@heelc29 - I have done this 3 times too be sure I wasn't reporting incorrectly... but I can't replicate the BEFORE condition..

I have debug mode on, cleared cache every time to be sure etc etc after having deleted lines 100-113 in [joomla-cms/libraries/src/MVC/Model/BaseDatabaseModel.php and the backend loads fine...

On 5.3.0 ßeta 2, PHP 8.3.19, MariaDB 10.6.15 if that matters.

So, what am I doing wrong?

@heelc29 - I have done this 3 times too be sure I wasn't reporting incorrectly... but I can't replicate the BEFORE condition..

I have debug mode on, cleared cache every time to be sure etc etc after having deleted lines 100-113 in [joomla-cms/libraries/src/MVC/Model/BaseDatabaseModel.php and the backend loads fine...

On 5.3.0 ßeta 2, PHP 8.3.19, MariaDB 10.6.15 if that matters.

So, what am I doing wrong?

@exlemor I don't now. I just tried again

Result is still the same

@heelc29 - it appears that the code has evolved and is no longer as the same so I can't test this PR ;(

joomla-cms/libraries/src/MVC/Factory/MVCFactory.php
Lines 170 to 177

 if ($model instanceof DatabaseAwareInterface) { 
     try { 
         $model->setDatabase($this->getDatabase()); 
     } catch (DatabaseNotFoundException $e) { 
         @trigger_error(\sprintf('Database must be set, this will not be caught anymore in 5.0.'), E_USER_DEPRECATED); 
         $model->setDatabase(Factory::getContainer()->get(DatabaseInterface::class)); 
     } 
 }

is not what I have in my file :/

if ($model instanceof DatabaseAwareInterface) {
            try {
                $model->setDatabase($this->getDatabase());
            } catch (DatabaseNotFoundException) {
                @trigger_error('Database must be set, this will not be caught anymore in 5.0.', E_USER_DEPRECATED);
                $model->setDatabase(Factory::getContainer()->get(DatabaseInterface::class));
            }
        }

(I'm on Joomla_5.3.4-dev - built on 23 August 2025 00:29:58 UTC)

it appears that the code has evolved and is no longer as the same so I can't test this PR ;(

@exlemor Sorry, I don't follow. The code from MVCFactory is for informational purposes only and is not part of the test. The differences you describe are also very minor (missing variable in catch, unnecessary sprintf removed). The relevant code for this pull request is in BaseDatabaseModel.