I need to change the name and installation directory of some features that are already deployed in a client's environment.
I can change the feature name from the feature designer, and change the installation directory from the properties dialog. I'm testing this in my environment, when I upgrade the solution (using CKSDEV) I get the following error:
Error occurred in deployment step 'Upgrade Solution (CKSDev)': The solution cannot be deployed. The feature 'b08afe0a-0b46-46b5-99a9-b9fa5ca16671' uses the directory "MyProject_MyFeature" in the solution. However, it is currently installed in the farm to the directory "MyFeature". Uninstall the existing feature before you install a new version of the solution.
Sure I can uninstall and reinstall the feature in my development environment, but I can't do that in the client's production environment. Is there any way around this?
There's a similar question here, but the resolution was to change the feature installation directory to match the old one, hence avoiding this issue.
EDIT: There's an impact to uninstalling/reinstalling features, e.g. if the feature has a list definition and instance, I'll lose data in the list (this is apparently not true). That's why I'm trying to figure this out with an upgrade.