Website owners always aim to deliver great user experience with a fast website.

And, the speed of the Joomla website reflects on how fast a website responds to requests too.

That’s why, customers always seek tweaks like Joomla gzip compression to enhance the Joomla website’s speed.

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers to fix Joomla gzip not working error as part of Technical Support Services.

Today, we’ll see how our Support Engineers fix Joomla gzip not working error.

What is Joomla gzip Compression?

Joomla gzip compression allows the server to compress a file significantly. It reduces file size and send it to the customer’s computer. That means, the user has to download less content when file is compressed. Thus, compression enhances the website performance.

Here, let’s see the exact steps to enable gzip compression in Joomla.

How we enable gzip page compression in Joomla

This is how our Support Engineers enable Joomla gzip compression.

1. We log in to the Joomla dashboard.

2. On the left menu, we click on the Global Configuration link.

3. Again, we click the Server tab.

4. Under Server Settings and next to Gzip Page Compression, we click on Yes.

4. Finally, we clicked Save in the top left menu.

That’s it. Now, we have enabled gzip compression in Joomla.

How we fixed Joomla gzip not working error

Although the steps look pretty easy, we often see customers reporting cases where Joomla gzip do not work correctly.  Let’s see how our Support Engineers solve such Joomla gzip related issues.

1. Duplicate entries for compression

Recently, one of our customers contacted us with an error like “gzip compression does not make a difference in site speed”.

Then, our Support Engineers checked and found that the gzip option was already enabled in Joomla. Additionally, gzip compression was set in the website via .htaccess file too.

That’s why, enabling it again in the Joomla configuration didn’t show any difference in site speed.

2. Missing Dependency modules

Similarly, another customer came up with a problem with his Joomla website. His website was not working after enabling Joomla gzip compression.

Here, as part of troubleshooting, our Support Engineers first confirmed whether the Joomla gzip compression was enabled or not by adding a php info page. To find php details, we used the following php code.

<?php

// Show all information, defaults to INFO_ALL
phpinfo();

?>

Then we found the gzip compression already enabled by Joomla but zlib was not enabled, which was also needed for the site.

Furthermore, Our Support Engineers enabled zlib on the server by adding lines in the php.ini file as below.

zlib.output_compression=On
zlib.output_compression_level=1

That fixed the problem and the customer could access the website.

[Are you facing trouble while enabling Joomla gzip”? We can fix it for you.]

Conclusion

In short, the server compresses the “requested file” by using “Joomla gzip” compression. It is one of the most effective ways to make faster Joomla website. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers enabled Joomla gzip compression and fixed Joomla gzip not working error.