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That warning is about a PHP setting called disable_functions. Your host can use it to switch off individual PHP functions on your server. Akeeba Backup shows the warning whenever that setting is not empty. This has been the case for well over a decade, so it is not related to the version you are running.

Please note that Akeeba Backup does not test for any specific function. It only checks whether the list is empty. The warning therefore means "your host has disabled something", not "a function we need is missing". Many hosts disable a handful of functions for security reasons which have no effect on backups. If your backups complete and you can restore them, you can safely ignore this warning.

How to see which functions are disabled:

1. In your Joomla back-end, go to System, then System Information.
2. Click the PHP Information tab.
3. Look for the row named disable_functions. It shows the comma-separated list of functions your host has disabled. (If the row is hard to find, use your browser's Find feature, Ctrl+F or Cmd+F, and search for disable_functions.)

If you paste that list in your next reply, I can tell you whether any function on it is likely to matter for backups.

If you want the warning gone, keep in mind that only your host can change this setting. It is configured in the server's PHP configuration, and neither Joomla nor Akeeba Backup can override it. Open a ticket with your host's support and ask something like this:

Akeeba Backup, a Joomla extension, warns me that PHP functions are disabled on my hosting account. Please tell me which functions are listed in the disable_functions setting for my site, and why. If this is configurable, please remove it for my account, or tell me which control panel setting or php.ini /.user.ini change I need to make. If you can't remove some of them, please tell me which ones and why.

Some hosts let you change this yourself in the control panel, usually under "PHP settings", "MultiPHP INI Editor" or "Select PHP version". Others only allow it on request, and some shared hosts refuse for security reasons. If your host refuses and your backups still run fine, there is nothing for you to fix.

If a backup does fail, send me the backup log file and I'll check the cause. The log records the disable_functions list at the start of every backup.

None of these are relevant to taking a backup of a Joomla site using a MySQL or MariaDB database. You would only need one of them if your site was using a PostgreSQL database – and you'd absolutely, most definitely know this is the case.