Unable to use Extension Manager

GoblinCat

I'm looking for help with an issue I've encountered when trying to use the Extension Manager on my forum. I'm a complete beginner so I apologize in advance if I can't explain the issue very clearly, but please let me know if I've failed to include something that could help solve the problem (and where I could locate this information) and I'll try to find it.

The problem is that the Extension Manager does not seem to work at all. I cannot use it to update my forum to a newer version (current version is 1.8.5) or to install new extensions. If I try to do either of these things, I get the following error message: "Failed to execute. Check the composer logs in storage/logs/composer." This log provides the following information:

[2026-03-14 15:48:28] composer.ERROR: outdated --format

In CurlDownloader.php line 389:

curl error 28 while downloading https://repo.packagist.org/packages.json: C
onnection timed out after 10006 milliseconds

[2026-03-14 15:51:53] composer.ERROR: require 'fof/linguist:*' -W
/home/....../public_html/forum/composer.json has been updated
Running composer update fof/linguist --with-all-dependencies
Loading composer repositories with package information

Installation failed, reverting /home/....../public_html/forum/composer.json and /home/....../public_html/forum/composer.lock to their original content.

In CurlDownloader.php line 389:

curl error 28 while downloading https://repo.packagist.org/packages.json: C
onnection timed out after 10006 milliseconds

require [--dev] [--dry-run] [--prefer-source] [--prefer-dist] [--prefer-install PREFER-INSTALL] [--fixed] [--no-suggest] [--no-progress] [--no-update] [--no-install] [--no-audit] [--audit-format AUDIT-FORMAT] [--update-no-dev] [-w|--update-with-dependencies] [-W|--update-with-all-dependencies] [--with-dependencies] [--with-all-dependencies] [--ignore-platform-req IGNORE-PLATFORM-REQ] [--ignore-platform-reqs] [--prefer-stable] [--prefer-lowest] [-m|--minimal-changes] [--sort-packages] [-o|--optimize-autoloader] [-a|--classmap-authoritative] [--apcu-autoloader] [--apcu-autoloader-prefix APCU-AUTOLOADER-PREFIX] [--] [<packages>...]

Any ideas what could be causing this issue and how could I fix it?

KBExit

GoblinCat You didn't break anything, and your Flarum installation is fine! Your web server is just putting up a roadblock preventing Flarum from downloading the files it needs. Reaching out to your hosting provider's support team is the best and fastest way to get this resolved. Do you have SSH Access?

GoblinCat

KBExit Thank you for the response! I do have SHH Access available (via cPanel) that allows me to generate or import keys. No public or private keys appear to be installed at the moment.

Is there any specific information I should relay to my hosting provider's support team to solve the issue, or do you think they should be able to help just based on my layperson-level explanation of the problem?

KBExit

GoblinCat if you have SSH Access you should have no issues then. Unless they are blocking ssh to communicate outside the server itself, which would be odd to do...

GoblinCat

KBExit Is there something I can try to do with the SHH Access to make things work?

KBExit

GoblinCat go to your Flarum root directory with SSH and see if you can run the composer commands (installing an extension) and see if it goes through. If it goes through, it may just be permissions with your Extension Manager?