PHP changes and Joomla

[19_66_19]

A brief overview and i hope this is the right place. Our website is no longer visible after the web hosting company moved from PHP7.4 to PHP8.

After hours of trying to get somewhere with a chatbot, there is no phone contact available, they finally send us a link to Joomla informing us they can help update the website.

Our website builder is no longer with us, so we have absolutely no clue firstly what to do and secondly can anything be done, or would we need a new build?

I am really just looking for guidance while we try to see what our options are.

Thank you for listening.

[gsmela]

At the top of this page in the red box is a link to the Forum Post Assistant (FPA). Please read that and post your results so everyone can help review any issues it reports.

[AMurray]

I've seen several recent posts on the forum where webhosts have left users with no option but to use PHP 8, apparently without leaving 7.4 in place (even temporarily) to give them a chance to sort out their sites for PHP 8.

Do you have no other option other than PHP 8 (can you select PHP versions through your cPanel/Hosting account)?

If you are able to make a backup of your site, you could set up WAMPServer on your PC (which allows you to choose the PHP versions you want and install additional 'modules' (PHP versions)), and then you can restore your site from backup of the live site to the local server.

You can go from there to get extensions updated, etc., and then backup, and restore the working site (under PHP 8.0.x) to your web-host.

Joomla (core) works well enough in PHP 8.0.x but 3rd party extensions are another matter.