This one is a quick post , but I thought I would post this information as I could not find anything that helped me on this specific scenario. Please read the entire article before taking action as there are some irreversable or very troublesome routes I caution about!

Problem:

I had a client trying to retract a WSP from Central Admin and would eventually go to an, 'Error' State. I could not retract it and after looking at event logs I figured it was a problem with security. I tried several accounts, checked the databases to see if there was some issue with readonly databases and nothing was working.

Solution:

Delete the solution from central admin! Yes, I said it. With StsAdm , just delete the solution from Central Admin using this command:

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\STSADM.exe" -o deletesolution -name "yoursolution.wsp"

What has just happened is that Central Admin does not know about the WSP anymore but the feature and any deployed files are still on the server. For whatever reason SharePoint was not able to retract the files as it normally does.

Now you can do one of two things, you can add the solution again to central admin and deploy overtop of the deployed files so it overrides them, or simply clean up the files manually.

I re-added the solution through stsadm, but then deployed through stsadm using the -force option in the command. This overrides the existing files on the server. If you deploy through Central admin it will tell you you need the -force option that is not offered as part of the UI in central admin. Use the following command:

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\STSADM.exe" -o deploysolution -name "YourSolution.wsp" -immediate -allowgacdeployment -force

Just to make sure everything was good, I retracted to solution again, and it worked! then I deleted the solution from central admin alltogether. Then I checked the server and noticed all the files that were deployed with the WSP were cleaned up properly. I then re-added the new WSP the client was looking to install (an Updated WSP).

Conclusion:

I have no idea why it was not able to retract, but I have seen this several times. I don't know if has to do with security of certain accounts. Althought it's anoying at times, it is fairly easy to fix if you have good instructions. Hope it helps you out!

***WORD OF CAUTION - if you clean up the files manually you might want to uninstall the features through STSADM commands as SharePOint might still recognize the features that were deployed as the WSP. You might not want to get into the mess of deleting files that are still part of activated or installed Features. THis is why I suggest doing what I did.