--- title: "What\'s new in Joomla 6.1?" date: 2026-04-14 author: "Jeroen Moolenschot" intro_image: "https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla61-release.png" --- # What's new in Joomla 6.1? ![What\'s new in Joomla 6.1?](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla61-release.png) Joomla 6.1 was released on 14 April 2026, officially. It is the first minor release in the 6.x series, and as you have come to expect from Joomla: not a revolution, but a few enhancements that make the day-to-day management of a website a lot more pleasant. Especially if you build websites for customers who get to work with the backend themselves, there are a few innovations that you will definitely appreciate. Below, I discuss the most important changes. ### Spam protection is back: Proof-of-Work CAPTCHA Anyone who has been working with Joomla for a while knows that spam protection had drifted away a bit in recent years. You had Google's ReCaptcha, but that requires an API key, an account, and Google cosily watches your visitors. Not ideal if you want to work privacy-friendly. Joomla 6.1 introduces a Proof-of-Work CAPTCHA, and it works fundamentally differently. Instead of having the visitor point to an image or tick a checkbox, the visitor's browser silently solves a mathematical puzzle in the background. The visitor does not notice, no account or API key is needed, and you are not dependent on an external service recording your form traffic. ![joomla61 captcha](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla61-captcha.png) Whether this works as well as ReCaptcha against advanced spambots? We have yet to see that in practice. But for standard contact forms and registration forms, this is a great solution, and I think it is a good step towards more privacy by default in the Joomla core. [Read more about the Captcha - Proof of Work plugin](https://www.joomill.nl/kennisbank/joomla-extensies/captcha-proof-of-work) --- ### Workflow visually mapped: the Visual Workflow Editor For a while now, Joomla has had a workflow system that allows you to link the publication status of articles to approval processes. Very handy for clients with an editorial team, where an author submits an article that then needs to be approved for publication by a managing editor. The downside was always that you set up that workflow rather abstractly via lists and options, without being able to properly see how the whole thing worked. This has now been solved with the Visual Workflow Editor: an interactive diagram that shows how the statuses and transitions are connected. You can see at a glance where an article is in the process and how the flow goes from draft to published. Practically speaking, this makes explaining to customers a lot easier. A visual diagram is more appealing than a table of settings. ![joomla61 workflow graph](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla61-workflow-graph.png) --- ### More media fields: audio, video and documents Joomla has long had a Custom Fields system that allows you to attach extra fields to articles, contacts or other content. One such field type is the media field, which allowed you to add an image to a field. Joomla 6.1 expands this with three new media field types: audio, video and documents. You can now also attach an mp3, an mp4 or a PDF to a content item in a custom field. For situations where you build structured content, such as a knowledge base with attachments, a podcast overview or a video library, this is a welcome addition. You don't need to install a separate extension for this. ![joomla61 custommediafields](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla61-custommediafields.png) --- ### Modules get version history and multilingual links Articles already had version history in Joomla: you can look back at previous versions of an article and restore them if necessary. That system is now also available for modules. Useful if you modify a module and want to look back afterwards to see what was changed, or if a customer accidentally overwrote the content of a module. ![joomla61 modulesversiebeheer](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla61-modulesversiebeheer.png) In addition, multilingual links for modules have been added. On a multilingual website, you could already link articles to their translated versions in other languages. You can now set up the same link for modules. If you have a module in Dutch and an equivalent in English, you can now link them together, just as you are used to with articles. ![joomla61 moduleassociaties](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/joomla61-moduleassociaties.png) --- ## Language overrides at a glance, and complete with one click If you work with multiple languages in Joomla, managing language overrides in version 6.1 is a lot easier. In the overview of overrides (System → Language overrides), you will now see two extra columns: one showing in which languages an override already exists, and one showing you for which languages an override is still missing. Each language appears as a small badge with the language code, so you can immediately see where there is still work to be done without having to switch languages manually. The real time-saver is in the click-through. If you click on a language that has already been translated, the edit form for that specific language immediately opens. If you click on a language where the override is still missing, a new form will automatically open, already pre-filled with the original constant and source value. So you no longer have to navigate, search and retype the data first, and that applies to both the site and administrator side. For multilingual sites, this saves quite a few clicks when aligning translations across all installed languages. ![taaloverrides](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/taaloverrides.png) ## Making abbreviations accessible from the editor In Joomla 6.1, the TinyMCE editor gains two new buttons that allow you to create, edit and delete HTML abbreviations (`` elements) directly in the editor. This allows you to provide abbreviations such as WWW, NAW or HTML with a full explanation, without having to switch to the source code or insert a manual HTML tag. Visitors see the written-out meaning as a tooltip when they move their mouse over the abbreviation, and screen readers read out the full text instead of the individual letters. Using it is simple: type your text, select the abbreviation, click the "Insert or Edit Abbreviation" button and enter the full meaning. Joomla automatically turns it into valid HTML, e.g. in the above example `WWW`. If you want to edit or remove an abbreviation later, click on the same spot and use the "Edit" or "Remove" variant. Once set, both buttons can be added to your toolbar via the TinyMCE settings, or you can directly choose the Advanced preset in which they are already included. A small addition in the interface, but an important step towards WCAG AAA accessibility for your content. More info: https: [//github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/46820](https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/46820) ## Preview drafts in the articles module without publishing first The `Articles` module gets a useful new option in Joomla 6.1: "Show unpublished articles". This switch allows you to show articles in a module that have not yet been published, ideal for editors and customers who want to review concepts in the real context of the website. Previously, you had to publish an article first or enter the backend via a diversion to see what your draft article would look like later. Now you can view it directly in the right place in the frontend, along with the other articles in the same module. ![unpublished articles module](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/unpublished-articles-module.png) Important to know: this option only works for logged-in users with the right permissions, so normal visitors just don't see these drafts. To keep that difference visible, unpublished items in the module get a clear "unpublished" badge, so you never accidentally think a draft article is already live. The option is not available when you have set the module to show only archived articles, which makes sense because those two statuses are mutually exclusive. For review workflows with clients or editorial teams, this saves a lot of back-and-forth, and it makes internal content planning a lot clearer. ## Move or copy tags in batch, with their hierarchy Anyone who works a lot with tags in Joomla knows how labour-intensive it can be to rearrange a tag structure. In Joomla 6.1, this becomes a lot easier: in the tag overview, you can now select several tags at once and copy or move them in a batch action, just like you are used to with categories and menu items. There is also an additional "Root" option available in the target selection, so you can lift tags directly to the top level without a diversion. ![tags batch](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/tags-batch.png) ## Featured Articles menu item disappears from the backend From Joomla 6.1 onwards, you now manage featured articles directly from Content → Articles, where you can switch between Yes, No or both via the existing "Featured" filter dropdown. It saves a menu item and avoids ending up in a weird state due to filters travelling between screens. Functionally, you don't lose anything: all batch actions, the "feature/unfeature" button and per-article management just keep working from the regular article overview. A small but useful clean-up in the menu. ## Popular articles module gets a date filter in the dashboard The backend module Popular Articles, which you encounter by default on the Joomla dashboard, gets a useful extension in version 6.1: you can now filter by a specific time period. Until now, this module simply showed the most viewed articles of all time, with the side effect that old evergreen content is almost permanently at the top and you never really get a view of what is currently relevant. For sites that have been running for some time, this makes that dashboard block uninformative in practice. In the module settings, you now find a new "Date Filter" field with three options. With Off, the old behaviour is retained, i.e. all hits ever. With Date range, you choose your own start and end date, ideal if you want to measure the impact of a specific campaign, launch or seasonal peak. With Relative date, you specify a number of days relative to today, for example "past 30 days", so that the overview automatically moves with the times without having to update the settings every month. For editorial decision-making, for example to see which recent articles are catching on or which topics deserve renewed attention, this provides a much more useful dashboard block than before. ![populaire artikelen datumbereik](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/populaire-artikelen-datumbereik.png) ## MFA policy for Super Users: now truly enforceable (or disable) Multi-Factor Authentication has been available in Joomla for some time, but one important link was missing until now: the settings to enforce or disable MFA centrally did not work for Super Users. Precisely those accounts have the most rights and are therefore the most interesting target, so the fact that the strictest option could not be applied to the most sensitive role was an odd blind spot. In Joomla 6.1, this has been rectified: in Users → Manage → Options → Multi-factor Authentication, the two options "Disable Multi-factor Authentication" and "Enforce Multi-factor Authentication" now also apply to the Super Users group. ![multi factor superusers](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/multi-factor-superusers.png) ## Set custom aspect ratios for the crop function in Media Anyone who has ever cropped an image via the Joomla media manager is familiar with the aspect ratio drop-down menu: a fixed set of standard ratios such as 16:9, 4:3, 1:1 and free. Useful for general use, but in practice you quickly run into limits there. An Instagram post in 4:5, a vertical Reel in 9:16, a Pinterest pin in 2:3 or a specific format dictated by a client's template, it didn't fit the drop-down menu and you had to juggle "free" and pixel sizes all the time. In Joomla 6.1, this has been fixed: in the plugin System → Plugins → Media-Action - Crop, a subform has been added that allows you to create your own list of aspect ratios. Adding, renaming and deleting works directly in the plugin settings, and the notation follows the CSS convention: numbers with a slash, such as `16 / 9`, `9 / 16` or `4 / 5`. Once saved, your own ratios will now appear in the dropdown under Content → Media when you edit and crop an image. For sites working with fixed house style formats, for social media-rich content strategies or for templates with specific aspect ratios, this saves a lot of manual calculation and ensures more consistent images throughout your site. ![media action crop](https://www.joomill.com/images/blog/media-action-crop.png) ## Plugins load lazily: faster site without you having to do anything A less visible but practically noticeable improvement in Joomla 6.1: all plugins are now loaded "lazy", with the sole exception of the compat plugin for backward compatibility. Until now, every enabled plugin was immediately fully initialised on every page load, regardless of whether that plugin had anything to do for the current page at all. On a typical Joomla site, there are soon dozens of plugins on (system, content, editor, authentication, captcha and more), consuming unnecessary memory and CPU on every request. From 6.1 onwards, a plugin is only really loaded the moment an event actually calls it. In practice, you'll notice this in shorter server response times, lower peak memory usage and thus better Core Web Vitals, which can help both your SEO and your hosting bill. You don't have to configure anything for this yourself, it works automatically as soon as you upgrade to 6.1. Fair warning, though, for those who use a lot of third-party extensions: lazy loading only works correctly for plugins that follow the modern event-subscriber architecture. Older or poorly maintained plugins that still handle events in the implicit old way may stop working unexpectedly after the upgrade. Therefore, after the update, always test critical functionality on a staging environment before going live, and keep an eye on your extension vendors who may need to release a 6.1-compatible update. ### Updating to Joomla 6.1 Updating from Joomla 6.0 to 6.1 goes through the usual route: in the administrator environment via System > Update > Joomla. No backwards compatibility issues are to be expected. In principle, extensions that work on Joomla 6.0 will continue to run on 6.1. Make sure you always make a backup (and test the backup!) before updating. You can find the full list of changes in this release in the [official GitHub milestone](https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/milestone/148?closed=1) of Joomla 6.1. ## Custom Fields **Call2Action Titel:** Do you have questions about the update? **Call2Action Tekst:** Or would you like me to update your Joomla website to the latest version? Then feel free to contact me