins for some of our clients. They definitely work on 2026.1.1.
> [@Jagster](#):
>
> My **bet** is translator plugin is eithet broken
Same: the translator plugin works on 2026.1.1.
> [@sistason](#):
>
> I did mount a docker volume to the plugins-directory (`- plugins:/var/www/discourse/plugins`)
I wouldn’t rule this out as a cause.
---
### Author:  [@sistason](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sistason)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2026, 12:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-500-when-activating-plugins-asset-not-found-in-the-load-path/397370/4 "2026-03-02T12:11:13Z")
re: volume.
The volume is only for (persistent) storage of the plugin data (git repos) and has nothing to do with the paths the compiled assets reside in.
But I tested the problem without using a volume for the plugins and the problem persists.
Also nice to hear that the communiteq plugins are just “finished” and work, that’s why they don’t need new commits 🙂