Maven plugin could not be retrieved from repository – The plugin does not exist or no valid version could be found

According to codehaus there are 2 main reasons for this error when running a Maven goal – “This error indicates that Maven is either unable to access the required plug-in from your local repository, or unable to access the official or ‘central’ Maven2 plug-in repository“.

Most of the time this can be resolved by either:

1. If you are behind a proxy then ensure you have set your proxy in ${user.home}/.m2/settings.xml

   
     .
     .
   
   
         true
   http
         proxy.somewhere.com
   8080
         proxyuser
   somepassword            www.google.com|*.somewhere.com
       
     
     .
     .
   
   

2. If you are updating Maven then force an update on all plugins using the -U switch when running your goal.