Okay, that sounds promising! It was just a matter of revising the .php files, right? Did you adjust the files before or after installing a template in Joomla 6? Did you rewrite everything in the code and then deactivate the compatibility plugin, and it worked without any problems? I would modify the workaround so that I can apply it to multiple j51 templates.

No, I did it the hard way first: While on J5 on a local test site, I set Debug mode to on and error reporting to maximum. Then I switched off the J5 compatibility plugin. After reload, the frontend crashed immediately, but error reporting showed the line number. I opened the complete template as a folder in VSC, giving me direct access to the template's files. I corrected this first error and looked around in the respective file for other old Joomla classes, which I replaced as well.
Repeating these steps as long as I ran into issues finally gave me a first J5-native version (with many hidden issues still). Then I systematically searched for the remaining old Joomla classes in the template, searching through all PHP files including template overrides; VSC is very good at searching.

After I had a working, J5-native template version, I did the identical exercise on the two J51 extensions I use (and on one from a different developer). Having done all this, I used the standard Joomla update procedure to update my test site to J6. Success! As a bonus, I tried to disable the J6 compatibility plugin. Success, again!

Best wishes for 2026.

So what i'm doing wrong? Went to the above mentioned classes and used VSC, Changed f.i. JFactory into \Joomla\CMS\Factory and that didn't worked so i changed the whole list again into Joomla\CMS\Factory. Still getting errors like "syntax error, unexpected fully qualified name "\Joomla\CMS\Form\FormFieldTplh...", expecting identifier."

Used VSC to open folder and find/replace all files.

Hello dear J51 community,

I also had it rewritten today using the Carmen template with the help of AI, and it now runs under Joomla 6 without the Behaviour – Backward Compatibility plugin. I'm also no longer getting any errors.

Dautrich, thank you very much for your support and advice.

(Working time approx. 1.5 hours)

All the best for 2026 and good health!

The problem is that i have no idea which files or what to do or what to change

What to do can be found here: https://manual.joomla.org/migrations/44-50/compat-plugin/#class-aliases
You have to go through all the PHP files of the template. Best use VSC.

Perhaps Ciaran will provide us with instructions on this

I've been in a situation similar to yours:
My proposal: Do it yourself!

The problem is that i have no idea which files or what to do or what to change

I deactivated the compat plugin first, forcing the error immediately (btw. in error.php ). Found the respective line in VSC. Correct and get next error.
Later I systematically went through all the to-be-replaced classes: search in VSC and correct one by one.

Okay, that sounds promising! It was just a matter of revising the .php files, right? Did you adjust the files before or after installing a template in Joomla 6? Did you rewrite everything in the code and then deactivate the compatibility plugin, and it worked without any problems? I would modify the workaround so that I can apply it to multiple j51 templates.

I also think that's why there haven't been any new templates since 2021, as Ciaran was busy recoding the existing templates. And that certainly caused a financial downturn. These are all just assumptions, though. I hope Ciaran will comment on this someday.

I also have to emphasize that I didn't do a complete refactoring of the template, but I did just enough to get it to work under J6.

Completely refactoring the template would imply an all new directory structure, the use of namespaces, and much more. In addition, the existing overrides need to be adjusted or removed (if possible).

The effort to refactor 50+ templates would take an experienced developer a couple of months (estimated).

I'm not a developer; therefore, I cannot judge how outdated the Code of Ciáran's templates is. But the overrides in the Skylar template were more or less "clean" (in terms of deprecated classes, while my Swiss college found old stuff in the overrides of Chelsea.

One thing I can promise: If you try to refactor one of Joomla51's templates, you will find considerably more than a few lines of code to change! But as I said, it took me about one workday to adapt Skylar and three extensions.


BTW: What's your username in the German Joomla forum? You might have seen that I'm pretty active there as well.

Thanks for the detailed assessment and the practical report – that's very helpful for context.

The fact that Skylar is implemented more cleanly than Chelsea also aligns with the impression gained from other feedback. The question of outdated classes and overrides is particularly difficult for non-developers to assess objectively, which makes such experiential data all the more valuable.

The effort you described (a workday for the template plus several extensions) also confirms that the need for customization with older Joomla 51 templates shouldn't be underestimated. In practice, it's rarely just "a few lines of code."

BTW: I'm not registered in the German Joomla forum, but I do read the discussions there occasionally. and I found the j51 discussion from a week ago through a Google search, which I of course read through.

I've been in a situation similar to yours: All my sites are/were on Skylar, which I liked and for which I created lots of CSS (to make my sites individual). I have converted one of them to Cassiopeia; the results are reasonable, but without further work (override to get an off-canvas menu for mobile, some JavaScript) not really impressive.

Therefore, I tried the above-mentioned method to make Skylar compatible to J5/6. Took me about one day (although I'm not a developer). Now, my Skylar version runs on J6 without the J6 compatibility plugin enabled.

My proposal: Do it yourself!

well mine are all on Naomi which i like. Nowi'm trying a test site with Cassiopeia on joomla6 trying to figure out the grid system and user.css. I want my Naomi back!!.

I wish I had known all this before I renewed my subscription.

Nobody seems to know what exactly is going on with Joomla51 and Ciáran Walsh. And I think that nobody is really happy about the uncertainty about the future of Joomla51 templates. I had all my sites on Skylar.......

I wish I had known all this before I renewed my subscription.

I'm not a developer; therefore, I cannot judge how outdated the Code of Ciáran's templates is. But the overrides in the Skylar template were more or less "clean" (in terms of deprecated classes, while my Swiss college found old stuff in the overrides of Chelsea.

One thing I can promise: If you try to refactor one of Joomla51's templates, you will find considerably more than a few lines of code to change! But as I said, it took me about one workday to adapt Skylar and three extensions.


BTW: What's your username in the German Joomla forum? You might have seen that I'm pretty active there as well.

Thanks, I'll test that on a test environment soon. I read in the German Joomla forum that the code of the joomla51 templates is very outdated and partly dates back to Joomla 3. It's unfortunate that Ciaran hasn't updated it yet; otherwise, switching to a new Joomla version probably wouldn't require such significant changes. But if you only have to change a few lines of code, the effort is manageable. Thanks…

Sorry, double post.

First, you have to make sure that the template is J5 native (meaning not needing the J5 compatibility plugin). To do so, you have to exchange any appearance of a deprecated class with the new J5 class:
- Prepare a (local) dev site.
- You find the complete list in the developer documentation of Joomla here
- Visual Studio Code is very helpful to find and replace all occurences.

Example:
- You find an occurrence of JFactory like this

$user    = JFactory::getUser();

- You can replace this either with:

 $user    = Joomla\CMS\Factory::getUser();

- Or you can put a use-statement right at the beginning of the file (after the defined('_JEXEC') or die; ) like this:

use Joomla\CMS\Factory;

with this, you can shorten the statement to:

$user    = Factory::getUser();

Repeat that for all old classes in all php files of the template. VSC helps you by showing the class names in a different color like that:


It's a tedious task, but it took me only about one day including testing for one template (Skylar).
Be aware that this is not a real refactoring of the code, but just the minimum task to get things going.

And the good news: After that activity, the modified template works under J6 with the J6 compatibility plugin disabled.

What needs to be done to make a template run under J6, even with J6 compatibility disabled?

I would be very interested in this workaround. Is there a source for this?

Best regards

I know that this is only the “official” statement from the Joomla51 website. A Joomler from Switzerland has adapted Chelsea to run under J6, even with the J6 compatibility disabled. Yesterday, I did the same job for Skylar. And just a few minutes ago, I saw Emani running under J6.

Obviously, there are J6-compatible versions of Joomla51 templates running “in the wild”. But how to cope with the situation? Will Ciáran Walsh eventually return and solve the issues? I'm in doubt .....

BTW: Modifying the templates' code is not illegal, because the PHP code is distributed under GPL. But the CSS and JS files are copyrighted according to the comments in the code. Should we provide the adapted versions to a customer of Joomla51 within certain restrictions (i.e. only after he provides a screenshot of his account at the Joomla51 site, proving that he has purchased the respective template)? I don't know.