Unable to update the main (default) FTP account password via control panel. The following error occurred:

Attempting to modify nonexistent username
Couldn't delete previous ProFTPd user config file.

OR

The issue is occurring due to the absence of password entry in the passwd.vhosts file.

#cd /etc/proftpd/
Server:/etc/proftpd#grep userName: passwd.vhosts
Server:/etc/proftpd#

This shows that password entry is missing in the /etc/proftpd/passwd.vhosts. Add the corresponding entry from /etc/proftpd/userName.

The entry can be found from /etc/proftpd/userName.

Add the above entry in /etc/proftpd/passwd.vhosts.

Server:/etc/proftpd#cat >> passwd.vhosts
userName:$1$MAwZd0to$A8U6GQNGwkC0c7DA0P/7..:1697:1697:userName:/home/userName:/nonexiste

This will fix the issue.

Note: Replace the userName, domainName by corresponding values. Also make sure that you are using “>>” instead of “>”. The “cat > passwd.vhosts” will wipe out the entire content in the passwd.vhosts file.

This is applicable to Cpanel, vDeck control panels.