Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Saturday, 07 February 2026 19:57 CST

RCheesley

Hi folks!

I'm working on migrating an old Joomla 3 site up to the latest versions, and while doing so I didn't update Akeeba Backup at intermediate steps. I'm now on 6.0.2 and installed the latest version, but I am finding I can't remove the old version, 6.4.0.

I read a couple of other public tickets but these were different versions and the steps didn't work, I still get the error:

You need Joomla! 4.0.999 or earlier to install this component

The automated removal doesn't work either.

Could you tell me what files I need to remove or process to follow so I an uninstall the old version?

Thanks in advance!

Sunday, 08 February 2026 04:54 CST

nicholas

Well, you can't. Heck, Akeeba Backup 6 –discontinued in October 2019, nearly six and a half years ago– is not even compatible with Joomla 3.10, let alone any newer version. You should've followed the documented upgrade path. Now that you are on Joomla 6 it's way too late.

The only thing you can do now is database surgery, either manually or using something like our Onthos extension.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Sunday, 08 February 2026 08:18 CST

RCheesley

Thanks, I figured that might be the case! It's a site that hasn't had many updates at all done for a long time. Weirdly I did check for updates before getting going to 4, but none were found. I'll step through the upgrades again and update incrementally as I go rather than waiting to the end, hopefully that'll get us to a better place.

Sunday, 08 February 2026 08:52 CST

nicholas

That's right, this is the preferred method. I just didn't know if it was an option :D

You will have to slowly walk the updates between Joomla 3.x and PHP versions, simultaneously updating Akeeba Backup, until you get to Joomla 3.10 on PHP 7.4 using Akeeba Backup 8.

At this point you can follow the migration instructions I linked to.

Then you upgrade to PHP 8.1 and Joomla 5, upgrading Akeeba Backup to version 10.

Then you upgrade to PHP 8.3 and Joomla 6.

I know it's annoying. I've done that with an old version of my dev site to get a "feel" of the process. Unfortunately, that's what happens with old sites the client adamantly refused to update. In contrast, my main dev sites which have been closely tracking new PHP and Joomla versions have been dead simple to update over the years. If only clients would listen to you and updated their sites frequently...

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Monday, 09 February 2026 14:36 CST

RCheesley

Thanks, yes that's what I did - went back to 3 and migrated up to 4, updated to v9, removed the old version, updated to v5.

Thanks for the help!

Monday, 09 February 2026 15:44 CST

nicholas

You're welcome!

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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