AS ALWAYS - unable to replicate

J 5.1 ?
I cannot replicate this issue, in my installation the settings are as expected. Online and on localhost.

You do realise that the system information you posted proves that debug is off!!

right, but what I'm saying is changing it in the backend does nothing.. it's only if you edit the confitg file maunally that it does anytthung BUT, the debug still shows.

Check the link I gave.
@brianteeman your snide remark is unnecessary and unhelpful

J 5.1 ? I cannot replicate this issue, in my installation the settings are as expected. Online and on localhost.

yes mam

another proof of that is that it says "display_offline_message" to true but clearly its ignored

J 5.1 ? I cannot replicate this issue, in my installation the settings are as expected. Online and on localhost.

if you set debug to on and then hit save does it revert to off? Ours does

Error reporting was stuck on Max and wouldn't shut off - had to set it to none via config to do it.

seriously. Come on Bear - you've been around long enough now to surely realise that that setting is about the message which would be displayed WHEN the site is off

before hitting save

after save

Your porblem is simple. Lets approach this logicaly.

Changes made by editing the configuration.php file work
Changes made using the global config settings in Joomla do not work

What can we conclude from this. Two possibilities

1. There is a bug in joomla preventing changes in global config
2. There is something specific to your system preventing Joomla from saving the changes in global config.

We can rule out option 1 (until someone else can repeat it)

So lets look closer at option 2 - What can we test

When you press save in joomla after making a change does it actually say anything. It should be

If it says saved but nothing has been saved - please post a screenshot to prove that Joomla is telling lies

Maybe you have PHP "opcache" issue, kind of. Or another cache.
That can explain why your config does not changes immediately.

Joomla trying to do opcache_invalidate when it is available.

Hi Brian Per your request.
https://app.screencastify.com/v3/watch/V8XxhOtnvNra8ex5xfJl

just to add to what @AlisonAMG said, we've already reinstaleld core files

Hi @Fedik Not using OPCache but am using Cache Cleaner by RegLabs. It is set to clear on save but have also been using the clear button.

Thanks to anyone helping out.

reinstalling core files almost NEVER solves anyything

Your video clearly shows that when you try to save it does not as there is no confirmation message

What do you think that means?

It can only mean one thing - Joomla was unable to write to the configuration.php file

This is a server config issue

Thanks Brian - Will look into that.
Odd since other things outside of Global are doing the things as expected.

you can easily verify that assertion.

take a backup of the site and install it on a known good server. Happy to do that on my server

This is a known good server. The live J3 site is rolling on it.

If you would like to give it a spin the BU is 1.1 GB
Let me know your preferred method to get it.

you can backit up excluding the images/ and that should make it a lot smaller. Send it to me by whatever method is best for you

Sent the link to you via MM Brian. Obv at your convenience.

As expected. Installed on a known good server provided to me by https://www.scalahosting.com/joomla-vps.html and it works perfectly.

Not a Joomla bug so can be closed. (Will take a further look to see what caused the problem but its not a core bug)

Many thanks Brian for your assistance.

For reference the problem was a php config issue.

The max_input_vars was 1000 which would normally be just enough but as this site had a large number of user groups and access levels the limit was reached when saving config and eventually would be reached when aving modules and menu items

Unfortunately this error doesnt usually make any visual display - its just in your server logs.

The clue is that it would appear to save BUT no Joomla Save message will be displayed.

We did discuss in the past some form of notification when this happens but I forget the outcome

We did discuss in the past some form of notification when this happens but I forget the outcome

Found it
#7456

This would have identified the problem immediately

Can someone close this please. It was not a joomla bug and it has been resolved