Old Version Of FontAwesome Included In Artolio Quickstart Package Which Causes Missing Icons In Backend
Konstantin Khanyants
PROBLEM: I had installed Joomla 6 and the Artolio template package using your Quickstart Package (Joomla 6), updated all to the newest versions and then installed SP Page Builder and updated that along with the Helix Framework. I had also installed Akeeba Admin Tools to protect the website. On the Akeeba Admin Tools control panel some of the icons (on buttons) which are derived from FontAwesome are missing. This seems to be an issue with the Quickstart Package because I deleted that original website and reinstalled Joomla 6 from the Joomla website then installed SP Page Builder standalone as well as the Artolio template standalone. No problems with FontAwesome icons or the Akeeba Admin Tools were detected, but this caused me to lose the demo data shipped with the QuickStart package which is essential to me. I contacted Akeeba and he said that he simply uses Font Awesome icons in the control panel and that the problem is which version of Font Awesome is loaded in the backend. I tried the "Do Not load Font Awesome" in the Artolio template options, purging the cache (both Joomla and browser), still the same result on several browsers, some icons are missing.
SOLUTION: It looks like the Helix Ultimate Framework Joomla System Plugin which is a part of the JoomShaper diaspora, which was supplied in the Quickstart Joomla package of the Artfolio template is an old version of 2.2.1 which had FontAwesome font files as well as the fontawesome css file included in the assets directory, this was an old version (4.7) of FontAwesome where the icons used by the Akeeba Admin Tools control panel were not available. In the new version (2.2.4) of this Helix Ultimate Framework plugin these FontAwesome files are no longer included at all, but because Joomla performs upgrades by not removing old files/folders (even if you installed a newer version of the Helix Ultimate Framework) but overwriting only the updated files, it would not remove the old FontAwesome files, these files (.min.css etc) then for some reason were loaded in the backend, so some FontAwesome (newer) were loaded from the Atum administrator template and some were loaded from the Helix Ultimate Framework plugin.
WHAT TO DO: Uninstall the Helix Ultimate Framework system plugin and install the new version which can be downloaded from the JoomShaper site in the Helix Ultimate template download area. Then enable the plugin, problem is gone. All Akeeba Admin Tools icons load fine. This seems to be a problem with a mispackaged QuickStart Artolio template package.
Atick Eashrak Shuvo
Accepted AnswerHello Konstantin Khanyants,
First of all, please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you experienced.
Thank you very much for taking the time to thoroughly investigate the issue and for sharing such a clear and technically detailed explanation of the root cause and resolution. Your analysis regarding the outdated Helix Ultimate Framework System Plugin (v2.2.1) bundled in the Quickstart package — and the residual Font Awesome 4.7 assets not being removed during Joomla’s upgrade process — is absolutely correct.
As you pointed out, Joomla’s extension update mechanism overwrites existing files but does not remove deprecated ones. In this case, the legacy Font Awesome files remained in the plugin’s assets directory and were being loaded in the administrator backend. This caused a version conflict between the older Font Awesome assets from Helix Ultimate and the newer Font Awesome files used by the Atum administrator template, resulting in missing icons within Akeeba Admin Tools.
Please note that at the time the Quickstart package was released, the included version of Helix Ultimate was the latest available version. However, as newer versions were later released with structural changes (including removal of bundled Font Awesome files), upgrading over the existing installation did not automatically remove those deprecated assets.
We truly appreciate you outlining the correct resolution:
- Uninstalling the Helix Ultimate Framework system plugin completely
- Installing the latest version from the JoomShaper download area
- Re-enabling the plugin
This clean reinstallation ensures that outdated files are fully removed and prevents backend asset conflicts.
Your feedback regarding the Quickstart packaging is highly valuable, and we will review the distribution process to help avoid similar issues in future releases.
Thank you again for your patience, cooperation, and for sharing this solution with the community. Please feel free to contact us if you need any further assistance.
Kind regards