Tablespace for table exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT

Hey! I have a bit of an unusual (and apparently unique) issue, when I’m trying to update the Solid Security plugin. I’m currently having an older version, from about 1-2 years ago of iThemes Security Free, and when trying to update it to the Solid Security current one, I’m getting the following error in the dashboard:

Tablespace for table 'dbName.wp_itsec_geolocation_cache' exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT
Tablespace for table 'dbName.wp_itsec_fingerprints' exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT
Tablespace for table 'dbName.wp_itsec_user_groups' exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT
Tablespace for table 'dbName.wp_itsec_mutexes' exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT
Tablespace for table 'dbName.wp_itsec_webauthn_users' exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT
Tablespace for table 'dbName.wp_itsec_webauthn_credentials' exists. Please DISCARD the tablespace before IMPORT
The itsec_geolocation_cache table is not installed.
The itsec_fingerprints table is not installed.
The itsec_user_groups table is not installed.
The itsec_mutexes table is not installed.
The itsec_webauthn_users table is not installed.
The itsec_webauthn_credentials table is not installed.

I’ve updated multiple websites (granted not all of them had such an old version), but this only happened on a single particular one. They’re all hosted on the same VPS, so there isn’t anything different here (same type of db/sql/php/settings).

Once I got this error, the only option was to restore a backup containing the same old version of Solid Security, as nothing else would work (apart from disabling the plugin completely).

What I’ve tried (to no avail):

• disabling/enabling/uninstalling/reinstalling Solid Security;
• clearing all types of cache;
• restarting MySQL;
• clearing transients / optimizing db;
• discarding/dropping those tables (weren’t found by SQL);
• deleting their .ibd files (they are created back automatically once I install the plugin again, with the same error).

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS wp_itsec_geolocation_cache;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS wp_itsec_fingerprints;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS wp_itsec_user_groups;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS wp_itsec_mutexes;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS wp_itsec_webauthn_users;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS wp_itsec_webauthn_credentials;

sudo rm -f /var/lib/mysql/dbName/wp_itsec_geolocation_cache.*
sudo rm -f /var/lib/mysql/dbName/wp_itsec_fingerprints.*
sudo rm -f /var/lib/mysql/dbName/wp_itsec_user_groups.*
sudo rm -f /var/lib/mysql/dbName/wp_itsec_mutexes.*
sudo rm -f /var/lib/mysql/dbName/wp_itsec_webauthn_users.*
sudo rm -f /var/lib/mysql/dbName/wp_itsec_webauthn_credentials.*

ALTER TABLE wp_itsec_geolocation_cache DISCARD TABLESPACE;
MySQL said: Documentation

#1146 - Table 'dbName.wp_itsec_geolocation_cache' doesn't exist

Do you guys have any idea as to how I can fix this? Thank you kindly!