Unable to connect to Asterisk Manager from /var/lib/asterisk/bin/retrieve_conf, aborting

System is a Freepbx distro at 2.11. Was upgraded when we had the security issue last month. For reasons unknown the connectoion to asterisk is broken. I have checked the two files that hold the amportal username and password. They do not sync, when I try to change the username / password in Advanced settings. I looked at the file permissions and they look OK. Even if I edit them I still cannot update the config. For what it is worth the voicemail to email stopped working about the same time this issue cropped up.

Where or what can I try next??

Thanks