How to Enable the ionCube Loader

Some of our landing pages, starting with StreamRocket, protect their admin panel with ionCube, a free PHP extension that almost every hosting company offers. If the ionCube Loader is not enabled on your server, opening your admin panel shows a page titled “One step left: enable the ionCube Loader”. Your website keeps working for visitors in the meantime: only the admin panel needs the loader.

Enabling it takes about a minute and only has to be done once.

Method 1: Enable It in cPanel (Namecheap and Most Shared Hosting)

1. Log in to cPanel.
2. Open Select PHP Version (in the Software section). On newer cPanel versions this page is called PHP Selector; you can also type “PHP” into the cPanel search.
3. Look at the current PHP version at the top. If it says native, choose 8.2 from the dropdown (click Set as current if that button is shown). Extensions cannot be changed while “native” is selected.
4. Open the Extensions tab. On some servers the list of extensions is shown directly below the version.
5. Find ioncube_loader and tick its checkbox. The change is saved automatically.
6. Open your admin panel again (yourdomain.com/admin/) and reload the page. You should now see the login page.

Seeing “Warning: pdo_mysql skipped as conflicting”? This notice is harmless. Your server offers two versions of the same MySQL driver and only one of them can be active at a time. It has nothing to do with ionCube, and your landing page does not use MySQL.

Method 2: Ask Your Hosting Support

If your cPanel has no Select PHP Version or PHP Selector page, or your host uses a different control panel (Plesk, DirectAdmin or a VPS panel), the quickest way is to ask your hosting support. Most hosts enable it within minutes. You can copy this message:

Hello, please enable the ionCube Loader for PHP 8.2 on my hosting account (domain: yourdomain.com). Thank you!

Still Seeing the Message After Enabling It?

• Your domain uses a different PHP version. Extensions are enabled per PHP version. If your domain (especially an addon domain or subdomain) runs another version than the one you changed, set the domain to PHP 8.2 or enable ioncube_loader for its version as well. In the newer PHP Selector, check the Per Domain Settings tab: a domain listed there has its own settings, so tick ioncube_loader for that domain too. See how to change the PHP version of a domain on Namecheap shared hosting.
• A message says the files need a newer ionCube Loader. The loader on your server is outdated. Ask your hosting support to update the ionCube Loader to the latest version.
• Nothing changed. Wait a minute, then reload the page with Ctrl+F5 (Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac). Some servers apply PHP changes with a short delay.

Still stuck? Contact us with your domain name and we will help you get it working.