Support

The easiest way to install Akeeba Backup Professional is using the Install from URL feature in Joomla!.

First, go to our site's download page for Akeeba Backup. Make sure you are logged in. If not, log in now. These instructions won't work if you are not logged in! Click on the All Files button of the version you want to install. Please note that the latest released version is always listed first on the page. On that page you will find both Akeeba Backup Core and Professional. Next to the Professional edition's Download Now button you will see the Direct Install Link link. Right click on it and select Copy link address or whatever your browser calls this.

Now go to your site's administator page and click on Extensions, Manage. Click on the Install from URL tab. Clear the contents of the Install URL field and paste the URL you copied from our site's download page. Then click on the Install button. Joomla! will download and install the Akeeba Backup update.

If Joomla! cannot download the package, please use one of the methods described in this section of the documentation.

You can download the latest installation packages our site's download page for Akeeba Backup. Please note that the latest version is always on top. If you have an older version of Joomla! or PHP please consult our Compatibility page to find the version of Akeeba Backup compatible with your Joomla! and PHP versions. In either case click on the version you want to download and install.

If you are not a subscriber, click on the Akeeba Backup Core to download the ZIP installation package of the free of charge version.

If you are a subscriber to the Professional release, please make sure that you have logged in first. You should then see an item on this page reading Akeeba Backup Professional. If you do not see it, please log out and log back in. Click on the Professional item to download the ZIP installation package.

All Akeeba Backup installation packages contain the component and all of its associated extensions. Installing it will install all of these items automatically. It can also be used to upgrade Akeeba Backup; just install it without uninstalling the previous release.

In any case, do not extract the ZIP files yet!

Log in to your site's administrator section. Click on Extensions, Manage link on the top menu. Please click on the Upload Package File tab. Drag and drop the installation ZIP file you had previously downloaded to start the upload and the installation. After a short while, Joomla!™ will tell you that the component has been installed.

If the installation did not work, please take a look at our installation troubleshooting instructions or try the manual installation described below.

As of Akeeba Backup 5.0.0 this method can no longer be supported for technical reasons which have to do with the way Joomla! works when installing extensions of the type "package".

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. While we don't offer support for generic installation issues, this page is meant to serve as a collection of the troubleshooting steps we'd follow on any site when any extension doesn't install correctly.

You get an error about the package not being uploaded to the server

The installation packages of our extensions are rather big. Many server have a maximum file upload size or a maximum POST request size which is too small – typically around 2MB – for our software to install. The best solution is to ask your host to set the following in the server's php.ini:

upload_max_filesize = 10M
post_max_size = 10M

On most hosts you can place these lines in a file called .user.ini (not the leading dot) or php.ini in your site's administrator directory.

If this is not possible, there's a good chance that the following lines in your .htaccess file may work on most servers:

php_value upload_max_filesize 10M
php_value post_max_size 10M

There is also another alternative, but it won't work on all hosts: installation by URL. Please go to the Download section of our site and select the software and version you want to download. Click on View All files. Next to the "Download now" button for the installation package you will see a link called "DirectLink". Right click on it and select "Copy link address" (the exact phrase depends on the browser, but it should have to do about copying the link or its address / URL / location).

Now go to your site's back-end, Extensions, Extensions Manager and find the Install from URL tab. Replace the contents of the "Install URL" field with the contents of your clipboard (the DirectLink URL you copied above) and click on the "Install" button next to this textbox. As long as your server supports installing extensions from URL the installation should go through.

If this still doesn't help please read on for further troubleshooting tips

"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:

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.

Enable FTP

On shared hosts which are using PHP as an Apache module you have to enable Joomla!'s FTP layer. Otherwise Joomla! won't be able to write the files to its directories and installation will fail. If you are unsure whether this is the case please ask your host.

If you need to enable the FTP layer here's how to do it:

Still problems?

If you still can't install our software and you are receiving messages regarding unwritable directories, inability to move files or other similar file system related error messages you can ask for our support but you already read what we're going to try. At best you can expect us to find out the most likely root cause and tell you what you have to ask your host to do to fix it.

If your installation gets corrupt (e.g. Joomla didn't manage to successfully complete the installation or update of Akeeba Backup) you might find with a broken site. This is not a bug in our software. If critical files are missing or files from different versions are mixed up, any software will malfunction.

If you have access to your site's backend try to install the latest Akeeba Backup version's ZIP file twice in a row, without uninstalling the existing version before or in between.

Otherwise, use your FTP client to remove the following directories (some of them may not be present on your site; this is normal):

administrator/component/com_akeeba
component/com_akeeba
media/com_akeeba
plugins/quickicon/akeebabackup
plugins/actionlog/akeebabackup
plugins/system/backuponupdate

This will do the trick! You will now be able to access your site's administrator page again and retry installing Akeeba Backup without uninstalling it first. Remember, uninstalling Akeeba Backup will remove your settings and your backups; you do not want that to happen!

In some cases Joomla! forgets to install files for the FOF 4 library used by most of our components (Akeeba Backup, Admin Tools, Akeeba Ticket System and others). This could mean that even removing the directories above you could still be unable to access your site. If this happens, try the following solution: