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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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- Joomla! Apprentice
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:05 pm
Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Issue
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.
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
- Joomla! Master
- Posts: 18035
- Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:48 am
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
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:gigowattfilm wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 11:13 amI looked at my database and I cannot find com_contact.
Code: Select all
SELECT * FROM xzcnm_extensions
WHERE element LIKE '%contact%'
That is the database table where the contacts are stored.gigowattfilm wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 11:13 amThe only thing I have is xzcnm_contact_details when running a search.
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.gigowattfilm wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 11:13 amWhen trying to use the contact form, i have "Could not instantiate mail function." error.
Toivo Talikka, Global Moderator
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- Joomla! Apprentice
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:05 pm
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
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:
Yes I found several things in the extension table like you said. Here is the screenshot after the query:
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
- Joomla! Master
- Posts: 18035
- Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:48 am
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
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
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- Joomla! Apprentice
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:05 pm
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
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.

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.
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- toivo
- Joomla! Master
- Posts: 18035
- Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:48 am
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
What did your host say?
Toivo Talikka, Global Moderator
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- Joomla! Apprentice
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:05 pm
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
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 ?
Do you agree it probably is another issue than the categories and contact not appearing in menu ?
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- Joomla! Apprentice
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:05 pm
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
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.
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.
- toivo
- Joomla! Master
- Posts: 18035
- Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:48 am
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
Did you send them the list of problems reported by the Mxtoolbox online checker?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...
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.
It is a different proble. Are all those categories and contacts enabled?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 ?
Toivo Talikka, Global Moderator
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- Joomla! Apprentice
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:05 pm
Re: Contact and Categories does not appear in Joomla Menu (or in my database) and Could not instantiate mail function Is
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.

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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