Troubleshooting

Backup fails with "Cannot create archive"

Check backup directory exists and is writable by PHP
Default: administrator/components/com_mokobackup/backups/
Ensure PHP ext-zip extension is installed

Backup fails with timeout

The AJAX step engine should handle this automatically. If it still times out:

Use the CLI script instead (no timeout): php cli/mokobackup.php --profile=1
Use Scheduled Tasks (run via CLI cron)
Split into separate database-only and files-only profiles

Shared hosting PHP limits

MokoJoomBackup automatically:

Calls set_time_limit(0) and ini_set('max_execution_time', '0')
Increases memory to 512M if below
Uses ignore_user_abort(true) so backup finishes if browser closes
Falls back to AJAX step mode (one table per step, 200 files per step)

Remote upload fails

FTP

Test credentials with a standalone FTP client
Enable Passive Mode
Check outgoing FTP not blocked by firewall

Google Drive

Verify refresh token hasn't been revoked
Check Drive API is enabled in Cloud Console
Verify folder ID exists and user has write access

S3

Verify access key and secret key
Check bucket name and region
For custom endpoints, verify the URL is correct

Encrypted backup won't extract

Verify the correct password
Check PHP has libzip 1.2.0+ (ZipArchive::EM_AES_256 must be defined)
Try extracting with 7-Zip to verify the password works outside PHP

No backups: Run your first backup
Recent failures: Check backup logs for errors
Stale (>7 days): Set up scheduled tasks for automatic backups

Integrity verification fails

The SHA-256 checksum mismatch means the archive file has been modified since creation. Possible causes:

File corruption during transfer
Accidental modification
Archive was re-encrypted or decompressed

Differential backup runs as full

This happens when no base full backup with a manifest exists. Run a full backup first, then differentials will work.

Checking Backup Logs

Each backup record stores a step-by-step log:

[14:30:00] Backup started: Daily Full Backup
[14:30:01] Starting database dump...
[14:30:05] Database dump complete: 42 tables, 15,234,567 bytes
[14:30:05] Starting file scan...
[14:30:08] Backing up 12,345 files
[14:30:45] Files added to archive
[14:30:46] Archive created: 45.23 MB
[14:30:46] SHA-256: a1b2c3d4...
[14:30:46] Starting remote upload (s3)...
[14:31:02] Remote upload complete