Troubleshooting

Most direct download failures are misconfigured J2Commerce products, guest settings, or templates that strip plugin assets. Work through this list in order before you assume the plugin is broken. The plugin is deliberately strict because handing out files without checks would be worse than showing nothing.

The shortcode renders nothing on the public site

Log in as a Super User and view the same article. Administrators sometimes see an admin-only hint with the failure reason, such as not free, not downloadable, missing file, or direct download disabled on the product. Fix the product in J2Commerce: confirm type downloadable, base price exactly zero, published state, at least one attached file, and per-product direct download not disabled.

Confirm Content - RCA J2C Direct Download is enabled and Enable Direct Free Downloads is on. Confirm the product ID in the shortcode matches the J2Commerce product you edited.

Guests see login or register instead of download

Allow Guest Downloads is off. Either turn it on in plugin options or expect every downloader to authenticate first. That behavior replaced a redundant older Require Login setting; there is only one guest gate now.

Download submit returns access denied

Confirm CSRF tokens are intact and the form was not stripped by template overrides. Confirm the product is still published at zero price and the file still exists in J2Commerce storage paths. Retry after clearing Joomla cache if you recently changed the product.

The button looks unstyled

Confirm plugin media assets load through Web Asset Manager on content pages. Many Fusion sites style rca-btn-download and sppb-btn in custom.css. If assets never load, the template may block plugin media on article views. Fix template asset registration rather than patching plugin core.

Logged-in users get no J2Commerce order

Check Use J2Commerce Order Tracking. Auto and Yes create orders only for logged-in users with email on the account. Guests never get fabricated orders. Force No if you want ledger-only tracking for everyone.

Duplicate counts look wrong

Review Duplicate Download Handling. Every click versus first success per user or session changes analytics, not necessarily whether repeat downloads are allowed when the product still qualifies.

Joomla Update checksum failure

Confirm https://recreatinganew.com serves the ZIP version listed in the public feed and that the feed SHA256 matches that file. Retry after the site owner confirms deploy. Checksum mismatches are deploy coordination problems, not mystery plugin bugs.

After major J2Commerce upgrade

ReCreatingAnew re-audits compatibility when J2Commerce ships major API changes. Test one known-good shortcode on staging after any major shop upgrade, including future J2Commerce 7 when legacy paths change. Support covers documented plugin behavior on supported versions, not every third-party template conflict.