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Next File Manager — Documentation

Troubleshooting

Common symptoms, what causes them, and how to fix them.

The panel is blank, or stuck on a spinner

  1. Stale asset bundle. The single-page app is served as a versioned bundle; a cached copy of the previous release will not boot against the new backend. Go to System → Clear Cache, clear all, then hard-reload the page (Ctrl+F5 / Cmd+Shift+R).
  2. The system plugin is disabled. Go to System → Manage → Plugins, search nextfilemanager, and confirm System - Next File Manager Session is enabled. Without it the app cannot authenticate its requests.
  3. A JavaScript error. Open your browser's developer console and reload. An error naming a missing file means the media assets did not install — reinstall the package over the top.
  4. A PHP error being returned instead of JSON. Check the network tab for a request returning HTML. Set Error Reporting to Maximum under System → Global Configuration → Server and reload to see the message.

"Access denied" or "Authentication required" on every action

  1. The user has no profile. Access is deny-by-default. Go to Configuration → Profiles, open the profile, and confirm the user or one of their groups is listed under Assignments.
  2. The profile grants no roots. A profile with commands but no root grant permits operations on nothing. Add at least one root — a place, an optional subfolder, and the write flag if they need to change anything.
  3. The place is unpublished. An unpublished place is invisible even to a profile that grants it. Check Configuration → Places.
  4. A direct assignment is overriding a group one. A profile assigned to the user directly wins over any assigned to their groups. Look for a second, more restrictive profile carrying a direct assignment for that user.
  5. The session expired. Normally you get an in-place re-login dialog. If you instead get repeated denials, log out and back in.

An operation is missing from the menu, or greyed out

  1. The command is not granted. Each of the sixteen operations is a separate toggle in the profile. Check the one you expect under File & Folder Operations.
  2. The root is read-only. A root without the Write flag permits browsing, previewing and downloading, but no mutation. Tick Write on that root.
  3. The driver cannot do it. Every driver declares its capabilities, and the interface hides what the protocol does not support. S3-compatible storage has no true directories, so creating an empty folder is unavailable; some drivers cannot rename in place. This is deliberate — see Storage.
  4. The path is protected. Writes to a protected path and its subtree are refused for everyone. See Protection.

"This item is protected" when editing or deleting

  1. It matches a protected pattern. The defaults cover configuration.php, index.php, .htaccess, .user.ini, web.config and the administrator/, cli/, includes/ and libraries/ trees. A match protects the path and everything under it. Review the list under Configuration → Settings.
  2. It carries an explicit lock. Someone used the right-click Lock action. Right-click and Unlock it, as a Super User.
  3. You unlocked it but it is still refused. Unlock overrides only count when Allow Super Users to unlock & edit protected files is switched on in Settings. It is off by default, and it is Super-User-only.
  4. It is a secret file. configuration.php, .env, *.key, *.pem and .htpasswd cannot be read or written below Super User, and no setting lifts that for a non-Super-User.

A search spins for a long time

Search always walks the whole place from its root, not the folder you are standing in, so its cost scales with the size of the place rather than with where you are. On a full Joomla install of roughly 70,000 files, expect around fifteen seconds; on a remote drive, longer.

  1. Point a place deeper. A place scoped to the folder people actually search makes every search on it cheap — see Places.
  2. Results are capped at 200 and reported as truncated. Use a more specific term rather than paging.
  3. Remote walks are bounded rather than allowed to run forever, so a very large remote drive may return truncated results by design.

A file downloads as 0 bytes, or the download fails

  1. Output buffering is polluting the stream. A PHP notice emitted before the download starts corrupts it. Set Error Reporting to None under System → Global Configuration → Server for production.
  2. The remote drive timed out. Raise the Timeout field on that storage. Large files over a slow FTP or WebDAV link routinely need more than the 30-second default.
  3. PHP's execution time is too short. Raise max_execution_time for large transfers, particularly on shared hosting.
  4. It is a secret file. Secret files return an error rather than content below Super User, by design.

Uploads are rejected

  1. The profile's size limit. Check Limits → Max file size on the profile. Zero means unlimited for the profile — the global ceiling still applies.
  2. The global ceiling. Configuration → Settings → Global max upload caps every profile. A profile cannot exceed it.
  3. PHP's own limits. upload_max_filesize, post_max_size and max_file_uploads are enforced by PHP before Joomla sees the request. The component cannot raise them.
  4. The extension is blocked. The denied extensions list always wins. If an allowed extensions list is set and non-empty, anything not on it is refused too.
  5. The destination is read-only or protected. See the two sections above.

Test Connection fails on a remote storage

  1. SFTP — confirm the host and port, and that the account can log in from this server's IP. If you pasted a private key, check it is the full OpenSSH block including the header and footer lines, and supply the passphrase if it has one. If the phpseclib library is missing from your Joomla install, the driver says so and the type is greyed out.
  2. FTP/FTPS — the PHP ftp extension must be enabled; without it the type is greyed out with that reason stated. Try toggling Passive mode — most hosts need it on. For FTPS, tick Use FTPS (explicit TLS), and note that a self-signed certificate will be rejected.
  3. WebDAV/Nextcloud — the Server URL must be the full DAV endpoint. For Nextcloud that is https://your-server/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/, including the trailing slash. Use an app password rather than the account password where the server offers one.
  4. S3-compatible — for anything other than Amazon S3 you must set the Endpoint URL, and MinIO and most self-hosted servers also need Force path-style addressing on. Check the region matches the bucket's.
  5. Everything fails — outbound connections may be blocked by the host's firewall. Ask your host whether outbound SFTP, FTP or HTTPS to that port is permitted.

Grid view shows icons, not image previews

That is how it works — grid view renders a large type icon per item, with a padlock badge on anything protected, and does not produce image thumbnails. The Generate image thumbnails switch in Settings does not change it. To see what a picture looks like, open it in the lightbox: right-click and choose Preview, or double-click it.

If the lightbox itself shows nothing:

  1. It is an SVG. SVG is never streamed inline, because an SVG can carry script. Download it or open it in the text editor.
  2. It is a secret file. configuration.php, .env, *.key, *.pem and .htpasswd are never previewed below Super User.
  3. preview is not granted on your profile.

The interface theme does not match Joomla

The app follows Joomla's own colour scheme automatically. If it is out of step, set the theme explicitly under Configuration → Settings → Theme, then clear Joomla's cache and hard-reload. A stale compiled-language or asset cache is the usual cause of a mismatch surviving a reload.

The front-end file manager shows nothing

  1. No menu item. The site component is installed but invisible until you create a menu item of type Next File Manager → File Manager.
  2. The menu item is public. Guests have no profile and therefore no access. Set the item's Access level to one that requires login.
  3. The logged-in user has no profile. Front-end access uses the same profiles as the admin — assign one.

Still stuck

Collect the following before contacting support at [email protected]:

  • Joomla version, PHP version, and the Next File Manager version from System → Manage → Extensions
  • Which storage driver the failing operation was on
  • The exact error text, and the failing request's response from your browser's network tab
  • Whether it reproduces as a Super User as well as the affected user

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