Support

Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#43406 Preparing to upgrade from J 3.10.11: Security Akeeba backup works, but results in a template error.

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla!’
This is a public ticket

Everybody will be able to see its contents. Do not include usernames, passwords or any other sensitive information.

Environment Information

Joomla! version
3.10.11
PHP version
7.4
Akeeba Backup version
Pro 8.4.1.1

Latest post by nicholas on Monday, 12 October 2026 09:44 CDT

forensis

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach a ZIP file containing your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue. If the file is over 10MiB, please upload it on your server and post a link to it.

It's high time to upgrade to Joomla 6.x. But before I do, I want to create a backup of my old 3.10.11 installation using Akeeba Backup in a different subdirectory. When I try to restore the backup file (originally in the _pin2026a directory) to the _transfer2 directory to experiment beforehand, I get the following error in the backend: "The template for this view is not available!" and the frontend is practically empty. See images. I've now tried it in three different subdirectories, each with three new, empty databases. It's always the same! Is there any idea what could be causing this?

Thank you very much.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

The log file you sent me is unusable. It looks like you had set the log level to "Warnings and Errors". As a result it's completely empty except the standard warning this ancient version prints about it being too old.

I need a backup log file with the log level set to All Information And Debug to actually understand what is being backed up on your site. Here's what to do:

  1. In your original Joomla 3 site go to Akeeba Backup.
  2. Select your backup profile.
  3. Click on Configure.
  4. Set the Log Level to All Information and Debug.
  5. Click on Save & Close.
  6. Take a new backup.
  7. ZIP and attach the new backup log file.

Further to that, I want to know what is the PHP and MySQL version of the server you are restoring to. I am not sure if the PHP version you mentioned in the ticket is the one your original site was using, or the one you are restoring to. There is a good reason I am asking that. Joomla 3.10 only really ever supported PHP versions up to 8.0, with partial PHP 8.1 compatibility if you completely turn off error reporting. Anything newer than that will result in errors. If you tried restoring the site to a server that meets the Joomla 6 minimum requirements (thus PHP 8.3 or later) you will most definitely have problems with the restored Joomla 3.10 site.

Do keep in mind that Joomla 3.10 stopped receiving feature updates (including PHP compatibility updates) back in August 2022. Yes, it did receive security updates, but only for the now ancient PHP versions it was designed to work with more than 5 years ago – that's a very long time when it comes to software.

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!

System Task
system
User akeebademo has been invited to the conversation

forensis

Hello Nicholas,

Regarding your questions from phpinfo.php: 

PHP version: 7.4.33-nmm8

MSQLI version: mysqlnd 7.4.33-nmm8

I tested the restore process in various subdirectories and also tried different PHP versions for the restore pages, from 5.6 to 8.1.

The backend appears differently each time (see screenshots).

ZIP attachment as requested. I hope I haven't forgotten anything.

Best regards, Walter

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

I went through your new log file and your screenshots. The backup itself looks complete: the log is at the “All Information and Debug” level, shows no skipped files or tables, and includes all the template files (isis, hathor, rsvivo, protostar and so on). So I don’t think the problem is a missing file in the backup archive. My current suspicion is thedatabase of the restored site. I can’t be certain yet, so I need a few things from you to confirm or rule it out.

The PHP 7.4 screenshots are the ones that matter. Joomla 3.10 shows “The template for this view is not available!” in the backend when it can’t find the administrator template’s index.php file. It builds that file name from a database query: it asks thetemplate_styles table for the default (home = 1) administrator template style. If that query returns nothing, the template name ends up empty and you get exactly this message, with Joomla falling back to the Isis template. PHP 7.4 only logs a hidden warning for this; it doesn’t stop the page. That would fit your backend screenshot (Isis layout, but no menu, toolbar or control panel modules) and the practically empty frontend (just the template’s footer). It would mean that, on the restored site, Joomla isn’t reading the template styles, menu and module data properly. This is my best explanation so far, not a confirmed fact.

Here is how to check it:

  1. Check the restored database. Open phpMyAdmin (or your host’s database tool) on the restored site’s database and run this query, replacing ql7sp_ with the table prefix in the restored site’s configuration.php (the $dbprefix line) if it differs:

    SELECT id, template, client_id, home FROM `ql7sp_template_styles`;

    Your backup log says the original table had 9 rows. Please send me a screenshot or copy of the result. If the table is empty, or has no row with client_id = 1 and home = 1, we’ve found the problem.

  2. Check the file. Please confirm that the fileadministrator/templates/isis/index.php exists on the restored site.

  3. Tell me about the database restoration. On the last page of the restoration script, were there any errors or warnings? Also, what MySQL or MariaDB version does the server you’re restoring to run? Your original site runs MariaDB 10.6.23. The “mysqlnd 7.4.33” you quoted earlier is PHP’s client library, not the database server version. Your hosting control panel or phpMyAdmin shows the server version.

  4. Show the hidden warnings (on PHP 7.4). On the restored site, with PHP 7.4, edit configuration.php and change the line public $error_reporting = ...; to:

    public $error_reporting = 'maximum';

    Then load the backend again and send me a screenshot of the page, including any warnings. This is a test copy, so it’s fine to show warnings. Please set it back afterwards.

Two more things, so we keep them separate from the issue above.

The PHP 5.6 “Parse error … jcepro … CustomQueryTrait.php” is simply JCE needing PHP 7.4 or later. It’s not related to your restoration problem.

The PHP 8.1 message “version_compare(): Argument #3 ($operator) must be a valid comparison operator” happens because PHP 8 now throws an error for something PHP 7.4 silently ignores. The screenshot doesn’t show which extension triggers it, and I can tell you with certainty it does not come from Joomla itself.

These two observations combined mean that you are effectively locked into PHP 7.4. Anything lower and JCE breaks. Anything higher and whatever that other third party extension is breaks. Joomla 3.10 doesn’t fully support PHP 8.1, so I’d suggest staying on PHP 7.4 for testing, as you already are.

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!

Support Information

Working hours: We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm Cyprus timezone (EET / EEST). Support is provided by the same developers writing the software, all of which live in Europe. You can still file tickets outside of our working hours, but we cannot respond to them until we're back at the office.

Support policy: We would like to kindly inform you that when using our support you have already agreed to the Support Policy which is part of our Terms of Service. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us help you!