One of our users was accidentally locked out of his Joomla administrator by Admin Tools. He had triggered a strict security feature in Admin Tools that denied him access, even though he was a super user.
The error he received was this:
I'm going show you two methods to disable Admin Tools. This will allow you to login again in the admin area of Joomla, fix the issue, then reenable Admin Tools.
Method #1: Disable the plugin through phpMyAdmin
- Access phpMyAdmin through cPanel:
- Choose the database
- Find "prefix_extensions" table (where prefix is the unique value of your database tables)
- Browse
- Filter rows with for plugin's name: "System - Admin Tools"
- Edit the record from the results area
- Change the "enabled" value to 0
Method #2: Rename plugin folder
By using an FTP client like FileZilla[1] or through cPanel File manager[2]:
- Go to the plugins/system/admintools folder
- Rename main.php file to main-disable.php
Now login in the administrator area to confirm the fix is indeed working.
Revert changes
Once you are logged into your site, make sure to fix the issue that prevented you from logging on. This fix is normally done via Components > Admin Tools > Web Application Firewall.
Once you have fixed the problem, you can revert the changes you made via Method #1 or Method #2.
About the author
ValentÃn creates beautiful designs from amongst the tequila plants of Jalisco, Mexico. You can see ValentÃn's design work all over this site and you can often find him helping members in our support forum.
