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#43079 General error / Freeze after installing Admin Tools for Joomla

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla!’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
6
PHP version
8,3
Admin Tools version
7.8.9 Pro

Latest post by maspension on Thursday, 25 June 2026 19:43 CDT

maspension
Hi Akeeba Support Team,

I am experiencing a critical issue after installing Admin Tools for Joomla! on my website.

Here are the details of my setup:

CMS: Joomla 6

Template: Corrus (by TemplateMonster)

Description of the problem:
Right after installing Admin Tools, the system throws a general error and completely freezes/crashes.

I would greatly appreciate your help in troubleshooting and resolving this issue.

Thank you very much for your time and assistance.

Best regards,
Luis F. Correa

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

I would need to know exactly what the error message is because "general error" is not something that PHP, Joomla, Admin Tools, or ever the web server would display. That's very likely your interpretation of what you're looking at which doesn't help me help you, hence me asking for the actual error message.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

šŸ‡¬šŸ‡·Greek: nativeĀ šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§English: excellentĀ šŸ‡«šŸ‡·French: basic ā€¢Ā šŸ•Ā My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

maspension
#43079: General error / Freeze after installing Admin Tools for Joomla

Technical Incident Summary

This is a Technical Incident Summary of the telephone conversation between the WebMaster and Luis Fernando Correa.
A severe failure (total crash) on a website developed in Joomla is discussed.

Problem Details
Trigger: The issue occurred immediately after installing a program, specifically related to Akeeba Admin Tools.
Main Symptom: The site turned off completely, displaying only a white screen (commonly known as the White Screen of Death error).
Impact: Visibility and access to all site content, including articles, was momentarily lost.
Error Messages: No numerical error code was recorded. A notice appeared indicating that the system "could not find something," but the user did not write it down; they had to delete the installation manually, and the exact log of the failure could not be recovered.

Agreements and Next Steps
Report: Speaker 1 will report the problem, indicating that the installation of Akeeba Admin caused the total deactivation of the site and the white screen.
Repair: Speaker 2 will continue working on the recovery and improvement of the website.
Follow-up: Speaker 2 will give an update later when the site is operational again so that Speaker 1 can review it and generate a new backup.

Best regards,

Luis F. Corrrea

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

I’m afraid the summary you posted doesn’t give me anything I can actually work with. It describes a phone conversation with a third party about recovering your site, but it doesn’t answer the one question I asked: what is the exact wording of the error or message you saw on the screen?

I completely understand this is frustrating, but the quickest way for us to help you is if you reply to the specific questions we ask, in your own words and describing what you observe on your own site. A general summary of a separate conversation, however detailed, unfortunately doesn’t tell me what went wrong on your Joomla site or why.

That said, based on the little we have — a blank/white page appearing right after installing Admin Tools on a Hostgator server — there is a very common cause we can check straight away.

Admin Tools includes a feature called the .htaccess Maker. When it is used, it writes a brand new .htaccess file in your site’s root directory and keeps a backup of your previous one under the name .htaccess.admintools. On some hosts, including Hostgator, the original .htaccess contains special SetHandler or AddHandler lines that tell the server which PHP version to run your site with. If those lines are not present in the new file, the site can break with exactly the kind of blank page you describe.

So, the first thing I’d like you to try:

  1. Using your hosting File Manager (or an FTP/SFTP client), go to your site’s root directory — the folder where Joomla’s configuration.php file is located. Please make sure your file manager is set to show hidden files, as names beginning with a dot (like .htaccess) are hidden by default.
  2. If you see a file named .htaccess.admintools, first rename your current .htaccess file to something like .htaccess.bak, and then rename.htaccess.admintools back to .htaccess.
  3. Visit your site again and let me know whether it now loads correctly.

If this fixes your site, we’re on the right track, and in my next reply I’ll show you exactly which lines from your original .htaccess need to be carried over so you can keep using Admin Tools safely. If it makes no difference — or if there is no.htaccess.admintools file at all — please tell me, and we’ll take the next step from there.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

šŸ‡¬šŸ‡·Greek: nativeĀ šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§English: excellentĀ šŸ‡«šŸ‡·French: basic ā€¢Ā šŸ•Ā My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

maspension
Dear Akeeba Team,

We have successfully resolved the issue. Thank you very much for your support and willingness to help.

Best regards,
Luis F. Correa Rosado

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