Here is the proof that it's me, the author of Akeeba Backup, who posted on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/joomla/comments/wksk3l/comment/ijsl7ma/?context=3) offering my help to a random stranger who seemed desperate.
I became a FOSS developer because I actually enjoy helping people.
Not to mention that the instructions I would have given this person would be to submit a PRIVATE ticket on our site with his site info, not send it over DM.
- Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos, Akeeba Ltd, Director and Lead Developer
Since July 1st, 2019 Akeeba Ltd does not sell products directly to end users. All sales are performed through our authorised reseller, Paddle. This was a necessary change because over the last few years different tax jurisdictions have required us to collect sales tax on their behalf, even though we do not have a physical presence there. It was impossible for a small company like us to handle the sales tax registration and collection on a global scale. Ignoring the tax laws or going out of business was not an option either. That's why we started using Paddle: to solve this otherwise impossible problem.
Paddle handles billing and invoicing. They are responsible for figuring out sales tax applicability and amount, take your money and issue the corresponding invoice for your order.
Akeeba Ltd only fulfills the order. This means that we only provide software downloads and support. We do not handle billing or invoicing. As a result we cannot help you with billing or invoicing issues ourselves. We can only give you some generic advice based on our past experience with billing issues both as Paddle customers ourselves and from the information shared with us by other clients with similar issues:
For any further information and support for billing or invoicing issues not covered by our generic advice please contact Paddle directly. You can do so by replying to the email you received from Paddle when you purchase a subscription. It's the email with the receipt / invoice for your transaction. Alternatively, you can reach Paddle at
Purchasing a subscription starts on our site. You select a product and you're transferred to the subscription form where you can enter / review your contact information we keep on file, enter any coupon code we might have given you and accept our terms of service and privacy policy.
After clicking the Pay and Subscribe button on our site a new full-screen overlay opens with Paddle’s payment interface. If the subscription page reloads without opening the payment overlay please make sure that you have checked the “I accept the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy” checkbox before clicking the Pay and Subscribe button.
The payment overlay requires JavaScript to be enabled on your browser and allowed to be loaded from domains other than our own – Paddle hosts its payment JavaScript on its own CDN. If you do not see the payment interface opening within 10 seconds, or if it seems to be unresponsive, the problem might be a third party browser extension or software which blocks JavaScript such as, but not limited to, NoScript and Privacy Badger. Please try using a different browser without any browser extensions installed. If this doesn’t help try using your phone or tablet to make your purchase.
If you have a problem completing a payment using PayPal please clear your browser’s cookies and retry. This is a problem with PayPal itself.
If your credit card transaction is on hold please wait for a day. It’s very likely that you accidentally triggered the automated fraud prevention system at Paddle’s side and a human will be investigating your transaction shortly.
If your credit card transaction fails outright please contact your bank or card issuer. In virtually every case your bank or card issuer has automatically blocked the transaction with a company outside your country even if you had previously explicitly asked them to do otherwise. You need to ask them to allow the transaction with Paddle, a company based in the UK or Ireland (they have two business entities, which one will be used to process your transaction depends on your location). Then you can retry the payment.
In any other case please contact Paddle as explained further above this page.
There’s a common misconception that an EU company will only charge VAT for sales to non-business clients in the EU. This has not been the case for quite a few years now. As explained at the top of this page, several tax jurisdictions require that a merchant selling software and/or services in their territory collects the applicable sales tax / VAT even if it does not have physical presence in that jurisdiction.
This is the reason we started using Paddle in July 2019. We could not handle the complexity of registering for sales tax and managing that tax ourselves on a global scale. Since you are making a transaction with Paddle and being issued an invoice by them they are responsible for charging you the applicable tax, collect it from you and give it back to the relevant tax authorities.
You can find the exhaustive list of tax jurisdictions where tax is charged, as well as when it’s charged and how much is it. Note that in many cases the tax applies only to sales to individuals (B2C), not sales to tax registered companies (B2B). If you have further questions about tax law compliance please contact Paddle as explained further above this page. They will be able to help you understand why tax is being charged to your purchase.
After clicking the Pay and Subscribe button on our site you are taken to the payment page managed by our reseller, Paddle. The first page lets you enter (or verify) your email address and country:
Even though you see VAT being applied, click on Continue.
In the next page, look at the left hand side. There is a “+ Add VAT” link.
Click on the “+ Add VAT” link to enter your invoicing information, including your EU VAT number. Please remember that if you are an EU company with a VIES-registered VAT number you need to enter your VAT number without the country prefix.
If you are an EU company but your VAT number is not recognised after clicking Apply please check it with the EU VIES service. If the service reports the VAT number as invalid you can proceed without entering your business information at this step. After subscribing you will need to follow the instructions under “Converting your receipt to an invoice” below. If the EU VIES service reports a temporary problem you can proceed with your payment without entering your business information and follow the instructions under both “Converting your receipt to an invoice” and “Requesting a VAT refund” below after a day or two.
Important: Paddle is the Merchant of Record, meaning that you are paying Paddle, therefore the invoice is issued by Paddle. Paddle is based in the United Kingdom. All UK businesses will be charged the applicable VAT regardless of whether they enter a valid VAT number, in accordance to local tax laws.
Paddle emails you with a payment receipt upon successful payment. This receipt is a valid tax invoice if you had already entered your invoicing information before payment.
If you did not enter your company’s invoicing information during payment for any reason you can do so within 7 days of the receipt having been issued. Follow the link in the email you received from Paddle to open the receipt in your browser. If you deleted this email you can still find that link after logging into our site, under My Subscriptions.
The left hand side of the receipt page has a blue link to enter your invoicing information. Click on it and enter your company information. This is enough to convert the receipt to a valid tax invoice. You can print that page, either to a piece of paper or a PDF file, and file it as a business expense.
If the link does not appear it may be the case that the receipt has been issued more than 7 days ago. In this case please contact Paddle as noted further above
If you forgot to enter your VAT number or the VAT number validation did not work at the time you first need to follow the “Converting your receipt to an invoice” instructions above. While doing that you will enter your VAT number. A VAT refund will be issued in the next few days.
According to our experience the invoice is not amended to show that no VAT was actually charged. If your tax jurisdiction does not allow that please contact Paddle at
We regularly receive "bug" reports and support requests which are the variation of the following:
I just restored my site. Even though my hosts uses PHP 7.3 my site complains that it's running on PHP 5.4.45. This must be a bug.
Sometimes they might manifest themselves as a variation of this:
I just restored my site and all I can see is a blank page / PHP error.
In both cases the root cause is the same: your host has multiple PHP versions installed on the server and the default PHP version is too old for your site.
Quick fix: go to your hosting control panel and select a newer PHP version for your site.
Keep reading to understand why this happens and what you can do about it.
The messages about the PHP version do not do anything fancy to detect the PHP version. They simply ask PHP to report its PHP version by reading the PHP_VERSION constant. This constant is defined by PHP itself and it takes its value when PHP was compiled by your host. That is to say, it can never report the "wrong" PHP version. It always reports the exact PHP version your site is running under.
The real problem is that your host has multiple PHP versions installed but the default PHP version used to run your site is very old and not the same as the much newer one reported by your hosting control panel. We understand it's counter-intuitive. It's how your host works which is outside our control. All we can do is explain how things work under the hood and what you can do to fix your sites.
Most modern hosts have multiple versions of PHP installed in parallel on the server. In our example above a host has both PHP 5.4 and 7.3 installed in parallel.
The hosting control panel (e.g. cPanel or Plesk) will only ever run under the specific PHP version it was designed to run with. In fact, the hosting control panel doesn't run under your hosting account. It's a parallel system to the web server serving your site. When you visit the hosting control panel you see the PHP version the panel runs under in its own isolated web server. It is NOT the PHP version your site runs under.
Without doing anything further, your site runs under the default PHP version your host has selected for your web server. Typically hosts choose an older, obsolete PHP version. It makes business sense for them. Most of their clients will be maintaining old sites which have not been updated in years. By using a veritably antediluvian PHP version as the default they avoid having to provide support to these clients. The web hosting business bases its profitability on marginal cost cuts, after all.
This is, of course, a big problem when you want to run a modern, up-to-date site with modern, up-to-date software that requires a newer PHP version. All of these hosts allow you to select which PHP version your site will run under through their hosting control panel.
Most servers supporting multiple PHP versions run under Apache. When you go to your hosting control panel and change the PHP version what really happens is that your site's .htaccess file is edited. Typically, you will see a line starting with AddHandler or SetHandler added to the bottom of the file. Here's an example line from a typical cPanel installation enabling PHP 7.3:
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php73 .php .php5 .php4 .php3
In many cases you can select a different PHP version for each folder of your site. For example, you can set one version for the root of your site (typically called public_html, htdocs or www) and a different one for Joomla's administrator or WordPress' wp-admin folder. This is implemented by creating / modifying the .htaccess files inside each folder. Please keep that in mind if your public site seems to be running under a different version that your site's administrator backend.
Also note that .htaccess files, therefore the selection of a PHP version applied through a .htaccess file, cascades. This is a fancy way to say that whatever you select in your site's root will be applied to all subdirectories and their subdirectories and so on and so forth. You can override the cascade if you select a different PHP version for a specific folder. For example, if you apply a different PHP version in your administrator directory the setting inherited from the site's root is ignored and overridden by the PHP version selected for the administrator folder. All subdirectories of the administrator folder will use the PHP version specified for the administrator folder itself.
If you find yourself in a situation where you can't understand why different PHP versions are reported in different parts of your site try editing your .htaccess files and remove all AddHandler and SetHandler lines. Then go to your hosting control panel and apply the required PHP version to your site's root.
If you are using Akeeba Backup / Solo 7.3.0 or later and Akeeba Kickstart 7.0.1 or later any custom PHP versions will be honoured and applied to your restored site by default.
If you are restoring to a new server you need to go to your hosting control panel and apply the newer PHP version to your site's root right after uploading kickstart.php and your backup archive but before starting the restoration. If you are using the Site Transfer Wizard you need to do that after the wizard tells you it has finished uploading the files and before clicking the button to start the restoration on the new server.
Kickstart and the restoration script inside your backup archive will take note of the AddHandler and SetHandler lines and use them throughout restoration. Moreover, they will apply them to your .htaccess file when you click on the Clean Up button. This way your newer PHP version will be effective even after the restoration is complete.
If you are using an older version of Akeeba Backup and / or Kickstart you will have to apply the newer PHP version after you click the Clean Up button at the end of the restoration process.
There's a number of third party Joomla! extensions and WordPress plugins which can modify the .htaccess file of your site. As a result of these changes the AddHandler / SetHandler lines which set up a newer PHP version on your site may be removed.
On WordPress the .htaccess file is modified, not replaced, one section at a time specific to each plugin. Since the PHP version lines (AddHandler or SetHandler) are placed at the end of the .htaccess file they are not supposed to be touched by any third party plugins. Therefore nothing special is required there.
Joomla doesn't come with a default .htaccess file. Third party extensions can generate a new .htaccess from scratch. One such extension is our Admin Tools for Joomla. If you are using it you need to make a manual change to its configuration if and only if you are using its .htaccess Maker feature.
This ensures that regenerating your .htaccess file through the .htaccess Maker won't accidentally bump your site back to the server's older, default PHP version.
When restoring the site to a new server you have to follow this procedure again. The custom PHP version AddHandler line may be different on every host or even every server used by the same host.
Hello! Thank you for you interest in writing about, demoing, or teaching about Akeeba. We appreciate it!
These guidelines will help you talk about Akeeba and show our brand in a way that's accurate and consistent. To make any use of our logos or content in a way not covered by these guidelines, please contact us so we can discuss your use case.
Akeeba, Ltd is a developer-run company which has produced popular software for Joomla, WordPress, and the occasional stand-alone PHP application since 2006. We believe in crafting quality products, with a special focus on security and an eye towards the future. Our extensions help you manage your site and keep your site safe from hackers.
Backup Project Started | October 2006 (originally known as JoomlaPack) |
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Company Established | June 2012 |
Location | Nicosia, Cyprus |
Team Size | 2 |
The Akeeba logos include the Akeeba name and AK icon, as well as our product logos. Please don't modify the logos or use them in a confusing way, including suggesting sponsorship or endorsement by Akeeba, or in a way that confuses Akeeba with another brand (including your own). Thank you!
Akeeba Backup is an award-winning website backup product. We offer different versions for Joomla, WordPress, and a standalone PHP version called Akeeba Solo. You can use the free versions, or subscribe to a Professional plan to get advanced features and personalized support. Please note you need a separate subscription for Joomla, WordPress, and Akeeba Solo, as the products differ.
Admin Tools helps you manage and optimise your WordPress or Joomla site. The Professional versions also include robust security features, to help you protect your site against malicious bots or hackers. Please note you need a separate subscription for Joomla and WordPress, as the products differ.
Kickstart is an free and fast archive utility that allows you to quickly extract ZIP, JPA, and JPS files directly on your server. No need to upload thousands of files. Enjoy lightning-fast speed and reliability, even on the vast majority of shared hosts.
Akeeba LoginGuard is a free two-step verification extension for Joomla. Fun fact: Akeeba built the original two-factor authentication plugin now included in Joomla's core. Now we've gone back and made it better. Provided for free to help you gain additional login security.
Engage is a robust and fast comment system for Joomla. Works with Joomla's core content compontent and includes a full HTML editor for writing comments. Currently free without support, but we will be providing a subscription for end-user support soon.
A powerful ticket system component for Joomla, which we use to provide support on our own site. Provide support services on your site, the easy way. Full HTML editing. Email replies. WYSIWYG email template editing. Multilingual support. And much more!
Sometimes, when filing a ticket you may receive an error page "403 You have triggered our site protection". This is not a bug, it's really our site's protection kicking in when it find potentially dangerous or objectionable content in your ticket.
In this page we'll explain what that content would be and how to address it so you can file your ticket.
First, please make sure that you are allowed to access the support category you're trying to file a ticket in. This is explained further below.
When you have any triggering content in your ticket's title or main content area -- as explained further below -- you will see an error and your ticket will not be filed.
If the triggering content is an excerpt of a log file please place your log file in a compressed ZIP file and attach this ZIP file to your ticket. If your ZIP file is over 2MB big please upload the ZIP file to a public storage server (your site, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive etc) and paste a download link in your ticket text.
If the triggering content is part of an error message please take a screenshot in PNG or JPG format and attach it to your ticket. If you cannot take a screenshot of the entire content please copy it into a plain text (.txt) file and treat that file as a log file per the previous paragraph (ZIP and attach it).
If the triggering content is part of a suspected hacked URL or hacking signature you can treat it the same way you should treat an error message as explained in the paragraph above: take a screenshot; if a screenshot is not a viable option please copy to a text file, ZIP the file and attach it to your ticket.
The only support category everyone has access to without further conditions is Pre-sales.
If you are trying to request support for any other software you need to have an active subscription that gives you access to the downloads and support of the software you are trying to get help for. If you are unsure, please make sure you are already logged in and do check your active subscriptions. If there's a problem with your subscription, e.g. it did not renew automatically even though you chose the recurring option when subscribing, please file a Pre-sales ticket about the subscription issue so we can help you with that issue first.
Further to that, please note that similarly titled software for different platforms requires separate subscriptions. For example, Akeeba Backup for Joomla is different than Akeeba Backup for WordPress. Getting support for Akeeba Backup for Joomla requires an active JoomlaDeluxe, Essentials or AkeebaBackup subscription. Getting support for Akeeba Backup for WordPress requires an active WPBundle or BackupWP subscription. If, for example, you only have an AkeebaBackup subscription you will get a 403 when trying to get support for Akeeba Backup for WordPress. In that case you'd be similarly unable to request support for Admin Tools for Joomla since it's not included with the AkeebaBackup subscription.
Finally note that in some cases you may have the Professional versions of our software on your site through the site integrator that built or maintains your site. In this case you cannot get updates or support directly from us. Instead, you need to go through that person or company. If you are no longer working with them you will need to purchase a qualifying subscription to request support. If you're not sure which subscription you should purchase please file a Pre-sales support request, either on our ticket system or our Contact Us page, so we can help you.
It's hard to find a solution if you don't know what kind of content might be triggering our site's protection. The following is the most common triggering content we've encountered when our clients attempt to file tickets on our site.
Database / SQL code
This is the most common case. You are trying to copy an error message which contains database (SQL) code, e.g. from a restoration gone wrong. We do not allow raw SQL code in our tickets' content for security reasons. You need to take a screenshot or copy it into a .txt file, ZIP the file and attach the ZIP archive to your ticket.
Please note that this can also be triggered in some circumstances by combinations of words which are very unlikely in the regular flow of the English language but common in SQL code such as "select frοm", "insert intο" or "replace intο". If that's the problem, please rephrase.
PHP, JavaScript, embeds or other non-static content (including in attachments)
Our site might reject tickets or silently reject attachments if they are detected to contain executable code such as PHP, JavaScript, embedded dynamic content etc.
If that's the case please do not include this content in your ticket's body. Instead, put the content in .txt file, ZIP the file and attach the ZIP archive to your ticket.
Objectionable / spam words
If you copied a spam or other message which contains profanity (swear words) or words commonly used by spammers. Keep in mind that our content filter includes word from different languages and character sets i.e not just English or similar western languages but also words in Russian written in Cyrillic characters.
If that's the case please do not include this content in your ticket's body. Instead, put the content in .txt file, ZIP the file and attach the ZIP archive to your ticket.
Hacking signatures
This is especially likely if you are trying to get support for a block notification you got from Admin Tools. This might include a hacking signature which is blocked by Admin Tools. Therefore it will also be blocked on our site if it's part of a ticket.
If that's the case please do not include this content in your ticket's body. Instead, put the content in .txt file, ZIP the file and attach the ZIP archive to your ticket.