Typo3 PHP Runtime Notice

Question

I inherited a Typo3 site to maintain and have had no trouble until now. When I try login I get this error message:

Oops, an error occured!

PHP Runtime Notice: Declaration of t3lib_userAuthGroup::checkLogFailures() should be compatible with t3lib_userAuth::checkLogFailures() in /home3/onefoug3/public_html/t3lib/class.t3lib_userauthgroup.php line 113

I checked with my hosting service and they say it is an error with the script. I am not a programmer so I do not know how to fix that...not even sure where to start. How do I fix this?

Answer 1

To give you an overview about the situation with your TYPO3 installation I list a few points, some of them where you've to verify more:

1. TYPO3 in your installation is very old and outdated. You'll get perhaps many hints to update due to security-reasons. This is not wrong but I'd concentrate first on getting it running, perhaps better on a local server.
2. The Version of your TYPO3 installation is in any case very useful, you should try to provide it.
3. It's possible that you need an old PHP version to run that site and that the error is just thrown because of a wrong PHP Version. You could try with PHP 5.2.
4. It's not improbable that something in the TYPO3 core was changed manually. It might be patches or individual but in many versions I never found the mentioned methods in the line 113 like shown in the error-message.
5. Rarely I changed in the core somethings too, to circumvent some temporary problems, usually that's neither required nor advisable. Nevertheless if it helps you to get the installation locally running - why not.
6. The more advised step is to download the current version new and replace the existing core with that. Often you can chose the most recent minor version: assume you've Version 4.7.18, then you can download Version 4.7.20 or newer if available. The link to get the newest Version of that old branch would be https://get.typo3.org/4.7
   Better keep the old core till the problem is solved, even if you replace it. If you follow my hint to get a higher minor version you should have a look in the install-tool, specifically in the update-wizard there.

I'd advise to update the question to include the Versions of TYPO3, PHP and MySQL, then perhaps it will be easier to help more.

As target I see to get the installation locally running and performing an update instead of serving the old site with insecure core. Based on that I answered in point 5 too, on a live-system it's not advisable especially with your limited knowledge.