Back-End Categories Missing!

[Coopziana]

Hi All,

I'm really panicking. I just updated my Joomla version and suddenly all my categories have vanished in the BACKEND. I make that part bold as the front end is still functioning correctly (whether this is down to cache i'm not sure, although i have cleared it and it didn't change anything). As you will see in my screen shots.

There are a lot of categories for this site and I think i'll die if I have to remake them all over again haha. Now what is also strange, is that if i go to "products" (backend) everything is there including all the categories the product are in. I can click the category link and it takes me to the category editing page... yet even if I save it, it does not recreate the category... So i'm at a loss here.

The joomla update has show me a message stating
".htaccess & web.config Update - Since version 3.4.0
A change to the default .htaccess and web.config files was made in Joomla! 3.4 to disallow directory listings by default. Users are recommended to implement this change in their files. Please see this page for more information."

"robots.txt Update - Since version 3.3.0
A change to the default robots.txt files was made in Joomla! 3.3 to allow Google to access templates and media files by default to improve SEO. This change is not applied automatically on upgrades and users are recommended to review the changes in the robots.txt.dist file and implement these change in their own robots.txt file."

But that doesn't really mean much to me... Is there anyone with the answer to this problem?

Joomla Version 3.4.0
Virtuemart Version 3.0.6
Web Address www.solouse.com

[jenkinhill]

Surely you did not update a live site without first making a backup?  Is so make a backup right now! And install that backup either in a subdirectory of the web server or on localhost. You can then investigate without causing (more) damage to the live site. It is extremely unlikely that installing a new J version affected the VM database tables (check with phpMyAdmin). Maybe you have a Joomla installation issue. If you updated using the Joomla inbuilt updater I understand that some people have had problems with this. Try the update again on your backup with the update version of J3.4 using Joomla's extensions installer.

I have VM 3.0.6 running just fine on Joomla 3.4

[Coopziana]

Surely you did not update a live site without first making a backup?

Well technically the site isn't live, i'm building it on my spare domain so that the customer doesn't have any downtime on his website. This is the first time I've ever had an issue with updating Joomla anyway... still first time for everything, lesson learnt I'll make backups in future... now just to figure out the easiest way to do that. Not quite sure how backing up an error and then installing the update again will fix it, but i'll give it a try.

[Coopziana]

ok I'm a little less worried now as I can see the database hasn't been changed/removed. I cleared the cache again just to be sure and i'm still having the issue (even after backup and reinstallation of joomla update) the category search bar is still showing all the categories it just won't appear in the back end.

I have read on some similar topics for earlier versions that it may have something to do with a language file... but i'm not sure, as previously stated, I don't want to go editing things and causing more damage.

Would uninstalling virtuemart and re-installing it possibly work? or would that just delete everything?

Edit: Tried re-installing Virtuemart - no change. Upon further investigation I have found I cannot open the products editor either. I CAN do it through the front end, but not in the back end...

[Coopziana]

SOLUTION: I changed the Administration template from Isis to Hathor.

Apparently that works, so it must be a template bug. Hope this saves others the hours of pulling their hair out that I've had!

[AH]

Thanks for updating the thread with your solution!

[jenkinhill]

I'm using Isis with J3.4 and have no display issues, so maybe there is an install issue.  The most reported J3.4 issue at the moment is with languages & access: http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=707&t=874568&p=3270994#p3270989

[Milbo]

Check that your language settings of joomla and vm