Cannot select a "translation of" for new articles

[jmarquezrpaa]

We have our website running in two languages, English and Spanish. I'm trying to setup our home page banner with the correct articles but whenever I try to pick the translation to link I get a "No valid database connection: DB function failed with error number 1146" error. From the table name listed, I can see that it does exist, but it's trying to fetch from a table that does not have the articles and rather from...something else, honestly not sure what these records belong to.

Again, I am not a webdev and did not setup this site, but I was handed it with the expectation that I can fix it. I know that generally Joomla database tables start with the prefix "jos_" but the somehow the article manager is trying to pull from a different prefix, how can I change this?

Unrelated, I had mentioned in a previous post that I was going to try to update to the newest version of Joomla but there are too many moving parts in this one that I have no idea what they do. I don't get paid enough and I'll most certainly accidentally break the site, so that's getting tabled for now lol.

[jmarquezrpaa]

I figured out that Joomla is trying to pull from #_content which is definitely where the articles are, I just had not noticed the button for flipping through record pages (I'm dumb). I figured maybe I could edit the "translation of" attribute directly from the database but I don't see it in the content table. For whatever reason, Joomla still thinks the table doesn't exist when I use the "translation of" button before posting an article.

Am I just out of luck?

Also, I can't edit my own post? I figured it'd be better than posting a reply to myself.

EDIT: I guess you can before a certain amount of time. I think I found the possible issue, version mismatch.

Extensions -> Database says: Database schema version (2.5.28) does not match CMS version (3.6.3-2016-08-16).

[infograf768]

You may be in bad shape. Sorry to say that. Joomla is now at 3.9.18.
I guess that using the Fix button in Extensions =>database may not be enough.
Also no idea what you mean by "translation of" attribute. A screen capture posted here would help.

[jmarquezrpaa]

Oops, I should've included a screenshot from the beginning. And yeah I may be in bad shape, I have no idea why there's so many extensions installed and I don't want to risk the update breaking the site.

[infograf768]

You are in even worse shape than I thought. Your site is still using the older Joomfish component. That component has not been updated since we implemented the multilingual associations in Joomla.
https://www.thinknetwork.com/joomfish/

Be aware that it is likely that your site is vulnerable and should be redone with J last version.

[jmarquezrpaa]

Ah, so updating our Joomla version to the newest would definitely break the site. What a time to be alive, I'll have to figure something out then. Thanks for the help!