Can't start Elasticsearch anymore - macos

Question

After making a simple change on a query in Kibana, my Elasticsearch instance stopped working and I can't start it up again. I'm using ES 0.90.9 on OSX using homebrew.
Normally I would use this to start ES:
elasticsearch -f -D es.config=/usr/local/opt/elasticsearch/config/elasticsearch.yml
This however throws out a repeated error:
[2014-04-07 15:59:02,123][INFO ][node ] [Puck] version[0.90.9], pid[8758], build[a968646/2013-12-23T10:35:28Z]
[2014-04-07 15:59:02,128][INFO ][node ] [Puck] initializing ...
[2014-04-07 15:59:02,224][INFO ][plugins ] [Puck] loaded [mongodb-river, mapper-attachments, marvel], sites [river-mongodb, marvel]
[2014-04-07 15:59:04,553][INFO ][node ] [Puck] initialized
[2014-04-07 15:59:04,553][INFO ][node ] [Puck] starting ...
[2014-04-07 15:59:04,665][INFO ][transport ] [Puck] bound_address {inet[/127.0.0.1:9302]}, publish_address {inet[/127.0.0.1:9302]}
[2014-04-07 15:59:07,727][INFO ][cluster.service ] [Puck] new_master [Puck][gtub58OkR9SskDE0SfYobw][inet[/127.0.0.1:9302]], reason: zen-disco-join (elected_as_master)
[2014-04-07 15:59:07,778][INFO ][discovery ] [Puck] elasticsearch_dannyjoris/gtub58OkR9SskDE0SfYobw
[2014-04-07 15:59:07,795][INFO ][http ] [Puck] bound_address {inet[/127.0.0.1:9202]}, publish_address {inet[/127.0.0.1:9202]}
[2014-04-07 15:59:07,796][INFO ][node ] [Puck] started
[2014-04-07 15:59:07,813][INFO ][gateway ] [Puck] recovered [0] indices into cluster_state
[2014-04-07 15:59:09,589][ERROR][marvel.agent.exporter ] error connecting to [localhost:9200]
java.net.SocketTimeoutException: connect timed out
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(PlainSocketImpl.java:382)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(PlainSocketImpl.java:241)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:228)
at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:431)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:527)
at sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(NetworkClient.java:158)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(HttpClient.java:424)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(HttpClient.java:538)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.<init>(HttpClient.java:214)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:300)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(HttpClient.java:319)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getNewHttpClient(HttpURLConnection.java:987)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(HttpURLConnection.java:923)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.connect(HttpURLConnection.java:841)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.exporter.ESExporter.openConnection(ESExporter.java:313)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.exporter.ESExporter.openConnection(ESExporter.java:293)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.exporter.ESExporter.checkAndUpload(ESExporter.java:428)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.exporter.ESExporter.checkAndUploadIndexTemplate(ESExporter.java:464)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.exporter.ESExporter.checkAndUploadAllResources(ESExporter.java:341)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.exporter.ESExporter.openExportingConnection(ESExporter.java:190)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.exporter.ESExporter.exportXContent(ESExporter.java:246)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.exporter.ESExporter.exportNodeStats(ESExporter.java:134)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.AgentService$ExportingWorker.exportNodeStats(AgentService.java:274)
at org.elasticsearch.marvel.agent.AgentService$ExportingWorker.run(AgentService.java:174)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:695)
[2014-04-07 15:59:09,591][ERROR][marvel.agent.exporter ] Could not connect to any configured elasticsearch instances: [localhost:9200]

Answer 1

Removing the plugins directory worked for me.
The location of the plugins directory can be found in your config file under the path.plugins setting. e.g.
# Path to where plugins are installed:
path.plugins: /usr/local/var/lib/elasticsearch/plugins
You can find default plugin paths here
This should not destroy your marvel data, but I guarantee nothing.