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Hello David,

The database restoration part should never be skipped. It is exactly what the restoration script is designed to do. Maybe the restoration was a bit too quick and you thought it was skipped? In fact, if it's skipped then the database isn't restored and the site doesn't work at all.

Apart from that it seems that you already fixed all issues you had with your site and everything is set up properly.

Currently, there is no specific installation order. Normally, you need to install Akeeba backup first, then Admin Tools and then any other extension published by us.

When using the one click upgrade component method it is likely that Joomla! forgets to copy some files. This usually happens in major upgrades. If in doubt, I would recommend upgrading manually and install each component twice, without uninstalling it in between. A manual upgrade is the same as installing a component. You just have to go to Extensions, Extensions Manager and install the Zip installation package of the new version of the component.

Regarding your issue with the restored site, I need a clarification. Is it the same or a different host? If it is a different host you will need to first remove your .htaccess file, edit the .htaccess Maker configuration options and regenerate your .htaccess file. If, however, you are restoring on the same host you most likely have a completely different issue. If this is the case please tell me and I will give you further troubleshooting instructions.

Hello David,

No, if you do a manual upgrade to the exact way that I described then no, you will not lose any settings. Do note, however, that if you try uninstalling the component you will lose your settings. Moreover, uninstalling Akeeba Backup we also delete all the backup archive stored in your default output directory. This is why I strongly advise against uninstalling the component before upgrade.

A white page or a page with a 500 Internal Server Error is, in fact, either a .htaccess issue to a PHP fatal error in disguise.

First, let's see if it is a .htaccess issue. Try renaming the .htaccess file in your site's root to htaccess.bak If there is a .htaccess file in the site's administrator directory, try renaming it as well. If that solves the problem, the issue was with a directive in your .htaccess file. We'd like to recommend you to try removing directives from your .htaccess until you find the one which causes the problem.

If that doesn't help, the error you are receiving is in fact a PHP error in disguise. First, check your server's error logs (not the access logs) immediately after visiting the page which throws the error. There should be an exact description of the PHP fatal error which occurred. Sometimes you can find the error messages in files called error_log or error.log inside the site's root and/or administrator directories. If unsure about the error log location, please consult your host. Most likely the error logs are available in your site's cPanel, Plesk control panel or similar hosting account management facility.

If your host does not give you access to the error logs and you have access to the Joomla! administrator area, please log in to your site's back-end, go to Global Configuration, click on the Server tab and set the Error Reporting to Maximum (Joomla! 1.5) or Development (Joomla! 2.x and later). Try visiting the problem page again.

If you still get a blank page, edit your configuration.php file and put the following code right after the final closing curly brace ( this is what a curly brace looks like --> } ) but before the closing PHP tag (it looks like ?> that is a question mark and a greater-than sign):

ini_set( 'display_errors', true );
error_reporting( E_ALL ); 

Try visiting the problem page again.

If you still get a white page, please remote the two lines from your configuration.php file. Edit the .htaccess file in your site's root. If you don't have a file named .htaccess create a new one. Beware that htaccess.txt is a DIFFERENT FILE and will NOT work! Add the following to the end of the file:

php_flag display_errors On
php_value error_reporting 32767

and retry loading the problem page.

If you still get a white page, remove the two lines from your .htaccess file. Now, create a file called php.ini with the following content:

display_errors=on
error_reporting=E_ALL

and upload it into your site's root and your site's administrator directory. Retry loading the problem page.

IMPORTANT: Sometimes the error won't show. Edit your configuration.php and find the line starting with public $error_reporting and set it to:

public $error_reporting = 'development';

This instructs Joomla! to enable maximum error, warnings and notices verbosity. In 99.9% of cases it will result in the error messages being shown on the browser.

Please note that if you can not understand what the PHP error message means, just copy and paste it here verbatim so that we can take a look and point you to the right direction.

Normally no. Admin Tools checks your server capabilities and tries to choose the correct method to create the file.

Yes, you will have to rename the .htaccess files. Or you can skip them from the backup (using the Files and Directories Exclusion feature of Akeeba Backup, of course) :)

If not only the installation completes without errors but you also see no errors when using the component then no, you do not need to do a double installation. The double installation is for those cases when the installation does complete successfully (I mean: without an obvious error) but the component seems to be missing some feature or something is not working quite right.

You're welcome!