Website broke when host updated PHP Topic is solved

[willwhitworth]

Hi All,

First of all, I know that it's my fault that the website (www.windyridgepasos.com) broke because I haven't kept it up to date. This is a website I built for my parents many years ago and only updated it when they needed to sell a new horse. Unfortunately, I haven't touched it in a while and Bluehost updated to a newer version of PHP, thus breaking the site. I already checked with their Support and they are unable to downgrade to PHP 5.6 to allow me to get it working temporarily in order for me to upgrade through the Administrator section. It's currently using Joomla version 3.9.0. When I visit the site, I get the message "Error. You are not authorized to view this resource" in the main content sections. I can get to the Administrator login page, but even with the correct credentials, it won't log in.

I'd really appreciate any help you can provide. Here's the data from the Forum Post Assistant:

[12-Jun-2021 09:21:03 America/Boise] PHP Deprecated: iconv_set_encoding(): Use of iconv.output_encoding is deprecated in /home3/windyrid/public_html/libraries/joomla/string/string.php on line 29

Joomla! Instance :: Joomla! 3.9.0-Stable (Amani) 30-October-2018
More than one instance of version.php found!
Joomla! Platform :: Joomla Platform 12.2.0-Stable (Neil Armstrong) 21-September-2012
Joomla! Configured :: Yes | Writable (644) |
Configuration Options :: Offline: false | SEF: false | SEF Suffix: true | SEF ReWrite: true | .htaccess/web.config: Yes | GZip: false | Cache: false | CacheTime: 15 | CacheHandler: file | CachePlatformPrefix: N/A | FTP Layer: false | Proxy: N/A | LiveSite: | Session lifetime: 15 | Session handler: database | Shared sessions: N/A | SSL: 0 | Error Reporting: default | Site Debug: false | Language Debug: false | Default Access: 1 | Unicode Slugs: true | dbConnection Type: mysqli | PHP Supports J! 3.9.0: Yes | Database Supports J! 3.9.0: Yes | Database Credentials Present: Yes |

Host Configuration :: OS: Linux | OS Version: 4.19.150-76.ELK.el6.x86_64 | Technology: x86_64 | Web Server: Apache | Encoding: gzip, deflate | System TMP Writable: Yes | Free Disk Space : 807.58 GiB |

PHP Configuration :: Version: 7.3.28 | PHP API: cgi-fcgi | Session Path Writable: Yes | Display Errors: 1 | Error Reporting: 32759 | Log Errors To: error_log | Last Known Error: 12th June 2021 09:21:03. | Register Globals: | Magic Quotes: | Safe Mode: | Allow url fopen: 1 | Open Base: | Uploads: 1 | Max. Upload Size: 512M | Max. POST Size: 516M | Max. Input Time: 60 | Max. Execution Time: 30 | Memory Limit: 256M

Database Configuration :: Version: 5.6.41-84.1 (Client:mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: 7cc7cc96e675f6d72e5cf0f267f48e167c2abb23 $) | Database Size: 4.58 MiB | #of Tables with config prefix:  68 | #of other Tables:  0 | User Privileges : GRANT ALL

PHP Extensions :: Core (7.3.28) | date (7.3.28) | libxml (7.3.28) | openssl (7.3.28) | pcre (7.3.28) | zlib (7.3.28) | filter (7.3.28) | hash (7.3.28) | pcntl (7.3.28) | readline (7.3.28) | Reflection (7.3.28) | SPL (7.3.28) | session (7.3.28) | standard (7.3.28) | cgi-fcgi () | bcmath (7.3.28) | bz2 (7.3.28) | calendar (7.3.28) | ctype (7.3.28) | curl (7.3.28) | dom (20031129) | mbstring (7.3.28) | fileinfo (7.3.28) | ftp (7.3.28) | gd (7.3.28) | gettext (7.3.28) | gmp (7.3.28) | iconv (7.3.28) | imap (7.3.28) | intl (7.3.28) | json (1.7.0) | exif (7.3.28) | mysqlnd (mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: 7cc7cc96e675f6d72e5cf0f267f48e167c2abb23 $) | odbc (7.3.28) | PDO (7.3.28) | pgsql (7.3.28) | Phar (7.3.28) | posix (7.3.28) | pspell (7.3.28) | SimpleXML (7.3.28) | soap (7.3.28) | sockets (7.3.28) | sqlite3 (7.3.28) | tidy (7.3.28) | tokenizer (7.3.28) | xml (7.3.28) | xmlwriter (7.3.28) | xsl (7.3.28) | zip (1.15.4) | mysqli (7.3.28) | pdo_mysql (7.3.28) | PDO_ODBC (7.3.28) | pdo_pgsql (7.3.28) | pdo_sqlite (7.3.28) | wddx (7.3.28) | xmlreader (7.3.28) | xmlrpc (7.3.28) | imagick (3.4.3) | SourceGuardian (12.0.0) | ionCube Loader (10.4.5) | Zend Engine (3.3.28) |
Potential Missing Extensions ::

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

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: 3930476 | Threads: 12 | Questions: 4051046556 | Slow queries: 429 | Opens: 7317691 | Flush tables: 1 | Open tables: 20000 | Queries per second avg: 1030.675 |

Components :: Site ::
Core :: com_wrapper (3.0.0) 1 | com_mailto (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party::

Components :: Admin ::
Core :: com_admin (3.0.0) 1 | com_media (3.0.0) 1 | com_fields (3.7.0) ? | com_tags (3.1.0) 1 | com_cache (3.0.0) 1 | com_installer (3.0.0) 1 | com_cpanel (3.0.0) 1 | com_checkin (3.0.0) 1 | com_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 0 | com_joomlaupdate (3.0.0) 1 | com_actionlogs (3.9.0) ? | com_login (3.0.0) 1 | com_contenthistory (3.2.0) ? | com_users (3.0.0) 1 | com_modules (3.0.0) 1 | com_banners (3.0.0) 0 | com_plugins (3.0.0) 1 | com_search (3.0.0) 1 | com_finder (3.0.0) 1 | com_categories (3.0.0) 1 | com_associations (3.7.0) ? | com_ajax (3.2.0) ? | com_weblinks (3.0.0) 1 | com_content (3.0.0) 1 | com_languages (3.0.0) 1 | com_config (3.0.0) 1 | com_menus (3.0.0) 1 | com_messages (3.0.0) 1 | com_templates (3.0.0) 1 | com_redirect (3.0.0) 1 | com_postinstall (3.2.0) ? | com_privacy (3.9.0) ? |
3rd Party:: Akeeba (3.7.10) ? |

Modules :: Site ::
Core :: mod_breadcrumbs (3.0.0) 1 | mod_random_image (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_archive (3.0.0) 1 | mod_tags_similar (3.1.0) 1 | mod_finder (3.0.0) 1 | mod_custom (3.0.0) 1 | mod_weblinks (3.0.0) 1 | mod_related_items (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_news (3.0.0) 1 | mod_login (3.0.0) 1 | mod_tags_popular (3.1.0) 1 | mod_users_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_banners (3.0.0) 0 | mod_stats (3.0.0) 1 | mod_footer (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_category (3.0.0) 1 | mod_syndicate (3.0.0) 1 | mod_wrapper (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_popular (3.0.0) 1 | mod_whosonline (3.0.0) 1 | mod_menu (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_categories (3.0.0) 1 | mod_languages (3.0.0) 1 | mod_articles_latest (3.0.0) 1 | mod_feed (3.0.0) 1 | mod_search (3.0.0) 1 |
3rd Party:: Responsive Photo Gallery (2.6.2) 1 | Responsive Photo Gallery (2.6.2) 1 |

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

Libraries ::
Core ::
3rd Party::

Plugins ::
Core :: plg_privacy_message (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_consents (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_actionlogs (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_content (3.9.0) ? | plg_privacy_user (3.9.0) ? | plg_search_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_contacts (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_weblinks (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_content (3.0.0) 1 | plg_search_tags (3.0.0) ? | plg_search_categories (3.0.0) 1 | PLG_ACTIONLOG_JOOMLA (3.9.0) ? | plg_installer_packageinstaller (3.6.0) ? | PLG_INSTALLER_FOLDERINSTALLER (3.6.0) ? | PLG_INSTALLER_URLINSTALLER (3.6.0) ? | plg_extension_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_privacycheck (3.9.0) ? | plg_quickicon_phpversioncheck (3.7.0) ? | plg_quickicon_joomlaupdate (3.0.0) 1 | plg_quickicon_extensionupdate (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_newsfeeds (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_contacts (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_weblinks (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_content (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_tags (3.0.0) 1 | plg_finder_categories (3.0.0) 1 | plg_captcha_recaptcha (3.0.0) 1 | plg_captcha_recaptcha_invisible (3.8) ? | plg_content_emailcloak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_vote (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_loadmodule (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_finder (3.0.0) 0 | plg_content_pagebreak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_confirmconsent (3.9.0) ? | plg_content_geshi (3.0.0) 0 | plg_content_pagenavigation (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_content_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_twofactorauth_yubikey (3.2.0) ? | plg_twofactorauth_totp (3.2.0) ? | plg_system_remember (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_log (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_highlight (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_languagefilter (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_privacyconsent (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_logrotation (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_languagecode (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_debug (3.0.0) 1 | PLG_SYSTEM_ACTIONLOGS (3.9.0) ? | plg_system_logout (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_p3p (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_sef (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_sessiongc (3.8.6) ? | plg_system_cache (3.0.0) 0 | plg_system_redirect (3.0.0) 1 | plg_system_stats (3.5.0) ? | plg_system_updatenotification (3.5.0) ? | plg_system_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_image (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_article (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_module (3.5.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_pagebreak (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_readmore (3.0.0) 1 | plg_editors-xtd_fields (3.7.0) ? | plg_editors-xtd_menu (3.7.0) ? | plg_user_contactcreator (3.0.0) 0 | plg_user_terms (3.9.0) ? | plg_user_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_user_profile (3.0.0) 0 | plg_authentication_gmail (3.0.0) 0 | plg_authentication_ldap (3.0.0) 0 | plg_authentication_cookie (3.0.0) ? | plg_authentication_joomla (3.0.0) 1 | plg_fields_media (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_radio (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_repeatable (3.9.0) ? | plg_fields_imagelist (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_text (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_textarea (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_usergrouplist (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_integer (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_list (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_editor (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_color (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_url (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_calendar (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_sql (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_user (3.7.0) ? | plg_fields_checkboxes (3.7.0) ? |
3rd Party:: plg_editors_tinymce (3.5.6) 1 | plg_editors_codemirror (1.0) 0 | PLG_JMONITORING_AKEEBABACKUP_TITLE (1.0) 1 | Content - [youtube] Video Embedding (1.1) 0 | Content - Embed Google Map (1.2.1) 1 | plg_system_nobrowserversion (1.0) 1 |

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

[darb]

Start by trying to change your admin password by phpAdmin the db tool from your hoster.

See it that works and search here i forum how to change admin password.

[willwhitworth]

Thanks for the suggestion. I changed the password successfully, but it's still doing the same thing. When I enter the username and password and click "Log in", it just refreshes the page and allows me to try to log in again. I see the following messages at the top of the page:

Deprecated: iconv_set_encoding(): Use of iconv.internal_encoding is deprecated in /home3/windyrid/public_html/libraries/joomla/string/string.php on line 27

Deprecated: iconv_set_encoding(): Use of iconv.input_encoding is deprecated in /home3/windyrid/public_html/libraries/joomla/string/string.php on line 28

Deprecated: iconv_set_encoding(): Use of iconv.output_encoding is deprecated in /home3/windyrid/public_html/libraries/joomla/string/string.php on line 29

Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home3/windyrid/public_html/libraries/legacy/application/application.php on line 456

[AMurray]

The FPA states you're using Joomla 3.9.0 therefore, earlier PHP 7.x versions should work with your site.

If you have the option, try setting PHP to 7.1/7.2. The site may not work in 7.3 or 7.4 as the site (joomla version) might be too old.

Check your third party extensions - are they compatible with the PHP version that was upgraded?

"Responsive Photo Gallery 2.6.2" is one that comes to mind. According to the JED, that extension has been unpublished by developer request so updates may not be available. Refer to the Extension listing and accompanying error code definitions

You can try disabling Responsible Photo Gallery - from the database directly, go to the relevant extensions table and set the extension "status" value from "1" to "0" (published to unpublished),and see if that allows the site to run normally (for back-end login etc).

Alternatively what you could do is.

1. export the full database from PHPMyAdmin as a *.sql file.

2. download the joomla system files.

3. install a local web server on your PC such as WAMPServer.

4. Make sure you have the relevant C++ Run-time files installed (the WAMPServer installer will tell you if they are not)

5. Install PHP 5.6 or an earlier PHP 7.x version - they are available from the Add-ons repository on Sourceforge website (search for Wampserver on Sourceforge and then go to the Addons/PHP listing to find the relevant PHP version packages that are "self executable" installers.)

6. Once WAMPServer is set up, create a new database, and import your site's db into it (import the SQL file you previously created from the site's export)

7. Copy the site's Joomla files to a sub-folder within the WAMP application folder e.g. c:\wamp\public_html\your-site-name.

8. Update the configuration.php file with the correct database credentials. This might be different from your live site e.g. db user "root" with no password (which is the Wampserver default). You can set up a separate DB user is you wish.

9. Start Wampserver (you will see the icon in the Windows toolbar system icon tray area).

10. browse to your site like http://localhost/your-site-name/administrator

11. if not working, experiment with the PHP version required - you can install multiple PHP and switch between them easily (requiring a server/WAMPServer restart (not entire computer reboot)).

Doing this on a local server (your PC) it means you can use the PHP version needed in order to get any extensions up to date, install a backup program (like Akeeba) - or do a backup with it - and to update Joomla to 3.9.27 (released May 2021).

Ensure the site works with the relevant PHP version that your host uses (or as close to their PHP version as possible).

Last thing, find any third party extension updates - such as the Photo gallery component, or perhaps you may need to use a different one, and migrate the existing data to it.

For restoring site to live host, using Akeeba Backup is the easiest. All you then need is the backup archive and a tool called Akeeba Kickstart (see their website for that tool) to be loaded to your live hosting in order to restore a working site. It is recommended the existing site files are removed, as the restoration script will overwrite them, but it is better to start with a clean folder to avoid complications.

The restoration runs through the process, step by step,much like a joomla installation, and will ask you for details including database - in which case you need to specify the original (live site) database details. It will ask do you want to drop (delete) or backup the existing db tables - I would select 'backup'.

I recommend Wampserver for its ease of use and for the fact you can install multiple PHP versions where other similar AMP packages come with a single PHP version (usually the latest that may not work with your site).

Sorry for long response, but hopefully enough detail to help you resolve the problem.

[willwhitworth]

@AMurray

Thank you for the detailed reply. I first tried disabling the Responsive Photo Gallery, only to discover that it was already unpublished, so no luck there.

I then followed the alternative steps you provided. I have WAMPServer running successfully and I downloaded my site to a subfolder. However, when I try to browse to my site, it downloads a file named "download" instead of opening the index.php page in the browser. I tried setting WAMPServer to various versions of PHP, but that didn't help. I also tried searching Google to see if I could figure out what was going on and after several hours of trying different things, I'm still stuck. Any ideas?

[willwhitworth]

If you are interested, if you have half-an-hour, and if you would like one-on-one help ... I can talk with you via Skype videoconference and we may short-circuit the several hours of fruitless effort on your part. If this idea appeals to you (it's a one-time, never to be repeated offer) then contact me.

OK? The choice is yours.

If you're serious, I'll definitely take you up on that offer. I tried to send you a private message, but apparently I don't have access to send them.

[Per Yngve Berg]

More than one instance of version.php found!

You have an earlier update that was not performed correctly.

[Webdongle]

Try this to login to admin https://docs.joomla.org/How_do_you_reco ... assword%3F
If no avail you need to check a few things in the database

[willwhitworth]

Thank you all for the suggestions. Sozzled was really helpful in walking me through retrieving the categories and articles from my website and I've decided that the quickest solution at this point is to just rebuild the site on the latest version. I'll be sure to keep Joomla up to date going forward so I can avoid this problem.

I'll consider this resolved. Thanks again!