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)
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.