Joomla! Update Issues
Thursday, February 1st, 2018 - General
(Please note – at the time of this post – February 1, 2018 – the latest version of Joomla! was version 3.8.4. If you are reading this post after February 1, 2018 then the versioning may have changed)
Updating your Joomla! script can be a hassle. Unlike a lot of other Content Management Software, Joomla! updates are typically more demanding. Depending on what version of Joomla! you are updating from, the update process may cause you some issues.
• Joomla! 3.8.0 or greater – Update should go through without any issues.
• Joomla! 3.6.5 – Joomla! 3.8.0 – Update should go through but you may have to sort out some issues.
• Joomla! 3.6.5 or lower – The update very likely won’t go through.
Keep in mind, if you don’t keep your Joomla! script up-to-date, then it’s a matter of WHEN your website will be hacked, compromised, and abuse and not a question of IF. While updating your Joomla! script might be painstaking it is a necessary step.
We really encourage you to post any questions you have about updating your Joomla! script at the Joomla! Community Forums:
We are not all that well-versed in how Joomla! is coded and how it is maintained. The folks at the Joomla Community Forums have a much better grasp of this.
3.8.0 or greater
If you are updating from a Joomla! 3.8.0 or greater, then the update process should go on without any issues. Although I would encourage you to make sure that you have plenty of disk space on your account, and making a backup before performing the update is never a bad idea.
A version between 3.6.5 and 3.8.0
If you are updating a Joomla! script that is 3.6.5 or greater, then the update process will probably go through – although you may encounter a few issues. I would encourage you to make sure all of your themes, extensions, and addons are up-to-date before attempting an update. Again make sure you have plenty of disk space for the update process and backing up your script before performing the update is never bad idea.
From what I have read, Joomla! versions 3.6.5 and greater have very few issues with the update process, but issues are known to pop up.
A version less than 3.6.5
If you are using a Joomla! version less than 3.6.5, then chances are the update process won’t work. Depending on how far you are from Joomla! 3.6.5, you might be able to wiggle your way into an update, but it requires a lot of work and just depends on each individual case.
If you find yourself using an extremely old version of Joomla! we would really recommend that you delete that script and start your website over with a fresh, up-to-date version of Joomla! (or another CMS) and keeping the script up-to-date from now on.
If you encounter any issues with the update process, again we are going to refer you to the Joomla! Community Forum at:
If you have any other questions about the Joomla! update process, we would recommend that you discuss it on their forums.
