Removing Unused Joomla Extensions

Benefits

Removing unused third party Joomla extensions has several benefits including:

  • performance improvement
  • reducing website maintenance
  • improving website security
  • reducing conflicts between extensions

There's usually no point removing unused core extensions as there may be dependencies that are not obvious and Joomla updates will likely reinstall these anyway.

Compiling a List of Third Party Extensions

Find which third party extensions are installed by logging in to the back-end of the website and going to Extensions -> Manage -> Manage. Once you have sorted the list by clicking on the "ID" column heading (see example below), the third party extensions can be found at the end of the list after the items with "Joomla! Project" as the Author. On later versions of Joomla 3, this is around item ID  = 10000. (Thanks to Tim Davis from www.cybersalt.com for this tip)

Managing Extensions

Ignore the following extensions which are installed by default as part of the Joomla 3.x core:

  • beez3 Template by Angie Radtke
  • Editor - CodeMirror Plugin by Marijn Haverbeke
  • Editor - TinyMCE Plugin by Ephox Corporation or Tiny Technologies, Inc
  • FOF by Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos / Akeeba Ltd
  • Hathor Template by Andrea Tarr
  • IDNA Convert Library by phlyLabs
  • Isis Template by Kyle Ledbetter
  • phpass Library by Solar Designer
  • phputf8 Library by Harry Fuecks
  • protostar Template by Kyle Ledbetter

How to Check if a Third Party Extension is Being Used

Components

Installed and enabled components are generally found under the Components menu. Some Components are used in the back-end only (e.g. Akeeba Backup) and you will generally know if you are using these types of Components or not.

Components that are used in the front-end are often associated with a menu item so open each Menu and scan the list of menu items to see which components are in use. (See below for an example). You can probably ignore menu items that are disabled.

Menu Administration

Modules

You can see which third party modules are being used at Extensions -> Modules. (See below for an example). You can probably ignore modules that are disabled.

Module Administration

Note that menu items with no module position assigned may or may not be in use as these can be inserted into content using "loadmodule" syntax or similar. Modules can also be inserted into pages using a page builder such as SP Page Builder so don't assume a module with no module position can be removed.

You can find out if loadposition or loadmodule are being used by searching the website for "{loadmodule" and "{loadposition". If there's no search option published on the website, you can usually browse to www.example-website-name.com/index.php?option=com_search&view=search to show the Joomla standard search. If third party extensions for displaying modules are installed you may need to do additional searches. For example, search for "{module" if Regular Labs Modules Anywhere is installed.

Plugins

You can see which third party plugins are being used at Extensions -> Plugins. (See below for an example). You can probably ignore plugins that are disabled.

Plugin Administration

Templates

You can see which templates are being used at Extensions -> Templates. Templates that are not being used will show "Not assigned". (See below for an example).

Template Administration

Removing Unused Third Party Extensions

Before doing any changes, be sure to run a full backup of the website using Akeeba Backup or similar and copy the backup file off-site as a precaution.

Before removing an extension that looks like it is not being used, I recommend disabling it first and testing the website thoroughly to be sure that everything is still working as expected.

Once you are confident that the extension is not needed, then remove it.

Website Health Check

To find out how well your website is configured, order a Website Health Check for $90.

The Health Check includes:

  • check CMS and third party extension/plugin versions
  • check Google is seeing the website as responsive
  • check website page load speed
  • check robots.txt
  • check free space
  • check backup is enabled and suitably configured
  • check web hosting configuration and suitability
  • recommendations on how best to address any discovered issues

Note that no changes are made to your website during the Website Health Check without consulting you first.

The cost of a Website Health Check is refundable if you purchase a 12 month Website Maintenance and Backup Subscription within 30 days of the check.

Website Maintenance and Backup Subscriptions

  Economy Business Enterprise
Monthly Cost $39 per month $69 per month $99 per month
Annual Cost $390 per year* $690 per year* $990 per year*
Third party extensions up to 10 extensions up to 20 extensions up to 30 extensions
Monthly Report Yes Yes Yes
Free initial security audit (valued at $220) Yes Yes Yes
Monitor new CMS and third party extension/plugin updates Yes Yes Yes
High priority CMS updates installed within 24 hours Yes Yes Yes
High priority third party extension/plugin updates installed within 24 hours Yes Yes Yes
Non-critical CMS and third party extension/plugin updates installed quarterly Yes Yes Yes
Monthly off-site backups Yes Yes Yes
Non-critical CMS and third party extension/plugin updates installed monthly No Yes Yes
Installation of web application firewall (e.g. Akeeba Admin Tools Pro) No Yes Yes
Weekly off-site backups No No Yes
Monthly malware scan No No Yes

* Pay 12 months in advance and get 2 months free.