Can't login to admin in Joomla 1.5 site

[PipE]

Hi... For years I've been uploading files to Joomla to update our website - it's been working fine. I stopped being able to login a few weeks ago - basically I go to the login page, input the credentials and...nothing happens. I suspect the site has been hacked? I know nothing about Joomla or how to fix this, can someone please help? Sorry to be so vague, this is outside my area of expertise and I haven't been able to track down the person who set this all up a decade ago.

[gws]

As you know nothing of Joomla it may be easier for you to go to https://mysites.guru/ and ask for their free audit (1st one free),Phil Taylor who runs this site is a true Joomla guru.
At the top of this forum is a red box with info on using the FPA (Forum Post Assistant) Read the docs first. This will produce a report of your server and site setup that you can post here and our volunteers can analyse and help you.

[AMurray]

Given your question is being asked on the J4 forum (which may not be the correct forum), I assume you have at some stage updated Joomla. If not Joomla 4 then the question should be moved by the Mods when its established what Joomla version you're using.

The site set up "a decade ago" would have been using Joomla 2.5 or perhaps 3.x not 4.x (the updates would not be unattended updates, the user would have to consciously click the "update" button to commence the process). Can you confirm the person before you kept joomla (the CMS system itself) up to date?

Can you confirm what version of Joomla are you actually running? A decade ago it would have been Joomla 2.5 (old and obsolete)....or possibly joomla 3.x. The FPA as requested by @gws will give us those details.

I'd agree with @gws about Mysites.guru but you need access to your Joomla site in order to install the plugin for the audit to be done (the plugin is how mysites.guru communicates with your Joomla website).

The J4 login page has a "forgot password" link which goes to the Joomla docs telling you how to reset your password (if that is necessary).

[PhilTaylor-Prazgod]

This user has been in contact with me. Unfortunately it is a very old Joomla! 1.5.x site, and they do not have any contact with the previous developer, they do not have any FTP credentials, and they do not have access to the web control panel for the hosting.

Therefore there was nothing I could do to help them, as the hosting was not even in their name but in someone else’s name so we could not even get the web host to reset access to the hosting account so that I could proceed to fixing Joomla!