If for some reason or other you need to find out who is receiving system emails: here's a neat trick on how to find these. Go to your phpmyadmin, find the _users table and Search in the #_users table in the database where sendEmail=1
So basically you'll need to run the following SQL query using phpmyadmin
SELECT *
FROM `xxxx_users`
WHERE sendemail=1
The results of the query will be those users who are enabled to receive joomla 3 system emails!
In Joomla 3, once you enable Search Engine Friendly URLs (obviously for better Jooml Search Engine Optimization), you will probably get index.php in your address. Something like www.yourdomain.com/index.php/about-us.
If you want to remove the index.php, it is very simple. Besides enabling the Search Engine Friendly URLs, you'll also need to enable URL rewriting.
Quick recap:
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When you are performing drastic changes to your website, it is advisable to turn switch your Joomla website to Offline mode (Site > Global Configuration > Site Offline > Yes). Of course, the default offline message is ok - however, many times it's much better to create a specific message which is tailored for the needs of your specific Joomla website and audience.
The offline image can also be changed so that rather than having a Joomla logo - you can create a custom image of your own. We recommend putting up something amusing, so at least after the users get annoyed with the website being offline, at least they know you have a good sense of humour and hopefully come to check again later :)
Change the Offline message in the Site Settings of the Global Configuration, and insert your custom message. This is the basic configuration
Have you ever had that moment, when you enable a module, plugin or component in Joomla, nd suddenly it starts giving such a severe error that it takes down your whole site - even the administrator part so you can't disable it? When this happens, there is no way to disable the problem module or plugin from the "Administrator" panel.
Luckily, there is quite an easy way to fix this problem - disabling the Joomla plugin, module, or other extension via PhpMyAdmin. If you are not really sure which plugin may have created the problem in the first place, it would be best to start disabling 3rd party plugins and components one by one in the following way - until the problem goes away.
The default Joomla installation uses the php mail function to send emails. If you would like to use Joomla SMTP rather than phpmail, maybe because your hosting server does not support it, this is a fairly easy procedure.
The phpmail also might give you an error in Joomla:
"Could not instantiate mail function error" - using SMTP will avoid this error.
Please note that to use SMTP, you must have a valid email address to send the emails from - this is obviously good practice in general, so make sure you have created an email address. The typical address would be This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., however if you don't want to read these often, you can use a generic email such as bounce or no-reply...
The steps to configure Joomla 3 to use STMP follow
1. Logon to the Joomla administrator
2. Click on System > Global Configuration
3. Click on the Server tab
4. Under the Mail Settings, enter the following details
Set SMTP to Yes
Set SMTP Authentication to Yes
(You'll need to get these details from your hosting server) Check if your SMTP server uses SSL/TLS or nothing, and then chose the appropriate option from SMTP Security. If you are going to use SSL or TLS you'll need to enter the port required for your SMTP server.
Enter your SMTP username - this is usually your full email address
Enter your SMTP password - this is the password you created when you were setting up the email address
The SMTP Host is either localhost, if the SMTP server is same as your server, or else the SMTP server which is defined by your hosting service. (You'll need to check these details with your hosting service).
That should be it! Check whether it is working correctly, by either registering a new user, or maybe sending an email using your newsletter component. If it doesn't work, double check to make sure that the username/password and SMTP Host details are correct. However, under most conditions this is all you need to do to get Joomla SMTP setup and should get this working.
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