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I've searched, and I've read that I need to delete all the joomla files and database, but what are the joomla files? I have a joomla directory, is that all that I need to delete? Or will there be other files in the www directory that I need to delete as well?

Yes, just delete the Joomla directory to uninstall joomla from a website. Then clear the database for that install. If you have only one db, and more than one joomla, or other site, using it, then only delete the prefix you set for that specific joomla install.

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Before removing the files, it would be best to uninstall the 3rd party extensions/templates from your installation. If you don't do this, you could have problems with removing files and directories due to permission issues.

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Take care

I've same problem with him (the TS).
When I try to delete my joomla from my ftp client, my ftp client said that I have no permission.

I tried to change the permission in back-end page ("Site->Global Configuration->Server"), and it's already allowed me to "write" the files, but I still cannot delete my joomla folder from my ftp client.

So, in order to deleting joomla is allowed, how to change the permission?

in order to make this thread more useful to more people, i have collected some information below that WOULD have been useful to me had i been able to find it anywhere (and believe me i searched).

everyone's answer here (and everywhere else i have seen) is something to the effect of "Joomla is easy to uninstall, just delete the joomla directory" -- BUT you cannot assume that someone created a separate joomla directory within their web root folder (in fact, i read in an FAQ somewhere that if you want Joomla to operate at the top level of your website you need to install it there, not in a subdirectory).

here, for whoever may need it, is the list of files and folders/directories that Joomla installs on your web server and that you need to manually remove if you want to uninstall Joomla. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE any database removals that you may also need to do (look for that info elsewhere). this is just a list of the files that Joomla puts in the directory where it is installed.

folders: WARNING -- if something else other than Joomla uses a directory with a very common name (such as "images" or "logs"), you might want to look inside that directory to see what else may be in there...

administrator
cache
components
images
includes
language
libraries
logs
media
modules
plugins
templates
tmp
xmlrpc

there also the directory named "installation", although that would have been already manually removed if you ever tried to run Joomla after installing it (Joomla requires you to delete that folder before it runs, as a security precaution). so, if you installed but NEVER ran Joomla, you need to remove this directory as well.

files:

CHANGELOG.php
COPYRIGHT.php
CREDITS.php
INSTALL.php
LICENSE.php
LICENSES.php
configuration.php
configuration.php-dist
htaccess.txt
index.php
index2.php
(robots.txt)



another disclaimer: as stated elsewhere, if you have installed additional items (eg. third party extensions), those may have also created some directories or files at the top level of the web root -- it all depends on your specific install history. the list above is JUST the Joomla core.

if anyone knows of any core Joomla files or folders that i have missed, please post them below (i will also try to update the list above if i see anyone posts something relevant below, presuming that this forum allows re-editing of posts).

thank you.

Hello

I also had to delete my joomla site. I didn't think that there could be any problems deleting the files.
What I did was:
I deleted the database and selected all the joomla files in my server and pressed delete key. The deleting started, but not all files were deleted, because of the permission problem.
I did some googleing and found out that these files should be possible to delete via SSH, but my webserver does not support SSH.
Now I have no clue how to get ride of the rest of the joomla files and folders.
Any ideas?

You should be fine just deleting all Joomla files and the database. If you're using Fantastico you might be able to uninstall through there just like you installed and then install Nucleus.

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thanks so much tomf!!! very helpful post!

Why have a list of what files/folders to remove, if you can just download a full Joomla version, in which you can also see what files/folders it contains?

Like I said, remove 3rd party extensions first, then Joomla. This will make sure you don't run into permission problems.

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Take care

Well Tonie,

For me this was a great thread because my Cpanel no longer contains the information for the 1.0 installation that my client was insisting on never updating as he "likes it just like it is..." so now there is in uninstall system for it in the Cpanel. To top that off I don't find th 1.0 installation on the Joomla site anymore either... so...

Kudos to the poster of all that nice info and all the help so far, most appreciated

Thanks this is very useful. I have spent hours trying to find information on uninstalling an old 1.0.12 installation - it doesn't even show on Installatron so can't do easy uninstall. I do not need old site and want to do new 2.5 installation so didn't want to do migration to 1.5 etc. As I have more than one site on same hosting just want to be careful exactly what files to delete but I think I can follow the list above. If anyone has easy way of doing this your advice would be much appreciated.

Yes you need to delete only the Joomla directory and database associated with it if you are doing it manually. If you installed it with some toolbar like fantastico than they provide single click uninstall option too.

Softaculous > All Installations > Click the red X on the Joomla line