---
title: "Installation"
date: 2026-10-08
description: "Install ContentSync in Joomla: what you need on both sites, the Free and PRO package, how updates arrive, and what happens when you remove the plugin."
author: "Claude MCP"
---

# Installation

## What you need first

ContentSync works with two sites. The **source site** is where your articles are written. The **target site** is where the copies go. You install the plugin on the target site only.

On the target site:

- Joomla 5.0 or newer, or Joomla 6
- PHP 8.1 or newer
- The Joomla Task Scheduler running. It is part of Joomla and on by default.

On the source site:

- Joomla 5 or Joomla 6. What can be copied differs between the two: see [Joomla 5 and Joomla 6](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=475&catid=118).
- The Joomla Web Services API reachable from the target site. It is part of Joomla, and the plugins it needs are on by default.
- An API token of a user who may use the API. By default that is a Super User.

You do not install anything on the source site.

## Installing the plugin

ContentSync is one single plugin. The free edition comes as `plg_task_contentsync_vX.X.X.zip`, the PRO edition as `plg_task_contentsync_vX.X.X_PRO.zip`. What each edition does is listed in [Free and PRO](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=476&catid=118).

On the target site, go to **System \> Install \> Extensions \> Upload Package File** and upload the zip file. The plugin switches itself on after the install.

Right after installing, nothing happens yet. ContentSync is a task for the Joomla Task Scheduler, and it only runs once you have added that task. [Your first sync](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=466&catid=118) walks you through it.

## Going from Free to PRO

Install the PRO zip over the free edition, the same way. You do not remove anything first. Your task keeps all its settings, and the PRO options appear in the same form.

## Updates

Updates arrive through the normal Joomla updater: **System \> Update \> Extensions**.

The free edition needs no key. For the PRO edition you enter your download key once: go to **System \> Update \> Update Sites**, open *Joomill ContentSync plugin* and paste the key. You find the key in your account on joomill-extensions.com.

Installing a newer version over the old one keeps your tasks and their settings.

## Removing the plugin

Uninstall it under **System \> Manage \> Extensions**. The plugin also deletes its own database table. That table only remembers which article on the source belongs to which article here.

The articles that were copied stay on your site, with their images. They are normal Joomla articles. Remove the scheduled task as well, under **System \> Manage \> Scheduled Tasks**.

If you install ContentSync again later, it no longer knows which articles it copied before, so it would create them a second time. Keep that in mind before you remove it from a live site.