[While updating] Error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)

[linux-aarhus]

The more in-depth explanation

Update or package installation returns “Failed to commit transaction (conflicting files); FILENAME exists in filesystem”

I can’t install or update a package because I get (something like) this: error: could not prepare transaction error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files) libname: /insert/file/name/here exists in filesystem Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded. Why is this happening? The package manager, pacman, has detected an unexpected file already exists on disk. By design it will not overwrite files that already exist. This is a design feature, not a flaw - package managers are desig…