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Testing the Joomla connection and refreshing what your site offers

Use Refresh fields to test the connection to your Joomla site and to make new categories, custom fields, access levels and authors available to your configurations.

  • Joomla
  • 3 min read
  • Updated October 13, 2026
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Content Uploader remembers what your site offers: the article fields, the categories and tags, the access levels, the custom fields and the users that may be chosen as authors. Refresh fields asks the site again. It is also the simplest way to test the connection.

Test the connection#

  1. Open Sites in the sidebar.
  2. On your Joomla site's entry, select Refresh fields.

If the site answers, the page reloads and the line under the address shows the current Joomla version and the connector's version, for example Joomla 6.1.4 · connected · Connector 1.0.0. Nothing else changes.

If it does not answer, a message appears: The site's connector could not be reached or its access expired. Reconnect from Joomla. Follow troubleshooting the Joomla connection.

On the Joomla side, Components → Content Uploader Connector shows Last contact, the time of Content Uploader's most recent request, and Versions.

When to use Refresh fields#

Use it after you change something on the site that a configuration should know about:

  • you created a custom field for articles, or changed which categories it applies to, or its permissions;
  • you added a category or tag you want to choose by name;
  • you added a user who should be selectable as an author, or changed which account publishes;
  • you switched workflows on or off (Status and Featured are offered only when workflows are off);
  • you updated the connector, so the new version's capabilities are known;
  • the review says The destination's fields changed since the configuration was saved, or the configuration editor says The fields of … changed since you opened this page.

After refreshing, reload the configuration editor to map the new fields. Saving a configuration checks its mapping against the site's current fields.

What the status line can say#

What you see Meaning
connected Content Uploader can use the site.
access ended (in red) The 90 days are over. Reconnect from Joomla.
reconnect required or disconnected The connection was disconnected, revoked or replaced. Reconnect from Joomla.
paused by your plan The site is connected, but the plan allows fewer active sites. See managing connected sites.

Under the status, Supported content types and fields lists what Content Uploader can write: for Joomla, Articles, Publishing supported, and the field names. Joomla article fields explains each.

Messages that can follow a refresh or a publish#

Message What it means
The Content Uploader extension on this site is outdated or not active. Update or enable it, then retry. Joomla's API answered that the connector's route does not exist: the Web Services - Content Uploader Connector plugin is disabled, or the package is not installed or too old.
The Joomla installation identity changed. Reconnect the site. The site answered with a different identity than the one that was connected, for example after the site was restored from a backup or moved. Reconnect.
The extension returned an incompatible protocol or schema. Update the connector. The connector and Content Uploader no longer understand each other. Update the connector.
The connection expired or permission was revoked. Reconnect in Joomla. The site no longer accepts the access key. Reconnect from Joomla.

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