Download old versions of Joomla

Archive use only. Old versions of Joomla must not be installed to create new sites or be republished as a permanent solution. Use them only for recovery, analysis or migration within a temporary, isolated environment.

Download old packages only from the official Joomla downloads archive. Do not use unofficial mirrors, shared links or packages recovered from third-party sites.

Before opening or deploying a package:

• Check that the version and format exactly match the installation you are going to recover.
• Verify the checksum or signature published by Joomla. If the official archive does not provide a verifiable value, do not use another source to replace that guarantee.
• Scan the package and work without public access, with a copy of the original data and temporary credentials.
• Extract the content you need and migrate to a supported version of Joomla; then delete the legacy environment.

An authentic package rules out third-party modifications, but it does not fix the known vulnerabilities of an unsupported version.

Choose the right package

Tell the full installation package apart from an update package between versions. One of them may not contain all the files you need to rebuild an installation. Note the source version before downloading and keep the file name and where it came from.

If you are recovering a website to extract content, work on a copy and also check images, documents, menus and URLs. Do not copy old executable extensions to a new Joomla without checking compatibility. The guide to migrating from Joomla 1.5 explains how to steer that work towards a supported destination.