Joomla 6.2.0 - The most important new features

13 October 2026

On Tuesday 13 October 2026, the Joomla! Project released Joomla 6.2.0, codenamed Mwezi. This new minor version brings several useful improvements to the Joomla 6 series.

Joomla 6.2 does not have one big new feature. Instead, the release includes many smaller improvements for daily Joomla work. There are improvements for the TinyMCE editor, article and category management, security updates, email authentication, APIs and developers. Let's have a look at the most interesting changes in Joomla 6.2.

TinyMCE gets some useful improvements

Content editors will probably notice the TinyMCE improvements first:

Better Media Manager integration: The updated media picker now opens Joomla's Media Manager directly. This makes it easier to select and insert images and other media while editing content.
Improved Joomla link selector: Editors can more easily create links to Joomla content, such as articles, contacts and menu items, using a unified link selection window instead of manually finding and copying URLs.
Read More integration: The well-known Read More function is now handled directly inside TinyMCE. This makes it easier to insert article breaks when editing articles.
Joomla Text Filter by default: TinyMCE now uses Joomla's own text filtering configuration instead of relying on its own default list of valid HTML elements. This makes the editor behave more consistently with the filtering rules configured in Joomla.
TinyMCE updates and fixes: TinyMCE itself has been updated, and several untranslated buttons in the toolbar configuration have been fixed.

These are not big changes individually, but together they make daily content editing a little easier.

Subcategory images

Joomla 6.2 adds support for displaying images assigned to subcategories. This can be useful when you want to create more visual category pages. For example, a catalogue, documentation website or magazine can show subcategories with images instead of only text links. This feature is not only available for articles. Similar improvements have also been added to category displays for components such as Contacts and Newsfeeds. For template developers, this gives more options to create attractive category layouts without using an extra extension. There is also a fix for categories containing articles scheduled for future publication. Previously, such categories could incorrectly appear empty. Joomla 6.2 improves how these categories are handled.

Better information about important security updates

The Joomla extension update system also gets an interesting improvement. Extension developers can now mark updates as security updates and assign a severity level, ranging from None to Critical. Joomla highlights these updates in the administrator interface and can display the highest security severity when multiple extension updates are available. This helps administrators quickly identify updates that may require urgent attention. The information is visible in the extension update interface and on the administrator dashboard. This can be especially useful for agencies and administrators who manage many Joomla websites.

A new Help page in the administrator

Joomla 6.2 introduces a redesigned Help page in the administrator interface. The new design fits better with Joomla's Atum administrator template and makes it easier to navigate through the available help documentation. There is also support for configuring a custom support link in the administrator menu. Hosting companies, agencies and website developers can use this to direct customers to their own support page or documentation. This can be a useful feature for managed Joomla websites.

Improvements to modules and navigation

Joomla 6.2 also introduces some practical improvements to Joomla's standard modules.

More options for the Login module

The Login module now includes options to hide the "Forgot your password?" and "Forgot your username?" links. Previously, hiding these links could require a template override. Administrators now have more control over the module's appearance directly through its configuration.

Better nested menu dropdowns

There is also a fix for dropdown menus with multiple nested levels. Submenu toggling now works better in the standard menu layout, improving navigation through deeper menu structures. These are small changes, but they can save time when configuring a website.

Generic XOAuth2 support

One of the more technical additions is generic XOAuth2 support for email authentication. More email providers are moving away from traditional username and password authentication and are using OAuth authentication instead. With XOAuth2, Joomla can authenticate with supported mail providers without storing the SMTP account password. Instead, the provider supplies a refresh token that Joomla can use to obtain temporary access tokens for authentication. This is particularly relevant for services such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Most Joomla users will probably not notice this change directly. But for hosting companies, extension developers and administrators working with modern mail services, it is an important improvement.

Improvements for headless Joomla and the API

The Joomla Web Services API also gets some improvements in Joomla 6.2. One useful change is that the Content API now includes separate introtext and fulltext fields when retrieving an individual article through a GET request. This is useful when Joomla is used as a headless CMS. An external website or application can use the intro text for overview pages or cards, and the full text when the complete article is needed. This makes Joomla a little more flexible as a content backend for websites and applications that do not use the normal Joomla frontend.

New Enum Form Field for developers

PHP enums are becoming more common in modern PHP development, and Joomla 6.2 includes improvements that make them easier to use in extensions. A new Enum Form Field allows extension developers to work with PHP enums more directly in Joomla forms. Instead of maintaining separate lists of values for an enum and its form options, developers can use the enum as the source for the available values. This is mainly a developer feature, but it helps developers create cleaner and more modern Joomla extensions.

More developer improvements

Joomla 6.2 also includes several improvements behind the scenes:

MVCFactory service provider: Improvements make it easier for extension developers to customise and extend Joomla's MVC system.
JavaScript and CSS build tools: The asset build system has been reorganised with improvements to builders, registries and build/watch commands. This is mainly relevant for Joomla core and extension developers.
CMS Crypt package deprecation: Joomla continues to clean up older APIs in preparation for future versions. The legacy CMS Crypt package is deprecated, so extension developers using it should review their code and consider supported alternatives.

Website owners will probably not notice these changes, but they are important to keep Joomla modern and maintainable.

Better error messages and smaller UX improvements

Joomla 6.2 also includes several smaller usability improvements:

Better installation error handling: The Joomla web installer now reports installation failures more precisely, making it easier to understand what went wrong during a new Joomla installation.
SVG upload errors: Joomla 6.2 provides more detailed error messages when an SVG upload fails, helping administrators understand why the file was rejected.
Clearer delete and uninstall actions: Improvements in the administrator interface make the difference between deleting an item and uninstalling an extension more recognisable.
Improved search results in Fancy Select fields: Search results now include their group name. This makes it easier to identify the correct result, particularly when selecting module positions.

These are small improvements, but together they make Joomla easier to use and understand.

What happened to secure article previews?

If you followed the development of Joomla 6.2, you may have seen another interesting feature: secure previews for unpublished articles. This feature appeared during the Joomla 6.2 Beta period. It was intended to make it possible to share a secure link for previewing unpublished content. However, the feature was removed before the final release. Secure article previews are therefore not included in Joomla 6.2.0. This is also a good example of why features introduced during Beta testing are not always included in the final release.

Joomla 6.2 is about refinement

Joomla 6.2 is not a revolutionary release, but that is not a bad thing. The Joomla 6 series already introduced many bigger changes. Joomla 6.2 builds on this with practical improvements for content editors, administrators, template developers and extension developers. The TinyMCE improvements make daily content editing easier, while better security information helps administrators recognise important extension updates. XOAuth2 and API improvements prepare Joomla for modern integrations, and many smaller changes make Joomla easier to use and develop for. Overall, Joomla 6.2 is a solid and useful update to the Joomla 6 series. There may not be one big new feature that gets all the attention, but there are many smaller improvements that you will probably appreciate when working with Joomla every day.

Upgrading to Joomla 6.2

Is your website already running on Joomla 6.1? Updating to Joomla 6.2 is a regular minor update and should normally be straightforward. Is your website still running on Joomla 5.4? You can also upgrade directly from Joomla 5.4 to Joomla 6.2. Joomla considers this an upgrade rather than a migration. However, you should first check whether your extensions and template are compatible with Joomla 6.

Thanks to the Behaviour - Backward Compatibility 6 plugin, many existing extensions can continue to work with Joomla 6. However, this does not guarantee compatibility with every extension. It is still important to prepare the upgrade properly.

We recommend making a complete backup and testing the upgrade in a local or staging environment first. This gives you the opportunity to check your template, extensions, customisations and important website functionality before updating your live website. Also check that your hosting environment meets the technical requirements for Joomla 6.

For more information, see:

Need help upgrading or migrating your website to Joomla 6.2? Please feel free to contact us!