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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#34268 PHP Version Warning

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Akeeba Backup version
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Latest post by on Wednesday, 27 January 2021 20:17 CST

sykowarpig

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Description of my issue:

I have an up-to-date PHP version 7.3.25 and I get the following error telling me to upgrade to 7.3.x, which I already have.  This error comes up on every site on both WordPress and Joomla.  All services are up-to-date with CMS version, Akeeba version, and PHP on my server with GoDaddy.

 

Older PHP version 7.3

Your site is currently using PHP 7.3.25. This version of PHP has entered its “Security maintenance” phase since Sunday, 06 December 2020 and has stopped receiving bug fixes. It will stop receiving security updates on Monday, 06 December 2021 at which point it will be unsuitable for use on a live site.

Akeeba Backup will stop supporting your version of PHP soon after it becomes End-of-Life on Monday, 06 December 2021. We recommend that you plan your migration to a newer version of PHP before that date. We recommend PHP 7.3 or later. You can ask your host or your system administrator for instructions. It's easy and it will make your site faster and more secure.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

I think the message is self-explanatory. PHP 7.3 will become end of life in December 2021. While it is still supported, it has entered the second and final part of its lifetime where it only received critical security fixes but no regular bug fixes or minor security updates as explained in https://www.php.net/supported-versions This makes it precarious for use on a live site and you should be aware that we will drop support for it sometime in 2022 (6 to 9 months after it becomes End of Life and receives no updates whatsoever anymore).

The currently supported PHP version branch is PHP 7.4 which was first released in December 2018. That's two years ago. If your host does not offer it as an option two full years after it was first released they are inexcusable. Most likely they do offer it. Even GoDaddy is not that bad of a host. You probably need to take some action to enable it on your site which is what the message tells you to do.

Do note that PHP also released the 8.0 version branch in December 2020. We do not recommend updating to it just yet. It is a major version which introduced several backwards incompatible changes. While WordPress itself and our software fully support PHP 8.0 this is not the case for most smaller plugins and plugins which have not been updated in a while. The biggest problem is that minor issues that raised just a notice under PHP 5.x and 7.x are not fatal errors which will cause your site to halt with an error. We expect plugins to slowly start supporting PHP 8.0 over the next few months. Until then, upgrading your site to PHP 7.4 will be sufficient and will cover you until at least mid-2023.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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