Enable Joomla Debug & Error Reporting

Here we will cover what to do when a Joomla site is displaying Error on the front page. To get more information on why the error is occurring, we can enable debugging mode and error reporting mode to display the exact error.

These settings can be enabled by editing the configuration.php file.

Related Articles

Change Joomla Database Settings
Enable/Disable Error Reporting in PHP

Enable Debug and Error Reporting

1. Log into cPanel
2. Locate the document root of the domain
3. Locate the configuration.php file
   1. Right-click and Edit the file
      
4.  Locate the debug variable and set it to true
   $debug = true;
   
   NOTE: If the $debug variable is set to 0, set it to 1.
   EXAMPLE: $debug = 0; --> $debug = 1;
5. Locate the error_reporting variable and set it to maximum
   $error_reporting = "maximum";

6. Save the file
   TIP: Remember to remove the values when done troubleshooting to reverse the effect of Debug/Error Reporting so that minor errors are not publicly viewable on the website.

This article covers Joomla versions 3.x - 4.x.
If an updated version is available and not documented here, drop us a comment so we can work to get it updated for you as soon as possible!