Can I go back from Joomla 5 to Joomla 4? Topic is solved

[vanthien]

Hi,
My website was set up quite recently. I initially tried to install Joomla 5, but got an error message from the server that the SQL DB version was not compatible, so I installed Joomla 4. I updated in the past week or so to version 4.4.3.
Today I went into the front-end to do some editing and I can't access my content. Turns out that Joomla has been updated to version 5.0.3. I'm guessing I didn't pay attention during the update to 4.4.3 and installed Joomla 5 instead.

I tried to re-install Joomla 4, but I get the message that the existing installation needs to be uninstalled first. How can I uninstall Joomla 5 and does that have any impact on my content?

What version of SQL is compatible with Joomla 5? I want to contact my webhost to see what can be done.

[toivo]

Do you see any error messages when you try to access the content? Where does it happen, at the frontend or the backend or both? Post the messages here for advice.

Check if you have access to the PHP error log of the web server. Otherwise, check the contents of the log file administrator/logs/error.php, which may have some messages.

Do you have a backup of Joomla 4, including the filesystem and the database? If you do, restore the filesystem into an empty folder and the database into a new database schema. That is the recommended way to go back to Joomla 4. It may also be possible to install a Joomla 4.4.3 website from scratch and export and import data from database tables.

MySQL 8.0.13 is the minimum version of the database server to run Joomla 5. All the details are here: Requirements for Joomla! 5.x

[vanthien]

No error messages, but when I open one of my Articles, the Edit window doesn't show the content, but simply says "Article Text".
My webhost uses MySQL Version 8.0.36, PHP version: 8.1.27.
Both exceed the "minimum" requirements, so I'm not sure why it trips over this.
No clue where to find the PHP error log, but I've attached administrator/logs/error.php
The instances of "joomlafailure Username and password do not match or you do not have an account yet" may be related to ongoing user registration and logging in problems due to unaccepted symbols in passwords (another issue).

Sorry, I'm not an expert, so I don't know how to go about

restore the filesystem into an empty folder and the database into a new database schema

.

I could start from scratch and recreate my content, but I'm concerned about my registered users. How would I recapture that information, accounts, passwords, etc?

[toivo]

Load the Developer Tools (F12) in the browser and check from the Console tab, if the article page has any javascript errors. They are highlighted in red.

Go the backend, select System - Setup - Global Configuration and go to the System tab. Turn on the option 'Debug System'. Go to the Server tab and set Error Reporting to 'Maximum'. In the Logging tab turn on the option 'Log Almost Everything'. The last option will write possible error messages into the log file administrator/logs/everything.php.

If it is not possible to login to the backend, write-enable the file configuration.php in the main Joomla folder and make the following changes:

Code: Select all

	public $debug = true;
	public $error_reporting = 'maximum';
	public $log_everything = 1;

Joomla can now display more detailed error messages and the PHP call stack, which both will allow the cause of the error to be identified. Post the messages here.

[vanthien]

I followed your steps, found no new errors, opened one of my articles again, and voila, the edit screen shows as normal. Totally incomprehensible to me, because all your suggestions did was affect the degree of error reporting, isn't that right?
So I guess this means that Joomla 5 is working fine on my website . . . ? I'm exploring other content to see if any errors are generated, but so far so good.
I feel I'm getting too old for this :-(
Toivo, thank you so much for your help. Much appreciated.

[toivo]

Cheers! Good to hear that everything works. Maybe the initial issue had something to do with caching in the browser or in the web server.