I saw that there was an update available for newspaper and in the updating documentation it says I could lose changes if I hadn’t created a child theme. This has me perplexed because the main installation instructions advised activating the main theme and didn’t recommend using the “child theme”, which it really should have.
I see now that you have a lot of documentation on Child themes but it doesn’t appear to help me now that I didn’t start with it to begin with as I should have apparently. I wasn’t even aware that this was possible and that a child theme is provided with theme, because the install instructions didn’t mention it.
Do I have to make a child theme from the changes I’ve already made and if so how do I go about doing that? I noticed that there are different directories and files include than the original.
Please Advise how I can create a child theme from the already custom theme.
I backed up the theme, uploaded child theme and activated, and it was okay with the original theme. I updated the Newspaper theme to latest update and that seemed to break the site because it stripped the menu and duplicated logo and messed up the site. I thought this was an issue with the new theme, but it appears to be the combination with the old child theme, because when I activated the main theme it fixed the site, and it appears to have the settings I setup when using the last version of the main Newspaper theme.
Again, I think I would have saved a issues now and in the future if I was advised to start with Child theme when installing.
Going forward is there a way to create a child theme that doesn’t mess up the site? I’m just concerned that updating the main theme in the future will mess up changes I make.
Please Advise.
Hi,
Above all, we are sorry for the inconvenience! We do not recommend using the child theme as this could cause lots of issue if not used right and other than that it doesn’t give the ability to change all theme’s files, just some of them.
The settings and customization you chose within the theme don’t get lost when you updated the theme just the ones which are made directly within the theme’s files which we do not recommend also, so from my point of view a child would help but if not used right it could cause issues also.
So if you don’t plan to make changes to the theme’s files we do not recommend using the child theme and if you do want to make some changes, not loots of them, then we suggest to make the changes in the main theme then make a copy of the modified files and replace them after each update or use the patch we provide, if you update from one version to the next, check the change-log to see if the files you also modified have changed and if not you can leave them like they were and simply update the theme using the patch.
If you don’t use the patch you need to modify the files again after each update.
Moving to the child theme messing up your site issue, please make sure that you use the latest version of the child also provide within the theme’s files that you have downloaded from themeforest.
If still doesn’t work make sure you disable plugins, empty cache, purge files and check again.
Please let me know how this works for you.
Thanks
Thank you for your reply Lucian. You clarified all that I needed to know and I guess I should probably stay away from Child themes since I’m just using the settings/preferences within the theme at this point. The theme very good without any additional tweaks, and is mainly why I purchased it.
I also appreciate you being thorough about the Child themes and trouble shooting the issue I experience. I reupload the included child theme that came with the newest update, and thought about trying it and purging the cache, so it was good that you covered that so I know for sure what to do if I choose to use the Child theme. I forgot to ask that but I was thinking about it.
Based on what you advise about the Child Theme, I apparently don’t need to use it for this current project, and maybe should stay away from it with other projects since you don’t recommend it anymore.
Thanks again for the detailed reply!
