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Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Issue

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gigowattfilm
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Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Issue

Post by gigowattfilm » Sun Jan 26, 2025 11:13 am

Hello,

I'm sorry I don't know much in joomla and phpmyadmin.

I updated my websote from joomla 3 to 4. I noticed my contact form did not work anymore.

I looked at tutos and links and realized I do not have CONTACT or CATEGORIES present in Joomla menu.
I looked at my database and I cannot find com_contact. The only thing I have is xzcnm_contact_details when running a search.

Still I can access my contact form by hand by adding "administrator/index.php?option=com_contact" to my url.
I guess I don't know how to search in my database ?

So 2 issues :
- How to get Contact and Categories back to the components menu
- When trying to use the contact form, i have "Could not instantiate mail function." error. The email is the same domain name as the website. Feel free to go here to see it : https://www.gigowattfilm.com/contact

Thank you !

edit : Just noticed that the website cannot send mail anymore even when creating a new user. Same error message : "Could not instantiate..."
edit 2 : In Home Dashboard → System → Global Configuration → Server tab → Send Test Email resulted in the same error message.

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toivo
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by toivo » Sun Jan 26, 2025 10:12 pm

gigowattfilm wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2025 11:13 amI looked at my database and I cannot find com_contact.
Did you look into the _extensions table? It has com_contact and half a dozen plugins related to contacts. Run the following SQL query in phpMyAdmin:

Code: Select all

SELECT * FROM xzcnm_extensions
WHERE element LIKE '%contact%'
gigowattfilm wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2025 11:13 amThe only thing I have is xzcnm_contact_details when running a search.
That is the database table where the contacts are stored.

gigowattfilm wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2025 11:13 amWhen trying to use the contact form, i have "Could not instantiate mail function." error.
If you have not made any changes in the Server - Mail section of the Global Configuration, please contact the support team of your host. They may have introduced new restrictions in how your web server can send emails. Hosting providers often require websites to forward emails through their mail server.
Toivo Talikka, Global Moderator

gigowattfilm
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by gigowattfilm » Mon Jan 27, 2025 11:19 am

Thank you so much Toivo for your response.

Yes I found several things in the extension table like you said. Here is the screenshot after the query:
Contacts.PNG
toivo wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2025 10:12 pm Hosting providers often require websites to forward emails through their mail server.
Well I think that's what I doing. The contact form sends to [email protected] and the website is gigowattfilm.com. Am I right in believing that ?
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toivo
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by toivo » Mon Jan 27, 2025 9:25 pm

gigowattfilm wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2025 11:19 amWell I think that's what I doing.
Which mailer is selected in the Mail section of the Server tab of the Global Configuration? The selected Mailer is obviously not working.

Joomla has two options, PHP Mail and Sendmail, where the mail server is hosted in the web server, configured by your host. The SMTP option has further settings and it can be configured by you.

Hosting providers usually do not allow the web server to forward emails to a remote mail server outside their own network. The ping command and the online checker mxtoolbox.com show that your mail server is not hosted in the same IP address as the web server. Therefore it looks like your website is using the SMTP option.

Contact the support team of your host and find out if they have changed the configuration of their mail server or added new restrictions for outgoing mail.
Toivo Talikka, Global Moderator

gigowattfilm
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by gigowattfilm » Tue Jan 28, 2025 8:15 am

Thank you for helping me :)

I have/had phpmail selected. I have the could not instantiate message with it.
Tried Sendmail option : "Could not execute: /usr/sbin/sendmail"
When selecting SMTP, nothing seems to happen, but I don't know how to parameter it anyways.

I can receive and send mails from the mail address (admin@...) with thunderbird.

I checked the mxtoolbox tool that I didn't know of and it seems I have other problems... My heart aches.
email.PNG
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toivo
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by toivo » Tue Jan 28, 2025 10:08 am

What did your host say?
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gigowattfilm
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by gigowattfilm » Tue Jan 28, 2025 10:17 am

I sent them a precise email. Waiting for a response.

Do you agree it probably is another issue than the categories and contact not appearing in menu ?

gigowattfilm
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by gigowattfilm » Wed Jan 29, 2025 1:39 pm

Hello
My host said that there were no restriction regarding mail policies and thatit must be a joomla config problem....
It is ionos.
I can send emails from both the contact and admin mail addresses through webmail.

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toivo
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by toivo » Wed Jan 29, 2025 9:52 pm

gigowattfilm wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 1:39 pmMy host said that there were no restriction regarding mail policies and thatit must be a joomla config problem...
Did you send them the list of problems reported by the Mxtoolbox online checker?

Ask them for the SMTP configuration details, how to configure the SMTP mailer to use the Ionos mail server, hosted in the Ionos network, for outgoing emails. You may need to get the company that manages your domain details to change the MX records to point to the Ionos mail server.

gigowattfilm wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 10:17 amDo you agree it probably is another issue than the categories and contact not appearing in menu ?
It is a different proble. Are all those categories and contacts enabled?
Toivo Talikka, Global Moderator

gigowattfilm
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Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is

Post by gigowattfilm » Thu Jan 30, 2025 9:40 am

They keep not responding on the mx errors. I'll keep asking :)

They just sent me a php configuration. I'm gonna try that.

In the database they were not enabled. I forced it to 1 to no avail. I'm not sure where to do that in the joomla backend.

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