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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Akeeba Backup for Joomla
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Akeeba Backup for Joomla

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Copyright © 2006-2025 Akeeba Ltd

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the appendix entitled "The GNU Free Documentation License".

Abstract

This is the user manual to Akeeba Backup for Joomla!™ version 9 or later, available on Joomla 4.0 and later.

If you are looking for a quick start to using the component please watch our video tutorials.

Table of Contents

I. User's Guide to Akeeba Backup for Joomla!™
1. Introduction
What is Akeeba Backup?
What can I use Akeeba Backup for?
A typical backup/restoration work flow
Server environment requirements
2. Installation, updates and upgrades
Installing Akeeba Backup
Installing or manually updating the extension
Install from URL
Upload and install.
Manual installation
Troubleshooting the installation
Upgrading from Core to Professional
Automatic updates
Troubleshooting the update
Addressing server issues
Check the validity of your Download ID
Check your subscription status
Multiple Professional edition Akeeba extensions with different Download IDs
Entering or changing your Download ID after an update is available
Updates are showing after installing the latest version
Updates not showing despite having an older version
Check the update site
Miscellaneous troubleshooting and information
The update fails to download
Updating with a third party service fails
Manual update
Update installation problems
Entering your Download ID
Downgrades
Uninstalling Akeeba Backup
Requesting support and reporting bugs
3. Migrating from old versions of Akeeba Backup and Joomla!
Joomla 1.x and 2.5
Joomla 3 minor version updates
Joomla 3 to Joomla 4
On your Joomla 3 site
After upgrading to Joomla 4
Miscellaneous information
Joomla 4 minor version updates
Joomla 4 to Joomla 5
Joomla 5 minor version updates
Joomla 5 to Joomla 6
4. Using the Akeeba Backup component
Custom administrator menu items
Control Panel
Backup
Configuration
Manage Backups
Restore Latest Backup
Site Transfer Wizard
What to do if you don't have any menu items to Akeeba Backup
Pages outside the Control Panel panes
Common navigation elements
The Control Panel
Additional controls, warnings and error messages in the Control Panel
Web Push controls
Full page errors
Download ID messages
Media files' permissions
CloudFlare RocketLoader
Missing mbstring
Obsolete PHP version
Front-end backup Secret Word
Insecure output directory
Configuration Wizard
Migrate your settings from an older Akeeba Backup version
Editing the component's Options
Back-end
Front-end backup
Push notifications
Permissions
Basic Operations
Profiles Management
Configuration Wizard
Configuration
The main settings
Basic Configuration
Advanced configuration
Site overrides
Optional filters
Quota management
Fine tuning
Database dump engines
Native MySQL Backup Engine
File and directories scanner engines
Smart scanner
Large site scanner
Archiver engines
ZIP format
JPA format
Encrypted Archives (JPS format)
DirectFTP
DirectFTP over cURL
DirectSFTP
DirectSFTP over cURL
ZIP using ZIPArchive class
Data processing engines
No post-processing
Send by email
Upload to Amazon S3
Automatic provisioning of Access and Secret Key on EC2 instances with an attached IAM Role
Setting up Wasabi
Upload to BackBlaze B2
Upload to Box.com
Upload to CloudMe
Upload to DreamObjects
Upload to Dropbox (v2 API)
Upload to Google Drive
Upload to Google Storage (JSON API)
Upload to Google Storage (Legacy S3 API)
Upload to OneDrive and OneDrive for Business
Upload to OneDrive (LEGACY)
Upload to OneDrive (App-specific Folder)
Upload to Microsoft Windows Azure BLOB Storage service
Upload to OVH Object Storage
Upload to OpenStack Swift object storage
Upload to RackSpace CloudFiles
Upload to Remote FTP server
Upload to Remote FTP server over cURL
Upload to Remote SFTP server
Upload to Remote SFTP server over cURL
Upload to SugarSync
Upload to iDriveSync
Upload to WebDAV
Backup now
Troubleshooting backup issues
Backup fails after switching to another browser tab, browser window or application
Where are my backup files?
How can I download my backup files?
Why do I get warnings about unreadable files or folders?
I got an "AJAX loading error" when backing up. What should I do?
My backup files are not being uploaded to Amazon S3
How do I know that my backup archive works?
What happens if I have a backup or restoration problem?
Manage Backups
Integrated restoration
Downloading backup archives
Manage remotely stored files
How the Manage Backups page works with local and remote backup archive files and where quota management fits in
Import archives
Import archives from S3
View Log
Include data to the backup
Multiple Databases Definitions
Off-site Directories Inclusion
Exclude data from the backup
Files and Directories Exclusion
Database Tables Exclusion
RegEx Files and Directories Exclusion
Regular Expressions recipes for files and directories
RegEx Database Tables Exclusion
Regular Expressions recipes for database tables
Automating your backup
Taking backups automatically
Front-end backup, for use with CRON
Remote JSON API
Native CRON script
Alternative CRON script
Joomla Scheduled Tasks (without CLI)
The two Akeeba Backup task types
DANGER AHEAD: Caveats on using Joomla Scheduled Tasks.
Setting up your site for lazy backup scheduling
Setting up your site for scheduling using a URL CRON job
Setting up your site for scheduling using a CLI CRON job
Checking for failed backups automatically
Front-end backup failure check, for use with CRON
CRON script for backup failure check
Alternative CRON script for backup failure check
Site Transfer Wizard
Akeeba Backup and the Joomla! custom public folder feature
What is a custom public folder?
Backing up a site with a custom public folder
Restoring a site with a custom public folder, keeping the custom public folder
Restoring a site with a custom public folder, without keeping the custom public folder
Implementing incremental backups
Remote Storage and OAuth2 Helpers
Understanding OAuth2
Custom OAuth2 helpers for more than one sites
Custom OAuth2 helpers by storage provider
Box.com
Creating the custom helper
Using the custom helper
Dropbox
Creating the custom helper
Using the custom helper
Google Drive
Creating the custom helper
Using the custom helper
OneDrive
Creating the custom helper
Using the custom helper
5. Akeeba Backup Command Line Interface (CLI)
Common conventions
Command reference
Backup record management
akeeba:backup:take
akeeba:backup:list
akeeba:backup:info
akeeba:backup:modify
akeeba:backup:delete
akeeba:backup:upload
akeeba:backup:fetch
akeeba:backup:download
Log management
akeeba:log:list
akeeba:log:get
Exclude and include filters management
akeeba:filter:list
akeeba:filter:delete
akeeba:filter:exclude
akeeba:filter:include-database
akeeba:filter:include-directory
Profile configuration options management
akeeba:option:list
akeeba:option:get
akeeba:option:set
Backup profile management
akeeba:profile:list
akeeba:profile:modify
akeeba:profile:reset
akeeba:profile:create
akeeba:profile:copy
akeeba:profile:delete
akeeba:profile:export
akeeba:profile:import
Component options management
akeeba:sysconfig:list
akeeba:sysconfig:get
akeeba:sysconfig:set
6. Miscellaneous Extensions (Modules, Plugins)
Action Log
Quick Icon
Backup on Update
7. Restoring backups and general guidelines
General guidelines for backing up and restoring your site
Guidelines for storing your backups remotely / "cloud backup"
Overview of the backup restoration procedure
Extracting your backup archives
Using the integrated restoration feature (most common)
Using Akeeba Kickstart
Using third party software
Troubleshooting restored sites
Common issues on restored sites and how to solve them
Common issues on restored sites due to PHP incompatibilities between the source and target server
When updating the restored site, the original site changes as well (Entangled web sites)
Clicking on a link on the restored site takes me to the original site (link migration issues)
Issues arising from your computer configuration, browser, ISP, antivirus and firewall incompatibilities
Unorthodox: the emergency restoration procedure
II. Security information
8. Introduction
Foreword
Why you need to care about ownership and permissions?
9. How your web server works
Users and groups
Users
Groups
How users and groups are understood by UNIX-derived systems
Ownership
Process ownership
File ownership
Permissions
The three types of permissions
What permissions can control
Permissions notation
The textual notation
The octal notation
10. Securing your Akeeba Backup installation
Access rights
Securing the output directory
Securing file transfers
III. Appendices
A. The JPA archive format, v.1.3
B. The JPS archive format, v.2.0
C. GNU Free Documentation License
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   Part I. User's Guide to Akeeba Backup for Joomla!™

Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5

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