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