Downgrade Joomla 3.4 to 3.3.6

06/06/2020 8:01 PM

So, You went and did it. You updated Joomla to 3.4 and it broke stuff. Well, here are instructions to downgrade back to Joomla 3.3.6. You **should** run the database functions to insure easy upgrade to 3.4 at a later date! The first method is for those who have ssh command line access to their server. This makes the process much easier.

***BEFORE YOU BEGIN***

Use Akeeba Backup or similar method to backup your site data AND your database.

Failure to backup prior to downgrade is an invitation to "Murphy-ize" your day!!!

Command Line Access Method

Download 3.3.6 in zip format and unzip into root Joomla directory
- wget https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/releases/download/3.3.6/Joomla_3.3.6-Stable-Full_Package.zip
- unzip *.zip (if you have no other .zip files in your directory)
  - Be sure to choose A when prompted for overwrite…
- Chown -R user:user * (If you don't understand this, type ls -alh and make note of the group/user for the files you did not overwrite
- Remove installation Directory (rm -R -f installation)
Use Your hosting control panel to open myPHPadmin - Select the SQL Tab - Copy the SQL statements below into the SQL window and click GO
NOTE: Be SURE to change jos to YOUR database prefix in each SQL statement
(If you know how to do mysql functions from the command-line, feel free to use the commands below to downgrade your joomla database manually)

DELETE FROM `#jos_extensions` WHERE extension_id = 801;

DELETE FROM `#jos_update_sites` WHERE `name` = 'Weblinks Update Site';

DELETE FROM `#jos_update_sites_extensions` WHERE `extension_id` = 801;

DELETE FROM `#jos_postinstall_messages` WHERE `title_key` = 'COM_CPANEL_MSG_HTACCESS_TITLE';

ALTER TABLE `#jos_redirect_links` DROP header;

INSERT INTO `#jos_extensions` (`extension_id`, `name`, `type`, `element`, `folder`, `client_id`, `enabled`, `access`, `protected`, `manifest_cache`, `params`, `custom_data`, `system_data`, `checked_out`, `checked_out_time`, `ordering`, `state`) VALUES

(100, 'PHPMailer', 'library', 'phpmailer', '', 0, 1, 1, 1, '', '', '', '', 0, '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 0, 0);

DELETE FROM `#jos_postinstall_messages` WHERE `title_key` = 'COM_CPANEL_MSG_ROBOTS_TITLE';

Database changes will allow re-upgrade to 3.x later…

FTP Method

Download 3.3.6 in zip format from https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/releases/download/3.3.6/Joomla_3.3.6-Stable-Full_Package.zip
Unzip the file and REMOVE the installation folder from the newly unzipped data...
Upload the files to your root Joomal installation using the overwrite method of your favorite FTP client (program)
Use Your hosting control panel to open myPHPadmin - Select the SQL Tab - Copy the SQL statements below into the SQL window and click GO
NOTE: Be SURE to change jos to YOUR database prefix in each SQL statement