Ftp – ProFTP on MacPorts: Connection refused

I have a MacPorts installed ProFTPD daemon installed. It worked like a charm for a year. Now it does not work at all anymore. All I get is

Connection refused

ftp localhost
Trying ::1...
ftp: Can't connect to `::1': Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
ftp: Can't connect to `127.0.0.1': Connection refused
Trying fe80::1%lo0...
ftp: Can't connect to `fe80::1%lo0': Connection refused
ftp: Can't connect to `localhost'

I wrote to MacPorts and ProFTP, but no answers there as of yet so I hope someone here can help me out.

Troubleshooting

Found some troubleshooting tips here.
When I check for ProTPD processes I get

ps -ef | grep proftpd
    0    58     1   0  4Aug13 ??         0:00.77 /opt/local/bin/daemondo --label=proftpd --start-cmd /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.proftpd/proftpd.wrapper start ; --stop-cmd /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.proftpd/proftpd.wrapper stop ; --restart-cmd /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.proftpd/proftpd.wrapper restart ; --pid=none
  501 27233 26992   0  1:42PM ttys000    0:00.00 grep proftpd

So it seems some processes are running. But not the needed ProFTPD process.

When I used the following command to see if port 21 is active:

sudo lsof -i :21

I get zero results. So ProFTPD is clearly not running and port 21 is not active which is the regular FTP port.

Question

Does anyone here know what I am missing here? I need it back to to the sweet any easy updating of local website copies.

Update

ProFTPD Configuration file is here http://pastebin.com/4VvSHz5p . Even though it is a basic setup there does not seem to be anything wrong with it. @Janne Pikkarainen mentioned it was missing directories, but in the end this was not the issue.

Update 2 Debug Commands

Asked by GioMac I tried sudo proftpd -n -d 10. Command was not found. The command sudo /opt/local/sbin/proftpd -n -d 10 did work and gave us some clues

Update 3 Re-installation Port

I reinstalled all as suggested by GioMac and that did not work either. Still had the same errors.

Update 4 The Solution: Proper (re)starting ProFTDP

Then I ran sudo /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.proftpd/proftpd.wrapper start as suggested by @GioMac. Running similar command from sbin and bin did not work. And then I tested the FTP connection again.

sudo /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.proftpd/proftpd.wrapper start
Password:

Command worked and I had no errors. ProFTPD was (re)started like this again. Then I did the ultimate test to see if I could FTP locally again:

jaspersmbp:etc jasper$ cd
jaspersmbp:~ jasper$ ftp jasper@localhost
Trying ::1...
ftp: Can't connect to `::1': Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
220 ProFTPD 1.3.3e Server (ProFTPD Default Installation) [127.0.0.1]
331 Password required for jasper
Password: 
230 User jasper logged in
Remote system type is UNIX.

Eureka! Connection could be made again and I could also update my local WordPress installations again.