Archived:How do you use Recaptcha in Joomla?

This page has been archived. This page contains information for an unsupported Joomla! version or is no longer relevant. It exists only as a historical reference, it will not be improved and its content may be incomplete and/or contain broken links.

Native Recaptcha was added into Joomla in version . Using Recaptcha is a great way of preventing bots from making fake accounts and content on your site.

There are five steps to setting up Recaptcha:

1. Log in to your administrator back-end (How do I do this?)
2. To enable Recaptcha
   • For Contact forms and the Registration form
     • Go to Global Configuration, and select the "Site" tab.
     • Choose "Captcha - Recaptcha" in your "Default Captcha" field.
     • Click Save & Close.
   • For the Registration form only
     • Go to your User Manager. You can find this under Users along the top menu or in the buttons on the main page of your Administrator panel.
     • Choose one of the following
       • "Use Default" in your "Default Captcha" field. (This is the default setting and follows the "Default Captcha" field setting in Global Configuration)
       • "None Selected" in your "Default Captcha" field. (This setting ignors the "Default Captcha" field setting in Global Configuration. Used when you want Recaptcha in Contact forms but not in the Registration form.)
       • "Captcha - Recaptcha" in your "Default Captcha" field. (Only needed if "Default Captcha" field setting in Global Configuration is set to "-None Selected-" and when you want the Recaptcha in contact form but not in the Contact forms).
     • Click Save & Close.
3. Go to your Plug-In Manager. You can find this under Extension Manager along the top menu or in the buttons on the main page of your Administrator panel.
4. Edit the Plug-In "Captcha - ReCaptcha"
   • Set Status to "Published"
   • Copy and paste the Public and Private keys in their appropriate fields on the right.
     • Get the Public and Private keys by signing in with your Google account (create an account if you don't have one) here: Create a reCAPTCHA key
     • Register your website domain, and Google will provide you with your ReCaptcha keys.
   • Click Save & Close

That's it! You're done!