Installing Admin Tools is no different than installing any other Joomla!™ extension on your site. You can read the complete instructions for installing Joomla!™ extensions on the official help page. Throughout this chapter we assume that you are familiar with these instructions and we will try not to duplicate them.
Please note that installing and updating Admin Tools (and almost all Joomla! extensions) is actually the same thing. If you want to update Admin Tools please remember that you MUST NOT uninstall it before installing the new version! When you uninstall Admin Tools you will lose all your settings. Instead, simply install the new version on top of the old one. Joomla! will figure out that you are doing an update and will treat it as such, automatically.
A manual installation is fairly straightforward. Go to our site's Download page and download the software. Then go to System, Install, Extensions, Install from Folder and use the Browse button to locate the ZIP file you downloaded.
![[Warning]](/media/com_docimport/admonition/warning.png) | Warning |
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Safari automatically extracts the ZIP files you download. If you see a bunch of ZIP files being downloaded instead of a single file with a name similar to pkg_admintools-1.2.3-pro.zip go to Safari's Preferences page, General tab and uncheck the Open “safe” files after downloading checkbox. |
![[Tip]](/media/com_docimport/admonition/tip.png) | Tip |
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If you find that after installing or updating Admin Tools it is missing some features or doesn't work, please try installing the same version a second time, without uninstalling the component. The reason is that very few times the Joomla! extensions installer infrastructure gets confused and fails to copy some files or entire folders. By repeating the installation you force it to copy the missing files and folders, solving the problem. |
Please note that extensions installation is performed by Joomla itself, not code that we have written ourselves. If you have a problem installing a Joomla extension of ours the root cause is in Joomla! and the way some of its functions work.
We cannot provide support for Joomla itself. If you run into an installation issue please consult the official Joomla Forum and the official Joomla documentation.
Below you can find some solutions for common issues. This information is provided as-is and we do not make any claim with regards to accuracy or completeness.
"Install path does not exist"
Joomla! requires the PHP Gzip and ZIP extensions to be installed. If either is not installed or if it's blocked then Joomla! will be unable to install extensions. Unfortunately, a cascade of unhandled errors inside Joomla! itself will cause it to come up with the unhelpful and disorienting "Install path does not exist" error message.
Solution: ask your host to enabled the GZip and ZIP extensions
in PHP. Furthermore, ask them to make sure that they are not
blocking the functionality of these extensions e.g. by using
disable_functions or disable_classes in
their php.ini file.
Please note that we routinely see hosts disabling functions
zip_open, gzuncompress,
gzdeflate and gzdecode for ostensible
"security reasons". First of all Joomla! WILL NOT work properly when
any of these functions is unavailable. Moreover and despite what
your host tells you, disabling this functions does not increase your
site's security in any conceivable way. If your host denies to
unblock these functions please take your site to a different host
that understands how server security really works.
"Unable to write entry" or "Unable to create destination" error
This error message comes from Joomla! and it means that there is a file or directory permissions issue. Unfortunately this message is very non-specific and provides no useful information for troubleshooting. This is something we reported to Joomla in September 2017 and was ostensibly fixed but internal issues in the way the extensions installer work still prevent the correct path from being shown.
In the meantime, all you can do is ask your host to make sure that all folders and files on your site are writeable by the user under which your site runs. This is not something you or us can do. Please do ask your host.
If this doesn't help it might mean that you have reached the file system capacity of your server. Please note that your account on the server might have several limits:
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Maximum total size of files and database data. This is the most common limit, e.g. your host telling you that you can use 10G of space in total. Please remember that this includes your database data. Moreover, keep in mind that "unlimited" is a marketing term, not reality. Usually you get up to a certain size limit and you have to ask for more, explaining why.
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Maximum number of files. This is usually NOT advertised. Many hosts will only allow you up to a maximum number of files, e.g. 100,000. If you try to exceed that count the file is not created / replaced, as if the permissions were not adequate to write to it. Please note that most times the host engineers will call it "inode count" because that's technically what they are limiting on your hosting user account. A file can consume one or more inodes, each inode essentially being the smallest chunk of contiguous disk space that can be allocated to a file (that's not very accurate but it's a well enough description to understand what an inode is).
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The physical disk size. All the aforementioned limits are great, but you cannot create files beyond the physical capacity of the disks on your server. Most modern hosts use virtualized, network attached storage to provide ever-expanding capacity on demand. However, some cheaper hosts and dedicated servers still have regular disks attached with finite storage limits.
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Also remember that your hosting control panel does not report the limit information in real time. You may have already exceeded your limits but your control panel not having been updated with this information.
If you are not sure about these limits please ask your host.
Upgrading from Core to Professional
In some cases we have seen that Joomla failed to copy all of the necessary files when upgrading from a Core to a Professional release or when installing a major update that spans major versions (e.g. 1.x to 2.y). If you believe this has happened to you please install our software twice in a row, without uninstalling it before or in between the subsequent installations.
Check your Joomla! and PHP version
We publish the compatibility of our software with Joomla! and PHP versions in the Compatibility page on our site. You can find a link on this page at the bottom of every page of our site.
Please remember that the PHP version your site is using may be different than the PHP version your host reports in their hosting control panel. If unsure, please refer to Joomla's System Information page. If you need to upgrade your PHP version please consult your host. The exact method to do that varies by host.
Checking your temporary directory
First, we will have to make sure that you are using a valid temporary directory. Many sites are configured to use the system-wide (/tmp) directory or an invalid directory, causing installation problems.
You can change your temporary directory from your site's
Global Configuration page. You need to enter the full filesystem
path to Joomla's tmp folder. This is typically
something like /home/mysite/public_html/tmp. If
unsure please ask your host. This information is not visible from
within your site's administrator using any Joomla-provided feature
and there is no way for us to know it.