diff --git a/Magefile.go b/Magefile.go
index 20515fe0..544efa85 100644
--- a/Magefile.go
+++ b/Magefile.go
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"runtime"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/magefile/mage/mg"
 	"github.com/magefile/mage/sh"
@@ -260,6 +261,12 @@ func (Run) V2Local(ctx context.Context, path string, sourceCodePath string) erro
 
 func (Run) SourceDiffLocal(ctx context.Context, archive string, source string) error {
 	buildCommand("sourcemapdiff", runtime.GOOS+"_"+runtime.GOARCH)
+
+	// if source doesn't start with http or file:// add file://
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(source, "http://") && !strings.HasPrefix(source, "file://") {
+		source = "file://" + source
+	}
+
 	command := []string{
 		"./bin/" + runtime.GOOS + "_" + runtime.GOARCH + "/sourcemapdiff",
 		"-archiveUri", archive}
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/main.go b/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/main.go
index e4f2d1fe..d3ea9fd8 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/main.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/main.go
@@ -6,8 +6,10 @@ import (
 	"flag"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 
+	"github.com/bmatcuk/doublestar/v4"
 	"github.com/fatih/color"
 	"github.com/grafana/plugin-validator/pkg/analysis"
 	"github.com/grafana/plugin-validator/pkg/analysis/passes"
@@ -86,13 +88,12 @@ func main() {
 	if cfg.Global.JSONOutput {
 		pluginID, pluginVersion, err := GetIDAndVersion(archiveDir)
 		if err != nil {
-			pluginID = "unknown"
-			pluginVersion = "unknown"
+			pluginID, pluginVersion = GetIDAndVersionFallBack(archiveDir)
 			archiveDiag := analysis.Diagnostic{
 				Name:     "zip-invalid",
 				Severity: analysis.Error,
-				Title:    "ZIP is improperly structured",
-				Context:  "could not read plugin.json from archive to determine id and version",
+				Title:    "Plugin archive is improperly structured",
+				Context:  "Could not find a plugin.json in the expected located. It is possible your plugin archive structure is incorrect.",
 			}
 			diags["archive"] = append(diags["archive"], archiveDiag)
 		}
@@ -178,6 +179,26 @@ func readConfigFile(path string) (runner.Config, error) {
 	return config, nil
 }
 
+func getSourceCodeDirSubDir(sourceCodePath string) string {
+	// check if there's a package.json in the source code directory
+	// if so return the source code directory as is
+	if _, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(sourceCodePath, "package.json")); err == nil {
+		return sourceCodePath
+	}
+
+	// use double start to find the first ocurrance of package.json
+	possiblePath, err := doublestar.FilepathGlob(sourceCodePath + "/**/package.json")
+	if err != nil {
+		return sourceCodePath
+	}
+	if len(possiblePath) == 0 {
+		return sourceCodePath
+	}
+	logme.DebugFln("Detected sourcecode inside a subdir: %v. Returning %s", possiblePath, filepath.Dir(possiblePath[0]))
+	// possiblePath points to a file, return the dir
+	return filepath.Dir(possiblePath[0])
+}
+
 func getSourceCodeDir(sourceCodeUri string) (string, func(), error) {
 	// If source code URI is not provided, return immediately with an empty string
 	// otherwise we will get an error when trying to extract the source code archive
@@ -207,6 +228,9 @@ func getSourceCodeDir(sourceCodeUri string) (string, func(), error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", sourceCodeCleanUp, fmt.Errorf("couldn't extract source code archive: %s. %w", sourceCodeUri, err)
 	}
+	// some submissions from zip have their source code in a subdirectory
+	// of the extracted archive
+	extractedDir = getSourceCodeDirSubDir(extractedDir)
 	return extractedDir, sourceCodeCleanUp, nil
 
 }
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/quickmeta.go b/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/quickmeta.go
index 8ec92e61..2687b8f3 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/quickmeta.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/plugincheck2/quickmeta.go
@@ -5,8 +5,45 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
+
+	"github.com/bmatcuk/doublestar/v4"
 )
 
+func getIdAndVersionFromFile(pluginJsonPath string) (string, string, error) {
+	b, err := os.ReadFile(pluginJsonPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, fmt.Errorf("cannot read plugin.json: %w", err))
+		return "", "", err
+	}
+	var data struct {
+		ID   string `json:"id"`
+		Info struct {
+			Version string `json:"version"`
+		} `json:"info"`
+	}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(b, &data); err != nil {
+		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, fmt.Errorf("couldn't get plugin meta: %w", err))
+		return "", "", err
+	}
+	return data.ID, data.Info.Version, nil
+
+}
+
+func GetIDAndVersionFallBack(archiveDir string) (string, string) {
+	// try to find a plugin.json anywhere in the archive
+	pluginJsonPath, err := doublestar.FilepathGlob(archiveDir + "/**/plugin.json")
+	if err != nil {
+		return "unknown", "unknown"
+	}
+
+	pluginId, pluginVersion, err := getIdAndVersionFromFile(pluginJsonPath[0])
+	if err != nil {
+		return "unknown", "unknown"
+	}
+	return pluginId, pluginVersion
+
+}
+
 // GetIDAndVersion Gets plugin id and version from extracted zip
 func GetIDAndVersion(archiveDir string) (string, string, error) {
 	// check extracted archive directory first
@@ -40,20 +77,11 @@ func GetIDAndVersion(archiveDir string) (string, string, error) {
 		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, fmt.Errorf("plugin.json is not a file: %s", filename))
 		return "", "", err
 	}
-	b, err := os.ReadFile(filename)
+
+	pluginId, pluginVersion, err := getIdAndVersionFromFile(filename)
 	if err != nil {
-		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, fmt.Errorf("cannot read plugin.json: %w", err))
 		return "", "", err
 	}
-	var data struct {
-		ID   string `json:"id"`
-		Info struct {
-			Version string `json:"version"`
-		} `json:"info"`
-	}
-	if err := json.Unmarshal(b, &data); err != nil {
-		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, fmt.Errorf("couldn't get plugin meta: %w", err))
-		return "nil", "", err
-	}
-	return data.ID, data.Info.Version, nil
+
+	return pluginId, pluginVersion, nil
 }