If I change my VS Code extension's name, will I lose the downloads statistics?

Question

There's this extension. I'm the new maintainer of it and I want to update the extension's name, description, logo and publisher meta data (located in package.json).

If I do that, will I lose the marketplace's downloads and stars statistics? I'm afraid I might lose it, because the unique identifier (publisher.extension_name) would change.

Answer 1

I did some experiementing:

• Update extension name (through display name): fine

• Updating other minor extension details: fine

• Updating name: fails

• Updating publisher: fails

So in answer to your question, no, you can't update your publisher while still preserving download count. You have three options:

A. Stay with same publisher, change display name.

B. Start new extension from scratch. Add code in the original extension that displays a info message redirecting to the new one and you should get most of your downloads back.

C. contact marketplace support and ask them for a new copy feature (good luck)

I should note that you can add users to your publisher, so if you want to publish under a different account that is possible, just not changing the publisher itself.