Update 3.10.5 to 3.10.6 ERROR Invalid AJAX data Topic is solved

[mikewitherell]

When I try to update 3.10.5 to 3.10.6 I get the following error:

TrainingOnsite.com says

ERROR: Invalid AJAX data:

<br /><b>Fatal error</b>: Uncaught Error: Class 'AKPostprocHybrid' not found in /home/customer/www/trainingonsite.com/public_html/ administrator/components/comjoomlaupdate/restore.php:3579

Stack trace:
#0 /home/customer/www/trainingonsite.com/public_html/administrator/components/com_joomlaupdate/restore.php(3638): AKFactory::getclass Instance('AKPostprocHybri...')

#1 /home/customer/www/trainingonsite.com/public_html/administrator/components/com_joomlaupdate/restore.php(900): AKFactory::getPostProc('hybrid')

#2 /home/customer/www/trainingonsite.com/public_html/administrator/components/com_joomlaupdate/restore.php(480): AKAbstractUnarchiver-&gt;_prepare()

#3 /home/customer/www/trainingonsite.com/public_html/administrator/components/com_joomla update/restore.php(S001): AKAbstractPart-&gt;tick()

#4 {main}
thrown in <b>/home/customer/www/trainingonsite.com/public_html/administrator/components/com_joomlaupdate/ restore.php</b> on line <b>3579</b> <br />

OK

This has never happened before. How do I get past it? How do I fix it?

[ltheme]

Do you have other website has same this issue? I don't hear about this error from our customers before.
What extensions are you using in your website? You can check, some time it conflicts with Joomla! update process.

[mikewitherell]

This is the only website I have and it started showing this error going from 3.10.5 to 3.1.6

[mikewitherell]

Extensions in my website:
AcyMailing
BreezingForms
FreeStyle Testimonials
Maximenu
OS Services Booking
QuickSell

[ltheme]

You can disable extension by extension and recheck with your update. After that, you can re-enable that extensions.

[Per Yngve Berg]

Please post the Forum Post Assistant. See red frame above.

[mikewitherell]

I just generated this using FPA:

[28-Mar-2022 17:31:42 UTC] PHP Deprecated: Non-static method FST_Settings::_View_Defaults() should not be called statically in /home/customer/www/trainingonsite.com/public_html/components/com_fst/helper/settings.php on line 76

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 3.10.5-Stable (Daraja) 15-January-2022
Joomla! Platform :: Joomla Platform 13.1.0-Stable (Curiosity) 24-Apr-2013
Joomla! Configured :: Yes | Writable (644) |
Configuration Options :: Offline: false | SEF: true | SEF Suffix: true | SEF ReWrite: true | .htaccess/web.config: Yes | GZip: true | Cache: true | CacheTime: 15 | CacheHandler: file | CachePlatformPrefix: false | FTP Layer: true | Proxy: false | LiveSite: Is Not Empty | Session lifetime: 40 | Session handler: none | Shared sessions: false | SSL: 2 | Error Reporting: none | Site Debug: false | Language Debug: false | Default Access: Public | Unicode Slugs: false | dbConnection Type: mysqli | PHP Supports J! 3.10.5: Yes | Database Supports J! 3.10.5: Yes | Database Credentials Present: Yes |

Host Configuration :: OS: Linux | OS Version: 3.12.18-clouder0 | Technology: x86_64 | Web Server: Apache | Encoding: | System TMP Writable: Yes | Free Disk Space : 794.93 GiB |

PHP Configuration :: Version: 7.4.28 | PHP API: apache2handler | Session Path Writable: Yes | Display Errors: 0 | Error Reporting: 30709 | Log Errors To: php_errorlog | Last Known Error: 28th March 2022 17:31:42. | Register Globals: | Magic Quotes: | Safe Mode: | Allow url fopen: 1 | Open Base: | Uploads: 1 | Max. Upload Size: 256M | Max. POST Size: 256M | Max. Input Time: 120 | Max. Execution Time: 120 | Memory Limit: 768M

Database Configuration :: Version: 5.7.32-35-log (Client:mysqlnd 7.4.28) | Database Size: 80.76 MiB | #of Tables with config prefix:  227 | #of other Tables:  0 | User Privileges : GRANT ALL

PHP Extensions :: Core (7.4.28) | date (7.4.28) | libxml (7.4.28) | openssl (7.4.28) | pcre (7.4.28) | sqlite3 (7.4.28) | zlib (7.4.28) | bcmath (7.4.28) | bz2 (7.4.28) | calendar (7.4.28) | ctype (7.4.28) | curl (7.4.28) | dba (7.4.28) | dom (20031129) | enchant (7.4.28) | hash (7.4.28) | fileinfo (7.4.28) | filter (7.4.28) | ftp (7.4.28) | gd (7.4.28) | gettext (7.4.28) | gmp (7.4.28) | SPL (7.4.28) | iconv (7.4.28) | session (7.4.28) | intl (7.4.28) | json (7.4.28) | mbstring (7.4.28) | standard (7.4.28) | mysqlnd (mysqlnd 7.4.28) | mysqli (7.4.28) | PDO (7.4.28) | pdo_mysql (7.4.28) | pdo_pgsql (7.4.28) | pdo_sqlite (7.4.28) | pgsql (7.4.28) | Phar (7.4.28) | posix (7.4.28) | pspell (7.4.28) | Reflection (7.4.28) | imap (7.4.28) | shmop (7.4.28) | SimpleXML (7.4.28) | soap (7.4.28) | sockets (7.4.28) | sodium (7.4.28) | exif (7.4.28) | sysvmsg (7.4.28) | sysvsem (7.4.28) | tidy (7.4.28) | tokenizer (7.4.28) | xml (7.4.28) | xmlreader (7.4.28) | xmlrpc (7.4.28) | xmlwriter (7.4.28) | xsl (7.4.28) | zip (1.15.6) | apache2handler (7.4.28) | memcached (3.1.0-dev) | Zend OPcache (7.4.28) | Zend Engine (3.4.0) |
Potential Missing Extensions ::

Switch User Environment :: PHP CGI: No | Server SU: No | PHP SU: No | Potential Ownership Issues: No

Apache Modules :: core | mod_authn_file | mod_authn_core | mod_authz_host | mod_authz_groupfile | mod_authz_user | mod_authz_core | mod_access_compat | mod_auth_basic | mod_so | mod_watchdog | mod_include | mod_substitute | mod_deflate | http_core | mod_mime | mod_log_config | mod_env | mod_mime_magic | mod_expires | mod_headers | mod_unique_id | mod_setenvif | mod_version | mod_slotmem_shm | event | mod_unixd | mod_autoindex | mod_cgi | mod_dir | mod_userdir | mod_alias | mod_rewrite | mod_php7 | mod_dtimeout | mod_filter | mod_robots | mod_rpaf | mod_simpleupdate | mod_backtrace | mod_whatkilledus | mod_idleshutdown | Apache |
Potential Missing Modules :: mod_ssl |

Core Folders :: images/ (755) | components/ (755) | modules/ (755) | plugins/ (755) | language/ (755) | templates/ (755) | cache/ (755) | logs/ (755) | tmp/ (755) | administrator/components/ (755) | administrator/modules/ (755) | administrator/language/ (755) | administrator/templates/ (755) | administrator/logs/ (755) |

Elevated Permissions (First 10) ::

Database statistics :: Uptime: 239095 | Threads: 1 | Questions: 140391909 | Slow queries: 619 | Opens: 12149617 | Flush tables: 1 | Open tables: 3071 | Queries per second avg: 587.180 |

Components :: Site ::
Core :: com_wrapper (3.0.0) 1 | com_mailto (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party:: WF_STYLE_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_CONTEXTMENU_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_PRINT_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_VISUALBLOCKS_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_XHTMLXTRAS_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_HELP_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_EMOTIONS_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_KITCHENSINK_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_TABLE_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_SPELLCHECKER_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_LAYER_TITLE (2.8.3) ? | WF_LINK_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_LISTS_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_ARTICLE_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_NONBREAKING_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_CHARMAP_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_FULLSCREEN_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_FONTSIZESELECT_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_PREVIEW_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_DIRECTIONALITY_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_MEDIA_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_VISUALCHARS_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_SEARCHREPLACE_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_WORDCOUNT_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_HR_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_FORMATSELECT_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | JCE - Noneditable (1.0.0) ? | WF_CLEANUP_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_AUTOSAVE_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_STYLESELECT_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_CLIPBOARD_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_FONTCOLOR_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_SOURCE_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_TEXTCASE_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_IMGMANAGER_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_FONTSELECT_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_ANCHOR_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_BROWSER_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_POPUPS_JCEMEDIABOX_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_LINK_SEARCH_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_AGGREGATOR_VIDEO_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_AGGREGATOR_[youtube]_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_AGGREGATOR_VIMEO_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_AGGREGATOR_AUDIO_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_AGGREGATOR_DAILYMOTION_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_LINKS_JOOMLALINKS_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | WF_FILESYSTEM_JOOMLA_TITLE (2.9.20) ? | os_worldpay (1.0) ? | os_paypal (1.0) ? | os_offline (1.0) ? | os_paypal_pro (1.0) ? | os_sagepay (1.0) ? | os_eway (1.0) ? | os_authnet (1.0) ? | TCPDF (5.9.202) ? |

Components :: Admin ::
Core :: com_menus (3.0.0) 1 | com_messages (3.0.0) 1 | com_templates (3.0.0) 1 | com_languages (3.0.0) 1 | com_content (3.0.0) 1 | com_media (3.0.0) 1 | com_tags (3.1.0) 1 | com_modules (3.0.0) 1 | com_plugins (3.0.0) 1 | com_redirect (3.0.0) 1 | com_fields (3.7.0) 1 | com_categories (3.0.0) 1 | com_contenthistory (3.2.0) 1 | com_finder (3.0.0) 1 | com_actionlogs (3.9.0) 1 | com_joomlaupdate (3.10.1) 1 | com_associations (3.7.0) 1 | com_admin (3.0.0) 1 | com_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | com_postinstall (3.2.0) 1 | com_cpanel (3.0.0) 1 | com_installer (3.0.0) 1 | com_checkin (3.0.0) 1 | com_users (3.0.0) 1 | com_config (3.0.0) 1 | com_login (3.0.0) 1 | com_ajax (3.2.0) 1 | com_banners (3.0.0) 1 | com_search (3.0.0) 1 | com_privacy (3.9.0) 1 | com_cache (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party:: com_profiles (1.5.0) 1 | COM_OSMAP (5.0.2) 1 | sysbreezingforms (1.0.0) 1 | COM_BREEZINGFORMS ((build 939)) 1 | COM_FST (1.14.0) 1 | Freestyle Testimonials: Testimonial (1.11.8.1718) ? | COM_JCE (2.9.20) 1 | Osservicesbooking (2.15.0) 1 | com_linkchecker (1.13.0) 1 | com_maximenuck (9.1.24) 1 | Maximenu CK (9.1.24) 1 | COM_ADVANCEDMODULES (9.0.9) 1 | AcyMailing (5.10.4) 1 | AcyMailing Editor (5.10.4) 1 | AcyMailing JCE integration (5.10.4) 1 | AcyMailing : trigger Joomla Content (3.7.0) ? | AcyMailing Module (3.7.0) 1 | AcyMailing Tag : Joomla User Inform (5.10.4) ? | AcyMailing : share on social networ (1.0.0) ? | AcyMailing Tag : Manage the Subscri (5.10.4) ? | AcyMailing Tag : Website links (3.7.0) 1 | AcyMailing Manage text (1.0.0) 1 | AcyMailing Tag : content insertion (3.7.0) 1 | AcyMailing Template Class Replacer (5.10.4) 1 | AcyMailing table of contents genera (1.0.0) ? | AcyMailing : (auto)Subscribe during (5.10.4) ? | AcyMailing : Statistics Plugin (3.7.0) 1 | AcyMailing Tag : Subscriber informa (5.10.4) ? | AcyMailing Tag : Date / Time (5.10.4) 1 | Admintools (6.1.5) 1 | QuickSell (4.3.3) 1 |

Modules :: Site ::
Core :: mod_articles_popular (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_news (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_categories (3.0.0) 1 | mod_languages (3.5.0) 1 | mod_feed (3.0.0) 1 | mod_tags_similar (3.1.0) 1 | mod_articles_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_footer (3.0.0) 1 | mod_related_items (3.0.0) 1 | mod_tags_popular (3.1.0) 1 | mod_articles_archive (3.0.0) 1 | mod_banners (3.0.0) 1 | mod_menu (3.0.0) 1 | mod_syndicate (3.0.0) 1 | mod_breadcrumbs (3.0.0) 1 | mod_login (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_category (3.0.0) 1 | mod_random_image (3.0.0) 1 | mod_users_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_search (3.0.0) 1 | mod_custom (3.0.0) 1 | mod_stats (3.0.0) 1 | mod_whosonline (3.0.0) 1 | mod_wrapper (3.0.0) 1 | mod_finder (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party:: BreezingForms (1.8.4) 1 | AcyMailing Module (3.7.0) 1 | QuickSellBalance (4.3) 1 | QuickSellCart (4.3) 1 | Maximenu CK (9.1.24) 1 | Freestyle Testimonials: Testimonial (1.12.3) ? | OSB Search (2.14.4) 1 | OSB Cart (2.15.0) 1 |

Modules :: Admin ::
Core :: mod_sampledata (3.8.0) 1 | mod_multilangstatus (3.0.0) 1 | mod_feed (3.0.0) 1 | mod_version (3.0.0) 1 | mod_logged (3.0.0) 1 | mod_toolbar (3.0.0) 1 | mod_submenu (3.0.0) 1 | mod_quickicon (3.0.0) 1 | mod_menu (3.0.0) 1 | mod_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_stats_admin (3.0.0) 1 | mod_popular (3.0.0) 1 | mod_status (3.0.0) 1 | mod_login (3.0.0) 1 | mod_latestactions (3.9.0) 1 | mod_custom (3.0.0) 1 | mod_title (3.0.0) 1 | mod_privacy_dashboard (3.9.0) 1 |
3rd Party::

Libraries ::
Core ::
3rd Party:: file_fof30 (3.6.2) ? | file_fof40 (4.1.1) ? | Regular Labs Library (22.3.12964) 1 |

Plugins ::
Core :: plg_extension_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_pagebreak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_vote (3.0.0) 0 | plg_content_pagenavigation (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_loadmodule (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_emailcloak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_fields (3.7.0) 1 | plg_content_finder (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_confirmconsent (3.9.0) 0 | plg_search_content (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_tags (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_categories (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_contacts (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_phpversioncheck (3.7.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_joomlaupdate (3.0.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_extensionupdate (3.0.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_privacycheck (3.9.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_eos310 (3.10.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_image (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_pagebreak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_module (3.5.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_article (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_menu (3.7.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_fields (3.7.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_readmore (3.0.0) 1 | plg_installer_webinstaller (2.1.2) 1 | plg_installer_packageinstaller (3.6.0) 1 | PLG_INSTALLER_FOLDERINSTALLER (3.6.0) 1 | PLG_INSTALLER_URLINSTALLER (3.6.0) 1 | plg_privacy_content (3.9.0) 1 | plg_privacy_consents (3.9.0) 1 | plg_privacy_actionlogs (3.9.0) 1 | plg_privacy_message (3.9.0) 1 | plg_privacy_user (3.9.0) 1 | plg_twofactorauth_totp (3.2.0) 0 | plg_twofactorauth_yubikey (3.2.0) 0 | plg_system_logout (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_stats (3.5.0) 1 | plg_system_highlight (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_log (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_cache (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_remember (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_redirect (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_privacyconsent (3.9.0) 0 | plg_system_languagecode (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_debug (3.0.0) 1 | PLG_SYSTEM_ACTIONLOGS (3.9.0) 0 | plg_system_p3p (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_sef (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_sessiongc (3.8.6) 1 | plg_system_logrotation (3.9.0) 1 | plg_system_fields (3.7.0) 1 | plg_system_languagefilter (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_updatenotification (3.5.0) 1 | PLG_ACTIONLOG_JOOMLA (3.9.0) 1 | plg_fields_integer (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_editor (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_imagelist (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_text (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_textarea (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_sql (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_repeatable (3.9.0) 1 | plg_fields_color (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_checkboxes (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_list (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_media (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_radio (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_calendar (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_user (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_url (3.7.0) 1 | plg_fields_usergrouplist (3.7.0) 1 | plg_finder_content (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_tags (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_categories (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_contacts (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | plg_authentication_gmail (3.0.0) 0 | plg_authentication_cookie (3.0.0) 1 | plg_authentication_ldap (3.0.0) 0 | plg_authentication_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_user_terms (3.9.0) 0 | plg_user_contactcreator (3.0.0) 0 | plg_user_profile (3.0.0) 0 | plg_user_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_captcha_recaptcha_invisible (3.8) 0 | plg_captcha_recaptcha (3.4.0) 1 |
3rd Party:: plg_extension_jce (2.9.20) 1 | plg_content_jce (2.9.20) 1 | BreezingForms (1.8) 1 | OSB Table Plugin (2.3.6) 0 | Content - Fast Social Share (3.9) 1 | Content - QuickSellButtons (4.3) 1 | plg_quickicon_jce (2.9.20) 1 | plg_editors_jce (2.9.20) 1 | plg_editors_tinymce (4.5.12) 1 | plg_editors_codemirror (5.60.0) 1 | AcyMailing Editor (5.10.4) 1 | plg_installer_jce (2.9.20) 1 | OS Services Booking Booking Update (2.5.7) ? | AcyMailing Tag : Website links (3.7.0) 1 | AcyMailing Tag : Date / Time (5.10.4) 1 | AcyMailing : Statistics Plugin (3.7.0) 1 | AcyMailing Tag : content insertion (3.7.0) 1 | AcyMailing Template Class Replacer (5.10.4) 1 | AcyMailing Tag : Joomla User Inform (5.10.4) ? | AcyMailing Manage text (1.0.0) 1 | AcyMailing Tag : Subscriber informa (5.10.4) ? | AcyMailing table of contents genera (1.0.0) ? | AcyMailing Tag : Manage the Subscri (5.10.4) ? | AcyMailing : share on social networ (1.0.0) ? | AcyMailing : trigger Joomla Content (3.7.0) ? | plg_system_jce (2.9.20) 1 | PLG_SYSTEM_ADVANCEDMODULES (9.0.9) 1 | PLG_SYSTEM_ADMINTOOLS (6.1.5) 1 | sysbreezingforms (1.0.0) 1 | AcyMailing JCE integration (5.10.4) 1 | System OS Services Booking Cleaner (2.8.3) 0 | plg_system_osmylicensesmanager (2.0.12) 1 | PLG_SYSTEM_REGULARLABS (22.3.12964) 1 | AcyMailing : (auto)Subscribe during (5.10.4) ? | PLG_ACTIONLOG_ADVANCEDMODULES (9.0.9) 1 | PLG_ACTIONLOG_ADMINTOOLS (6.1.5) 0 | PLG_OSMAP_JOOMLA (5.0.2) 1 | plg_fields_mediajce (2.9.20) 1 |

Templates :: Site :: js_techie (2.0.0) 1 | beez3 (3.1.0) 0 | protostar (1.0) 0 |
Templates :: Admin :: isis (1.0) 1 | hathor (3.0.0) 1 |

[mikewitherell]

Another problem: I cannot get the Joomla Upgrade tab to show. Maybe I could just upgrade past 3.10.6 to the 4.x series, but the Pre-Update Check will not show up.

[Per Yngve Berg]

Why do you have the FTP Layer turned on? The error relates to this.

LiveSite: Is Not Empty (Why have you changed this?)

[sozzled]

Maybe I could just upgrade past 3.10.6 to the 4.x series ...

That's a big "maybe" considering you have a number of extensions that are not compatible with J! 4.x, for example

1. Breezing Forms—the developer's website shows that v1.9.1 was released a couple of weeks ago
2. Freestyle Testimonials—this product is not listed on the Joomla Extensions Directory and the developer's website shows that there is no version compatible with J! 4
3. Acy Mailing; the latest version is v7.7.6

I stopped looking after those three; there are others.

I don't know how you were able to update to J! 3.10.5 in the first place. This invalid AJAX error would almost certainly have existed before now. @Per is right: people should not be running J! 3.x with the FTP layer enabled and, besides, there is no "FTP layer" in J! 4.x.

You have a non-null value in Live Site: change line 28 (or thereabouts) of configuration.php (from)

Code: Select all

	public $live_site = 'something';

to

Code: Select all

	public $live_site = '';

You have an error with Freestyle Testimonials. I suggest that you uninstall this extension.

For more infomation about the generic "invalid AJAX data" error, see https://www.google.com/search?q=%22joom ... AX+data%22. It's not uncommon but it happens from a variety of causes.

[mikewitherell]

Ok. Many thanks for the replies so far.
I was able to edit configuration.ini to empty out the livesite. I am a mistake-heavy noob.
I am exploring the old versions of extensions (and wondering why they never auto-update).
But, when you say "turn off the FTP layer" where is that done and how do you do it?

[mikewitherell]

I took a wild guess and turned off FTP under Global Configuration > Server.
Suddenly the update to 3.10.6 worked!!! Thanks for the breakthrough for this noobie!

Why do some extensions stay old instead of updating once in a while?

[sozzled]

Let's unpackage a few things here.

1) Why your old, outdated and unsupported extensions never "auto-update" is probably because the list of Update Sites is broken or you've disabled receiving reports about the availability of new versions. So, just to begin the process of untangling the mess that you've gotten into, you need to go to Extensions » Manage » Update Sites, click the Rebuild button, go to Extensions » Manage » Install and click the Clear Cache button and then go to Extensions » Manage » Install and see if there are notices about new extension updates available. This probably has nothing to do with the AJAX problem; I'm just explaining about what to do if you're not receiving notices about new versions of software.

Extensions don't update "once in a while"; you decide when you want to update your software: no one does this for you. The availability of new software occurs when the people who write that software release new versions of that software.

2) You should be able to disable the "FTP Layer" by going to System » Global Configuration » Server » Server Settings » Enable FTP = No. You would have had problems updating to J! 3.10.5 with that setting enabled. It's not a new thing that came about with J! 3.10.5 -> 3.10.6.

3) There is no file called configuration.ini in J!. The file is called configuration.php. Please check what you write on the forum; we tend to take things literally when people provide information on this forum.

4) You may have "undiscovered" broken parts of your website. Go to Extensions » Manage » Discover, click the Discover button and select (and install) anything that this tool finds.

5) You should also use a similar diagnostic tool: Extensions » Manage » Database.

6) When you wrote earlier that "this has never happened before", what else has changed since the last time you performed maintenance on your website? Maybe you, or your webhosting provider, changed the version of PHP you're using? I don't have a crystal ball, sorry, and I couldn't begin to guess.

7) Leave updating to J! 4.x alone for a while: in your case you've got some catching-up to do and planning the migration to J! 4 will take you some time.

[Webdongle]

...
But, when you say "turn off the FTP layer" where is that done and how do you do it?

Configuration.php
public $ftp_enable = '0';
or
In global config

[mikewitherell]

Hey Itheme, Per, Sozzled, and WebDongle:

Yep, I get easily confused, but you figured out what I meant to say: configuration.php.

I just wanted to say thanks again for the help, and I am now patched up to 3.10.8 after having removed a bunch of old stuff. Also, the upgrade guidance tab now shows up again. I think I am 90% ready for Joomla 4.x but for now I think I will wait, mainly because my existing template does not yet exist in Joomla 4 compatibility.

Once again, thanks (until my next confusion session)!

[Webdongle]

https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/akeeba-backup/