How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

General questions relating to Joomla! There are other boards for more specific help on Joomla! features and extensions.

Moderator: General Support Moderators

Forum rules
Forum Rules
Absolute Beginner's Guide to Joomla! <-- please read before posting, this means YOU.
Forum Post Assistant - If you are serious about wanting help, you will use this tool to help you post.
youngde1
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:39 am
Location: Dallas, TX USA
Contact:

How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by youngde1 » Tue Dec 06, 2005 7:23 am

Unfortunately, after three days struggling (and failing) to get access to the Administrator panel, I've decided that whatever is preventing me from having a fully functioning Joomla experience is simply beyond my ability to resolve (and anyone else's since none of the ka-billion suggestions from the web were effective).  :(

Can anyone tell me if there is a process for completely uninstalling Joomla or is it just a matter of deleting the htdocs subfolder I extracted the zipfile to?

Thanks!!  :)

User avatar
Tonie
Joomla! Master
Joomla! Master
Posts: 16553
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:13 am

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by Tonie » Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:00 am

Sorry to hear that it is not working out. If you have installed Joomla, deleting the files/directories and tables is enough to completely erase all traces of Joomla.

User avatar
mcsmom
Joomla! Exemplar
Joomla! Exemplar
Posts: 7897
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:43 pm
Location: New York
Contact:

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by mcsmom » Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:11 am

And delete the database.
So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.

User avatar
Tonie
Joomla! Master
Joomla! Master
Posts: 16553
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:13 am

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by Tonie » Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:14 am

A lot of people can't delete their own database at their host. If this is the case, and there are not other things in your database than Joomla, then it will be possible. Thanks for pointing that out.

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:18 pm

Hi guys

I'm at my wits end from this also... I want to reinstall Joomla because it's not working (I made a few silly errors and botched the installation)... unfortunately I can't uninstall it, and reinstall it... when I open up the site on the local host, I get a message saying removeInstallation installationRemoved - and that's all... I've deleted my initial database, and removed the folder from the directory...

I'm using windows XP with a WAMP server... (I know, I know, I should really switch to Linux)

User avatar
mcsmom
Joomla! Exemplar
Joomla! Exemplar
Posts: 7897
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:43 pm
Location: New York
Contact:

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by mcsmom » Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:44 am

Why don't you make a new folder and a new database and start totally fresh with a new download.
So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:17 am

that's exactly what I did... and it's still giving me the same problem...

I had to do a system restore during this time, because of an unrelated issue, and this is what caused the problem - it rolled back to a few days back when I didn't have wamp and Joomla installed... I also had to reinstall wamp as a result of this... no matter what I do with Joomla now, it won't work...

pretty frustrating...

User avatar
mcsmom
Joomla! Exemplar
Joomla! Exemplar
Posts: 7897
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:43 pm
Location: New York
Contact:

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by mcsmom » Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:12 pm

If you are getting "remove installation directory" you have done the installation. All you need to do is go and remove the installation folder. Have you tried that?
So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:49 pm

when i put the joomla folder in the correct directory and rename it to 'test', or whatever, I get the following message:

"PLEASE REMEMBER TO COMPLETELY
REMOVE THE INSTALLATION DIRECTORY.
You will not be able to proceed beyond this point until the installation directory has been removed. This is a security feature of Joomla!.
Click here when the directory has been removed."

I then removed the installation folder, and continued... I got the following message:

"Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to database"

this to me suggests that it's looking for a database which isn't there and which I've already removed... but it won't allow me reinstall... I can't think of a solution for this...

apologies for my noobness... thanks for the assistance

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:15 pm

I also attempted to create a database called 'test' and it still wouldn't work...

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:18 pm

ok, another update.... I recreated a database by the name of 'joomla' which is what I originally did when installing the first time, and i'm getting the following message:

jtablesession::Store Failed
DB function failed with error number 1146
Table 'joomla.jos_session' doesn't exist SQL=INSERT INTO `jos_session` ( `session_id`,`time`,`username`,`gid`,`guest`,`client_id` ) VALUES ( 'pkd34nlh7210m3b346bumac8c1','1216584979','','0','1','0' )


this obviously means that the database which I originally created with the joomla install is now missing, and I have to somehow recreate it, but I still can't reinstall it...

User avatar
mcsmom
Joomla! Exemplar
Joomla! Exemplar
Posts: 7897
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:43 pm
Location: New York
Contact:

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by mcsmom » Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:04 pm

Do you have access to phpMyAdmin? If you are on local host with wamp you should have that.
Go there and delete all the databases you have tried so far.
Create a new blank database. Make sure if it utf8_general_ci for collation.
So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:31 pm

I did that, and now i'm getting this error... I think this one is important actually... from what I gather, it's telling me that I need a table called jos_session with the parameters mentioned... i'm just worried that I'll mess something up again...

jtablesession::Store Failed
DB function failed with error number 1146
Table 'joomla.jos_session' doesn't exist SQL=INSERT INTO `jos_session` ( `session_id`,`time`,`username`,`gid`,`guest`,`client_id` ) VALUES ( 'n9ndll44bh3a1hf6i5tktfv9h4','1216592919','','0','1','0' )

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:44 pm

I've been fiddling with creating tables now, and have run into some more problems, mainly because I've no idea whether I should be using time/timestamp/datetime/varchar/int for the various fields...

I REALLY just need all the joomla databases... maybe I could migrate them from a file??... could anyone volunteer to help me with this??

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:22 am

it's ok... I got it sorted... I rolled back again with a restore and just wiped everything and restarted... it worked this time... thanks

User avatar
stevepops
Joomla! Intern
Joomla! Intern
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:28 am

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by stevepops » Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:30 pm

jtablesession::Store Failed
DB function failed with error number 1146
Table 'joomla.jos_session' doesn't exist SQL=INSERT INTO `jos_session` ( `session_id`,`time`,`username`,`gid`,`guest`,`client_id` ) VALUES ( 'pkd34nlh7210m3b346bumac8c1','1216584979','','0','1','0' )
Did you check your database using eg. phpMyAdmin?

I have seen in various cases that the tables have been renamed from eg. jos__session to #__session

Then just rename your tables.

nellboy
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by nellboy » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:11 pm

stevepops wrote: Did you check your database using eg. phpMyAdmin?

I have seen in various cases that the tables have been renamed from eg. jos__session to #__session

Then just rename your tables.
well, i had already deleted the database... that's the problem - sorted now though... thanks

jbudd
Joomla! Ace
Joomla! Ace
Posts: 1149
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:28 pm
Location: West Midlands, UK
Contact:

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by jbudd » Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:55 pm

If you have phpMyAdmin you can reset the password like this:

Browse the jos_users table and edit the administrator account.
Enter admin in the password field, select MD5 from the dropdown list on the left and hit return

Login using password admin, change it straight away!

More info: http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f ... d#p1388544

shean
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:29 pm
Location: London
Contact:

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by shean » Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:38 am

There's also a web video for resetting your admin password, You can find it here: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1818492yRNhWTdg#search

neko_nekic
Joomla! Fledgling
Joomla! Fledgling
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 10:01 am

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by neko_nekic » Fri May 29, 2009 10:09 am

Hi to all,
I also have a problem in Joomla. I have installed everything, but when I login on the administrator site and go on tabs on the top of site (Site, Menu, Content, Components, Extensions...), there is no a pop-up menu. For example, when I go with cursor on tab Extensions, there should be a pop-up menu with options Install/Uninstall, Template Manager..., but there is no one for me.
Can anyone tell me what could be the problem....
Thanks in advance

jonnyxx
Joomla! Fledgling
Joomla! Fledgling
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:41 am

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by jonnyxx » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:00 am

Hi Folks, first post. I also have an uninstall question, but only because I am going to reinstall. I installed, and after a few noob hiccups which were resolved by reading this forum, got everything working. I love Joomla. Editing my web page is now a pleasure!

Anyway, when I installed, i untarred the file directly onto my server, thinking it would create a "joomla" folder in /var/www. It didn't. It just put all the files into the /var/www seperately. What I should have done is create the joomla folder first and then untar it into there. I am running Ubuntu.

It doesn't actually effect the working of joomla, but it does offend my sense of order, and I am thinking it may cause problems if i want to run another site on the same server later.

I am going to reinstall the correct way. Am I right in thinking I can just identify all the joomla files and folders in /var/www and delete them and then start again. I just want to confirm this as it is a production server and running lots of other critical stuff as well.

I am also thinking that if i leave the data base as is, then I should be able to reinstall and my page should be more or less intact when i re-install. Is this correct? Thank you in advance, cheers, Jonnyxx.

jonnyxx
Joomla! Fledgling
Joomla! Fledgling
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:41 am

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by jonnyxx » Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:51 pm

just answering my own from above. Yes, i did just delete the relevant files from the /var/www directory, and then when I did a re-install, identified the existing database and all was well. Then When i installed another instance of joomla i put that into it's own folder (website 2) Both are running fine now. Cheers.

hmunster123
Joomla! Intern
Joomla! Intern
Posts: 71
Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:08 pm
Location: Brooklyn NY
Contact:

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by hmunster123 » Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:51 pm

Why the hell don't they make an easy way to uninstall this thing. It's obnoxious on their part.

kimkhan
Joomla! Fledgling
Joomla! Fledgling
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:46 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by kimkhan » Sat Oct 31, 2009 5:10 pm

I removed everything from /var/www/html and dropped the database with all the data. I then copied all the files and folders again into the directory and when I went to http://localhsot/ it said to remove the installation folder.

This is a clean install and I removed everything previously yet it thinks that I have gone through the web based installation process. I think Joomla writes something somewhere else. So to do a clean uninstall or remove you may have to do something else other than just deleting everthing in the html directory and deleting your database.

Anyone knows what else is required to do a clean re-install on a localhost (I have a clean centOS server just for this)

Thanks.

KK

User avatar
mcsmom
Joomla! Exemplar
Joomla! Exemplar
Posts: 7897
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:43 pm
Location: New York
Contact:

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by mcsmom » Mon Nov 09, 2009 12:28 am

I'm not getting the problem with uninstall, just delete the files and the data base. No magic.

KK,

You need to have Apache, MySQL and PHP installed. then you're set. You should be able to go to apache friends and get an all in one set up.

Then you just install Joomla the same way you would on a remote host. Unzip the files and browse to the web folder.
So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. MLK 1964.
http://officialjoomlabook.com Get it at http://www.joomla.org/joomla-press-official-books.html Buy a book, support Joomla!.

kimkhan
Joomla! Fledgling
Joomla! Fledgling
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:46 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by kimkhan » Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:47 am

Hi MCSMOM,

I had everything installed. I have my own server running xen. The slice that I am tried to install joomla was a CENTOS 5.3 LAMP stack. It is linux so I did not need anything from apache friends.
Everything was running which I checked with following commands:

[root@xen2 ~]# service mysqld status
mysqld (pid 1628) is running...
[root@xen2 ~]# service httpd status
httpd (pid 1788 1787 1786 1785 1784 1783 1782 1781 1719) is running...
[root@xen2 ~]# rpm -q php
php-5.1.6-23.2.el5_3

The problem was with permissions and ownerships of the directory. I have since successfully resolved it and everything is working fine now.

Thanks,

KK

friends1976
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:29 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by friends1976 » Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:20 pm

nellboy wrote:when i put the joomla folder in the correct directory and rename it to 'test', or whatever, I get the following message:

"PLEASE REMEMBER TO COMPLETELY
REMOVE THE INSTALLATION DIRECTORY.
You will not be able to proceed beyond this point until the installation directory has been removed. This is a security feature of Joomla!.
Click here when the directory has been removed."

I then removed the installation folder, and continued... I got the following message:

"Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to database"
I had this same problem and what I did that seemed to work was delete the configuration.php file from the server (even though it was a new one without the old info) and then proceed to installation. When it does the check to see if the configuration file is writeable, upload the file to the server, and then make the file permissions 777. You should be good to go now. :)

archimetrics
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 3:48 pm

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by archimetrics » Tue May 17, 2011 8:46 am

hi guys,

not sure if this helps. but it's my experience so i thought i'd share and hope that it might work for some people.

i also botched my installation of joomla on my hosts' server. so i wanted a fresh start.

how i did it was to unzip the joomla archive>copy and paste the "installation" folder back into joomla>delete the configuration.php file.

once that's done, reinitate install and it should start from the beginning.

hope it helps.
Minh.

boomdin
Joomla! Apprentice
Joomla! Apprentice
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2010 1:49 am

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by boomdin » Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:16 am

archimetrics, you're a friggin genious! His advice worked. THANK YOU!

I also wanted to start clean and re install joomla, but the error kept coming up, telling me to remove my installation folder.

If you go into the folder that you uploaded all of the joomla files, delete that configuration.php, and upload a new installation folder. Just remember to delete the other installation folder that was in there, if you didn't do so already. After that, I went back to my site and it allowed me to re install Joomla.
For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need. - Phil. 4:13

roth2006
Joomla! Fledgling
Joomla! Fledgling
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:28 am

Re: How do you perform a complete uninstall of Joomla?

Post by roth2006 » Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:13 am

Sorry to hear that it is not working out.



Image


Locked

Return to “General Questions - 1.0.x”