ionCube Fatal Decoding Errors

Problem

You see the following error:

Fatal error: The file /home/username/public_html/whmcs/modules/gateways/ewayuk.php was encoded by the ionCube Encoder for PHP 5.3 and cannot run under PHP 7.0. Please ask the provider of the script to provide a version encoded with the ionCube Encoder for PHP 5.6. in Unknown on line 0

Cause

This error indicates a PHP version encoding error due to outdated file for a previous WHMCS version.

This issue may initially display as a blank or partially-formatted page.

Solution

If the file is from a third-party developer, contact the original author of the file for an updated version.

If the file is from WHMCS, check our Release Notes for deprecation and removal notices. In most cases, the file no longer ships with WHMCS and you can delete it safely.

To delete these files:

  1. In your preferred FTP client, go to the location that displays in the error message (in the above example, /home/username/public_html/whmcs/modules/gateways/).
  2. Delete the file that displays in the error message (in this example, ewayuk.php).
  3. Reload the page.
  4. If reloading displays the same error for a different file, repeat this process for each file until the page loads correctly.
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Last modified: 2025 March 28