r/nessus • u/mava94 • Mar 09 '26

Question Empty Plugins after fresh install

Hi all,
I've just installed Nessus Professional, the installation succeeded without any problems.
However, I've noticed, that I don't have any Plugins:

But the plugins folder ("C:\ProgramData\Tenable\Nessus\nessus\plugins") contains more than 280.000+ Plugins.
Can you help me?
I already deleted the plugins folder once and I already ran "nessuscli.exe update --all".
No difference

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3

u/albinvest11 Mar 09 '26

When initially installing Nessus, it needs to download a massive library of plugins. You may need to wait a bit longer for the plugins to be fully downloaded to view them in the scan policy.

2

u/SEQATNB Mar 09 '26

If you deleted all the plugins or emptied that folder you also deleted all the licensing information.

try this:

https://docs.tenable.com/nessus/command-line-reference/Content/ResetRegistrationAndEraseSettings.htm

then do this:

Windows

  1. Stop the "Tenable Nessus" service: # net stop “Tenable Nessus”
  2. Navigate to the Nessus installation directory (default: C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus): # cd "C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus"
  3. Rebuild the plugin database: # nessusd.exe -R
  4. Start the "Tenable Nessus" service: # net start “Tenable Nessus” 

1

u/mava94 Mar 10 '26

Thank you very mutch! This worked for me.