Help - cannot log in as administrator Topic is solved

[mkim220]

I am new to Joomla and web development, so I would appreciate any and all help...

I installed a plugin on a Joomla site, but after enabling it, the entire site went down. Now, there's only a blank white screen when I try to access the site at all - I can't even log in as admin.

I reached out to the developer of the plugin, who suggested disabling the plugin by accessing the database through phpMyAdmin. I installed XAMPP to open up phpMyAdmin, but I do not know how to access the database for the site. The site was created many years ago, and I only have the admin log-in username and password at this point. Can anyone recommend what I should do in this situation?

Thank you!

[toivo]

Welcome to the Joomla forum!

If you installed XAMPP on localhost, it will not allow you to access a remote database server.

Contact the host to get access to the cPanel from where you can use phpMyAdmin and disable the plugin.

On the other hand, if the website has not been maintained, it can be out of date and vulnerable. Once you can access the cPsnel, please use the Forum Post Assistant (FPA) from the link above and post the results for further advice.

[pe7er]

You can disable a plugin by renaming its folder to something else.
If Joomla cannot find the plugin, it will not load it.

A blank white screen is usually a PHP error with "PHP Error Reporting" switched off. Switch it on to see the real error:
In your global configuration (configuration.php) change PHP Error Reporting to maximum:

public $error_reporting = 'maximum';

[AMurray]

This can be done on XAMPP - although, you may run into issues, depending on which XAMPP edition you run as I believe it only ships with the latest PHP version and not easy to switch if you need to (e.g. if you are indeed running Joomla 2.5, it requires at minimum PHP 5.3.10 or recommended, 5.6.x but not 7.x or 8.x).

The XAMPP site still has older versions available - I think their version numbering parallels the PHP release version it is shipped with (or as I recall it used to do that). e.g. XAMPP 5.6 would come with PHP 5.6 (or variations thereof).

I'd recommend WAMPServer on your local PC rather than XAMPP (you still get PHPMyAdmin with it), because it allows you to install earlier (old) PHP versions as 'add-ons' and you can choose which version to use according to the requirements of your web site to get it running smoothly.

This way you can get the site working locally and get that plugin sorted out and also update Joomla using the appropriate update documentation.

[mkim220]

Thank you all for your responses. I am currently asking people in my organization to find out who the host is so they can fix the issue through the control panel.

In the meantime, I've tried installing WAMPServer on my local PC. The site is running Joomla 2.5 so I set the PHP version to 5.6.40, but I get the following errors when opening phpMyAdmin:

Warning: Unsupported declare 'strict_types' in C:\wamp64\apps\phpmyadmin5.0.2\index.php on line 8
Warning: Unsupported declare 'strict_types' in C:\wamp64\apps\phpmyadmin5.0.2\libraries\common.inc.php on line 33

However, would it even be possible to access my site's database through phpMyAdmin with the limited information I have (website name and login info for the Joomla administrator)?

[toivo]

Hosts normally block direct access to their database servers from outside their network. That is a standard security practice. You need to contact the host to get access to their cPanel.

There are online services that can tell you which company has registered a particular subnet, in other words, which company manages the IP address that your domain is associated with in the domain name system (DNS).

If your company pays for the hosting, it will be easier to convince the host that you have the right to get the credentials to the cPanel.

[mkim220]

I was able to get access to the control panel and turn off the plugin through phpMyAdmin, and the website is back up and running. Your suggestion to look for the company that manages the domain put me on the right track. Thank you for your help!!