Migrating jDownloads with 40,000 downloadable files to Joomla 5.

[emailautopsy]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently migrating a large Joomla 3 website to Joomla 5 and considering whether to continue using jDownloads or move to another document management extension.

Here's the complicated part:

Around 40,000 downloadable files
Deep category structure (6+ levels)
Multi-language support
External storage mounted through symbolic links
Custom ACL rules per user group
Need for automatic file indexing through cron jobs
Some files generated dynamically by another extension
Existing URLs must remain unchanged for SEO reasons

I already tested the importer and basic migration, but performance becomes inconsistent once the file count grows. Caching helps a bit, though rebuilding categories and generating thumbnails still takes a very long time.

My questions is:

Has anyone successfully handled a jDownloads setup at this scale on Joomla 5?

[Arno]

Hi,
which versions did you test it with?

I'm aware of several jDownloads installations handling similar volumes of data. The latest jDownloads versions have also introduced many improvements in terms of speed (including when generating thumbnails, by the way).

However, I imagine updating directly from Joomla 3 to Joomla 5 would be very difficult. More detailed information about your planned approach would therefore be helpful.

Strictly speaking, all components would need to be reinstalled in a fresh Joomla 5 environment.

(By the way, your post was published without a meaningful title and in the wrong category. I've corrected this.)