Support

You need Joomla! 2.5.19 or later to install updates of our software published since March 2014. This has nothing to do with our software, actually. It is due to a feature that was missing in Joomla! and added in 2.5.19.

Your version of Joomla! is 2.5.9 which is ten versions behind the minimum required version (2.5.9 is followed by 2.5.10, which is followed by 2.5.11 and so on). Please backup your site and upgrade it to the latest Joomla! 2.5 version. At the time of this writing that would be Joomla! 2.5.22.

Not sure if this is relevant but I recently noticed a strange thing in my user list - it had noreply@akeeba listed as a super user...which I deleted.

A long time ago you you had given us super user access to your site to help you with a support ticket. We do tell you to revoke our access after we're done. Apparently, you forgot :)

OK, I see what is going on.

The Download IDs required to update our software have changed twice, on December 2013 and March 2014. Since you restored an old backup you have the old Download ID which is no longer valid. Please follow our instructions to enter the updated Download ID. Also see our installation troubleshooting page, "Updating our Professional releases" section.

IMPORTANT: Since you have a very old version of Akeeba Backup you MUST do one more thing after entering the new Download ID. Go to Akeeba Backup, click on the Update Found button and click on Refresh update information (MANDATORY! This is required for Live Update to fetch your Download ID after entering it for the first time). Then click on Update Now. If you skip a step the update will not work.

If this didn't help, please go to Extensions, Extensions Manager and click on the Database tab. Click on the Fix button. Newer versions of Joomla! provided updates in the database layout as well as the files. Since your host applied the Joomla! update I am afraid they only updated the files, not the database. I strongly recommend using the Joomla! Update component installed with Joomla! itself to apply updates to newer Joomla! versions.

If you are trying to install the new version by directly uploading it, please note that there are server limitations which might prevent you doing that unless you ask your host to fix it. Let me explain in more detail.

The packages of our latest versions of our components are rather big. Since the default maximum upload size on most servers is just 2Mb this may cause an upload error. 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

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. Next to the "Download now" button 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 field. Note: on Joomla! 3.x you have to click on the "Install from URL" tab to see that field. 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 you can always follow the manual installation instructions in our troubleshooting documentation.

Finally, please note that Joomla! has an update cache. It caches the results of updates for a while, by default 6 hours. It will take AT LEAST as much time for Joomla! to stop displaying that there is an update available to Akeeba Backup. When you upgrade Akeeba Backup to the latest version (3.11.2) and visit its Control Panel page it will forcibly reset the update status. It might take two reloads of the page.

You may also need a reset of the Joomla! update cache. You can do that by going to Extensions, Extension Manager, click on the Update tab and click on the Purge button. This will reset the Joomla! update cache.

Finally please let me reiterate the obvious: none of these issues have anything to do with our software, except the need to update your Download ID. All of the other issues you are facing have to do with the subpar code in the Joomla! extensions installer and updater. I have reported those bugs to the Joomla! project, I wrote a whitepaper on how to build a better installer / updater and even requested that we start a Working Group to get the code written. Three weeks later I am still waiting a word from the Joomla! leadership. I know what is broken and I know how to fix it. I just need them to LET ME DO IT, DAMN IT! Even worse, I am not allowed to provide my own extensions installer for our software as this is against the Joomla! Extensions Directory rules. So, I am in an impossible position: if I use Joomla!'s broken installer/updater my clients have tons of problems, if I write a better installer which overcomes these problems my software won't be listed in the Joomla! Extensions Directory and I won't have a business. ARGH!