Joomla! Troubleshooter

Here are details of some of the more common problems that can occur when building a Joomla website, their possible causes, and how to resolve them.

Description:  Sometimes, you find that you cannot enter text into the HTML editor, or click on the HTML editor's toolbar buttons - you are locked out of editing your content!

Possible Cause(s):  This is usually a problem with javascript permissions.  Javascript can only work in a single 'domain', so if resources are required from more than 1 domain to do a job, javascript applications such as HTML editors can crash.  The most common reason why HTML editors in Joomla try to access resources from more than one domain is that the user tries to access the page without using "www." before the domain name (or, it could be that you are trying to access the page with the "www." but shouldn't be).  For example, usually http://mydomain.com/administrator is wrong.  It should be http://www.mydomain.com/administrator.

Resolution:  Whether or not to use "www." depends on the settings in your configuration.php file.  Go to Site->Global Configuration (from the main menu in Joomla), click on the Server tab, and check the 'Live Site' setting.  If the live site setting includes www. then you must use www. when accessing Joomla administrator.  If live site does not include www. then you must not use www. when accessing Joomla administrator. 

If this does not solve your problem, a good place to start troubleshooting is to check for javascript errors.  In IE6, a little yellow icon appears in the bottom left of your browser when a javascript error occurs - double-click on it to see the error message.  In Firefox, click on Tools->JavaScript Console for a list of the errors.

Description:  The above error message may appear after you have installed Joomla for the first time, or when you have uploaded or moved a copy of your website from one server or domain to another.

Possible Cause(s):  This error occurs when Joomla cannot log in to the MySQL database.  It could be that there is a problem with the database, or more likely, the connection details supplied in your configuration.php file are incorrect.  Underneath the above message, you will find a number: either 1, 2, or 3.  This number can help you determine why Joomla cannot access the database:

Error 1: MySQL support not available (Either MySQL is not installed, or PHP does not have the correct modules loaded).
Error 2: Connection to database server failed (The most common one - usually means that the host, username, or password values in configuration.php are wrong).
Error 3 = FATAL ERROR: Database not found (The connection details are ok, but the database name specified in configuration.php does not exist).

Resolution:  Check the host name, database name, user name, and password in your configuration.php file.  Check that a MySQL database exists on the server with the given name, and that the user name and password supplied in configuration.php has permission to read and write on that database.

Description:  You may find that when trying to login to the front-end of your website, using internet explorer, it appears as though you have not logged in - even though the back end administrator shows you as being logged in.  In some cases, you might find that Firefox allows you to log in ok.

Possible Cause(s):  Internet Explorer can get confused when handling cookies related to Joomla logins.  Usually, this does not present a problem for most users, but if you are developing a Joomla website you might have a situation where you use the same browser to access two different websites with the same name (for example if you have a local copy as well as the online, live version), and this can cause cookie-chaos.

If the problem is not limited to internet explorer (ie. you can't get in using Firefox either), there might be a problem with your .htaccess file - in particular, the RewriteBase line.  If this is pointing to the wrong directory, Joomla's front end will not be able to remember that you have logged in (although the back end administrator will show you as logged in).

There could also be a configuration conflict between your server and the default .htaccess file, in which case you may need to amend .htaccess (as described below). 

Also, if you or your users are trying to log in behind a firewall or through a proxy connection, this can cause Joomla to start a new session seemingly at random, and therefore 'forget' that you were logged in.

Finally (for now), I have also had this problem when a Joomla mySQL database was not correctly copied from one server to another.

Resolution:  Inconvenient though it may be, clearing your cookies (tools->internet options->delete cookies) will usually resolve this if the problem is restricted to internet explorer. 

 

If you are experiencing the problem after having copied a mySQL database, try copying it again and make sure the whole database is copied ok (if necessary, break the SQL dump down into smaller files).

 

Otherwise, check your .htaccess file, and make sure that RewriteBase is pointing to the correct directory.

If the above does not solve the problem, you could try amending your .htaccess file.  Warning! Changing your .htaccess file can cause undesirable side effects on your website.  Please make sure you backup your .htaccess file first!  Replacing the standard .htaccess settings with the following might help (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain):

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} www.yourdomain.com
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1 [L]

If the problem occurs because you need to login from behind a firewall or proxy, you may need to make a hack to Joomla's session handling.  Please see this thread for more details.