Is there a problem with JIRA UPM v2.18.5 that incorrectly modifies the hyperlink to the Add-ons administration page

Question

I have JIRA 6.3.15 installed on Windows Server 2008. I have just performed an update of the Universal Plugin Manager to version 2.18.5. Now when I click on the Add-ons management hyperlink it takes me to the Application Links page, and I can no longer navigate to the Add-ons management page.

When I enter the url to my browser manually - ..jira/plugins/servlet/upm - I get "Oops, you've found a dead link"(Chrome)

Can anyone help me out with this one?

David FALLAS · Answer

Recovering from the 'loss' of the UPM when the original add-on update was performed on July 20 has turned out to be a major exercise in frustration and an unnecessary waste of time.

In an attempt to rectify the UPM issue reported in my original question, I had decided to perform an upgrade to JIRA 6.4.8 (that being the latest release). This proved to be an complete disaster. When the v6.4.8 installer had completed, any attempt to start a JIRA browser session resulted in the appearance of a wizard which decided it would recreate the database, users and so forth - as if this was a completely new installation - this was regardless of the fact that I had chosen the upgrade option on the first page of the upgrade installer.

Faced with the prospect of recreating all of our users and goodness knows how many other configuration tasks I abandoned the upgrade at this point. I recovered the database from the most recent backup, uninstalled v6.4.8 via Control Panel, and replaced the JIRA install and home directories with copies I had made prior to starting the v6.4.8 upgrade.

Finally, I reinstalled JIRA v6.3.15, and, by the way, the UPM issue has been resolved.

In my experience, previous JIRA upgrades have been pretty much trouble-free - I simply cannot understand why this one proved to be so fraught with difficulty. It has certainly dented my confidence in the Atlassian JIRA upgrade process.

David FALLAS · Answer

This is now becoming critical. I have at least one Add-on - TFS4JIRA - that no longer works. There may be others that I haven't detected yet.
I am contemplating a complete upgrade to JIRA v6.4.3 - will this make the problem go away?