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- Managing Form Submissions
- Searching and Filtering Submissions
- Submission Context Tracking
- Customizing Submission Columns
- Editing Submissions
- Deleting Submissions
- Importing Submissions
- Exporting Submissions
- Exporting Submissions with a Webhook URL
- Tracking the User's IP Address
- Disable Submission Storage
- Auto-Delete Old Submissions
- Auto-Save Each Submission to a JSON file
- Increment a Count on Each Submission
- Add a Unique ID to Each Submission
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- Set up Auto-Responder Emails
- Email the Person Who Filled Out the Form
- Send an Email Only When a Checkbox Is Checked
- Attach the Submission PDF to Emails
- Send Email Based on Drop Down Selection
- Send Different Email Content Based on Form Responses
- Styling Emails with CSS
- Sending Plain-Text Alternative Body Emails
- Troubleshooting Email Delivery
- Tracking Sent Emails
- Resending Emails
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- Browser Autocomplete for Form Fields
- Redirect to a Menu Item After Form Submission
- Show a Form Only to Logged-In Users
- Adding an “Other” Option
- Show or Hide Form Fields Based on User Joomla User Group
- Scroll the Page to the Top When a Long Form is Submitted
- Display Submissions Count for a Specific Form
- Populate Drop Down, Radio Buttons or Checkboxes with a CSV File
- Silently POST Submitted Data to Any API or URL
- Create a Custom Login Form
- Auto-Populate Fields with Article Data
- Add a placeholder text to a Dropdown field
- Create Multilingual Forms in Joomla
- Redirect User to a URL After Form Submission
- Importing and Exporting Forms
- Display Convert Forms in a popup
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- Does Convert Forms Use Cookies?
- Minimum Time to Submit
- Restrict Form Submissions Based on IP
- Enforcing a Custom Password Policy in Convert Forms
- Add Cloudflare Turnstile to your Joomla Form
- Implement the Iubenda Consent Database in Joomla with Convert Forms
- Add Custom Validations to Fields and Forms
- Add Math Captcha to your Form
- Prevent a Field From Saving in the Database
- Add hCaptcha to your Form
- Enable Double Opt-in
- Allow Form Submissions in Specific Date Range
- Ensure a Unique Value is Entered Into a Field
- Block Form Submissions Containing Profanity (Bad Words)
- Block Email Addresses or Email Domains
- Honeypot
- Setting Up Google reCAPTCHA
- Create GDPR Compliant Forms
Troubleshooting Form Submission Errors
When a form won't submit, throws an error, or just reloads the page, the cause is almost always outside Convert Forms itself: a conflict with another extension or plugin, or a server limit. Below are the errors we see most often and how to fix each. If yours isn't listed, the last section shows how to surface the real cause.
Empty response after submitting
An empty response almost always means a PHP fatal error from a third-party extension is breaking the submission. Follow You can't tell what's causing the error to turn on full error reporting, re-submit, and see which extension the error points to.
500 error or out of memory on submit
A 500 error with a message like Allowed memory size of 31457280 bytes exhausted means the request ran out of PHP memory. Raising the memory limit is tempting, but it only hides the symptom. Something is consuming that memory, usually another extension or a plugin conflict, and that's what to find first.
- Follow You can't tell what's causing the error to turn on full error reporting and re-submit. The stack trace usually shows what's eating the memory.
- If it points to another extension or plugin, disable or fix that one. That's the real cause.
- Only if you genuinely can't find the culprit, raise the PHP memory_limit as a last resort, for example to 256M, through your hosting control panel, your php.ini, or by adding
php_value memory_limit 256Mto your site's .htaccess. If that line makes your site return a 500 error, your host doesn't allow changing PHP values that way, so set it from your hosting panel or ask your host.
Not Found error when submitting
The message Not Found. The requested URL was not found on this server. appears when SEO Settings → Use URL Rewriting is enabled in the Joomla configuration page but URL rewriting isn't enabled on your server. Enable it depending on your web server:
- Apache: rename the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess in your Joomla root directory. More info
- IIS: Enable SEF URLs on IIS
- Nginx: Enable SEF URLs on Nginx
Invalid security token error
The message The most recent request was denied because it contained an invalid security token is likely caused when the Use Joomla! CSRF Token option is enabled and one of the following is true:
- The Session Lifetime in Joomla's Global Configuration is too low. Increasing it results in fewer invalid-token messages for legitimate users.
- Joomla's Page Cache is enabled. In most cases, disabling that plugin fixes it.
- You're loading the form with a module while Joomla Cache is on. Try disabling the module's Caching option.
If none of the above helps, disable the CSRF token check:
- Log into your Joomla backend.
- Go to Components → Convert Forms.
- Click Options in the top-right toolbar.
- Open the Security tab.
- Set Use Joomla! CSRF Token to No.
- Save.
Bad karma error with sh404SEF
The Bad karma: we can't find that page! error comes from sh404SEF converting Convert Forms' non-SEF submit URL (https://www.yoursite.com/component/com_convertforms?task=submit) into a SEF one, which 404s. Ask sh404SEF to use non-SEF URLs for Convert Forms:
- In your Joomla backend, go to Extensions → sh404SEF.
- Click Configuration in the top left.
- Go to General → By component.
- Find Convert Forms and switch its first dropdown from "use default handler" to "Use Joomla! router".
Invalid API key error
This appears when your form uses a campaign that syncs submissions with a third-party service that isn't set up correctly. Campaigns are deprecated, so the best fix is to migrate to Tasks, which replace them.
If you're still on a campaign, either set up the service correctly or remove it from the campaign.
Enable Javascript and cookies message
If you use Cloudflare, an Enable Javascript and cookies to continue message is usually the Cloudflare OWASP Core Ruleset blocking the submit request, which needs adjusting for your form.
Submit button just reloads the page
This usually means Convert Forms' JavaScript isn't loading, or another script on the page is erroring. Check the browser console and confirm the script loads:
- Open your browser console (press F12, then the Console tab) and look for JavaScript errors. If one points to a file inside a plugin or your template, disable that extension and retry.
- In the console, type
typeof ConvertForms. It should return'object'. If it returnsundefined, the Convert Forms script at media/com_convertforms/js/site.js isn't loading on the page. - If it's not loading, confirm the file exists on your server and opens at https://www.yoursite.com/media/com_convertforms/js/site.js. If you combine or minify scripts (JCH Optimize, or your template's Combine Scripts option), make sure this file isn't excluded or broken by the bundle.
You can't tell what's causing the error
If your error isn't listed above, or all you see is a generic 500 - Whoops, looks like something went wrong, you need to surface the real cause. A submission error is almost always another extension or plugin interfering with the request, and Joomla hides the details until you turn on full error reporting.
Get the real error message
- Log into your Joomla backend.
- Go to System → Global Configuration.
- Open the Server tab and set Error Reporting to Maximum.
- Open the System tab and set Debug System to Yes.
- Save.
Re-submit the form and read the error to find the culprit
Submit the form again and read the full error and stack trace that now appears. It usually names a file and a line. If that path points to another extension or plugin (something under /plugins/, /components/, or a template folder that isn't Convert Forms), that's your culprit.
If the error doesn't obviously point at one extension, narrow it down:
- Disable other plugins one by one, re-submitting after each. Start with the usual suspects: security and firewall plugins (RSFirewall, ModSecurity), optimization plugins (JCH Optimize), and caching plugins (Page Cache). Re-enable any that aren't the cause.
- Switch to a default Joomla template such as Cassiopeia to rule out your template.
- Update Convert Forms under Extensions → Manage → Update. Older builds may not be compatible with your Joomla version.
One exception: if the submission breaks because of harmless PHP warnings or notices rather than a fatal error, those can corrupt the form's AJAX response. In that case, setting Error Reporting to None is the fix.
Turn the options back off
Once you've found the cause, set Error Reporting back to Default (or None) and Debug System back to No. Leaving Error Reporting on Maximum or Debug System on for a live site exposes error details to your visitors.
Still stuck? Open a support ticket with the exact error message and stack trace.
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