[solved] Super user can't see backend admin menu

[Lansu83]

I'm using Joomla 2.5.8. I think I've messed up the user groups and user access levels. I was trying to add a new group and moved users from one to another just before this error happened. Now when I log in as super user my backend is almost blank.



I can access the /administrator/index.php?option=com_modules. My admin menu module seems to be published and OK.



I have read previous topics and tried to fix these values in phpMyAdmin. Doesn't this look correct?



Is there something else I could try to get things back to normal? Thank you!

[leolam]

Simple: Clear complete browser as a first step, switch off browser and reload

Leo

[rcarey]

@Lansu83. The lack of a visible admin menu is typically caused by some change in groups so that the person logging in is no longer included by menu's access level (typically Special). Here are two possible solutions...
[A.] go to this address... <yoursite> /administrator/index.php?option=com_users&view=levels
and edit the Special access level so that the Super user is included.
[B.] Go to the module page you can access, edit the admin menu module, and set its access level to Registered.

Either of these should work, but I prefer the latter. By making the admin menu available to anyone Registered, it will always be visible to anyone who has permission to log in to the backend - even if you create a new group and forget to add that group to the access level Special.

I think you are better off making the changes through the admin screen than by editing the database directly. I would revert to making changes in the db only as a last resort.

[Lansu83]

Thank you for your help! Actually I had already solved the problem in phpMyAdmin but I didn't see it until I closed my browser, just as leolam suggested F5 didn't help much this time.

rcarey, I think I was not able to do that since the Save button wasn't visible for me. But it's good advice for those who still can save new settings!

[cazbart]

Hi - thank you rcarey - for letting me know where I messed up - taking me from Special. I tried both these and all looked fine but I can not see any way of saving the changes so need to try elsewhere I guess - I am in localhost so ... thank you!!

[marine_hm]

rcarey; Thanks.

Are you serious,it's that easy? I just flushed a whole site and started new because I did the same thing with user groups. Was playing around trying to figure it out(ACLs) without any guidance, wound up removing myself from super user group. I could have gone in via rcarey's method and selected superuser under the group that I put myself in.

Oh, well. Live and learn. By the way, if you do a backup of all your articles, make sure the backup was successfull before scrubbing joomla and starting over. I did that and went in to copy the articles back in and found it was an empty folder. I probably was to upset that I was having to wipe the slate clean to notice there was an error message when I did the back-up.

[Mab7]

.... possible solutions...
[A.] go to this address... <yoursite> /administrator/index.php?option=com_users&view=levels
and edit the Special access level so that the Super user is included.

Thank you! This worked!

[metiele]

(.... possible solutions...
[A.] go to this address... <yoursite> /administrator/index.php?option=com_users&view=levels
and edit the Special access level so that the Super user is included.)

the save menu has also disappear so how do i save without the safe menu.

[rcarey]

If you don't see the Save option, then you will probably need to make this change directly within the database.

Open up phpMyAdmin (from your CPanel list of applications) and go to the table _viewlevels. You should see the records for the access levels here. Unless you had previously made some major changes, the record you are concerned with is Special with an id of 3. Add the value 8 within the field rules. The updated entry should look similar to this: [6,3,8]

That step directly adds usergroup 8 (the originial Super group) to the access level Special. If you belong to a different usergroup that makes you a super user, you will need to add the id for that usergroup to the access level Special.

[metiele]

(If you don't see the Save option, then you will probably need to make this change directly within the database.

Open up phpMyAdmin (from your CPanel list of applications) and go to the table _viewlevels. You should see the records for the access levels here. Unless you had previously made some major changes, the record you are concerned with is Special with an id of 3. Add the value 8 within the field rules. The updated entry should look similar to this: [6,3,8]

That step directly adds usergroup 8 (the originial Super group) to the access level Special. If you belong to a different usergroup that makes you a super user, you will need to add the id for that usergroup to the access level Special.)
Thanks for your info but what i saw in my database is different, these are what i found in my _viewlevels
public [1]
registered [6,2,8]
special [6,3,8]
i really dont know which one to edit now

[metiele]

thanks, so so grateful, it work. i was using it for the wrong database table before. thank you so much.