How to update child theme when I already messed it up

[lobsterass]

Hi awesome developers!

Before you refer me to this thread about child theme installation, hear me out please.

I just updated to Neighborhood 1.71. Since all custom changes are made to my child theme, I thought these changes would remain after update. They didn’t. Should I have activated the “Normal Neighborhood Theme” while updating child? The whole child folder disappeared on the FTP. So I reinstalled the back-up, and now my situation is this:

1. The child theme folder is back on FTP (please see image).
2. My site is back to 1.70 and it has the correct custom changes intact.
3. Appearance>Themes shows only Neighborhood 1.70 and Neigborhood 1.71 (see image). If I activate 1.71 all custom work disappear.

I don’t understand how I should do this update without loosing custom changes, as I can only activate the already installed 1.71 and thereby loose changes.

Confused! Please help! So tired of doing all changes over and over again every time a new update is out.

<3

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Which one is your child theme?

– Kyle

[lobsterass]

That’s my problem, Kyle. The child seems to be the 1.70 because the “regular” 1.70 seems have disappeared while updating to the 1.71, without deactivating the child first. There are only two themes there now, and it seems to be no “regular” 1.70. I’m confused.

Do I have to do all customizations manually again now? If so, I guess I’ll have to. Do I need a new child? I really want to learn how to update correctly in the future.

[lobsterass]

This reply has been marked as private.

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Ok looks like you have version 1.7 and 1.71 uploaded, but there is no child theme.

You should activate 1.71 and remove 1.7

Sorry but not sure what you did with your child theme, in future you should only update the parent theme when there is an update available, leave your child theme alone during updates as this does not need to be updated. Child themes are just for your customisations

– Kyle

[lobsterass]

OK.

1. So, I should have activated the parent theme while updating?

So where do I go from here? My FTP shows that I have the 1.70 child active now.

2. If I activate the 1.71, how do I create a new child?
3. How do I make sure not having the same problem for the next update?

I did search the forum and the WP forum beforehand but I couldn’t find clear info on this.

Sorry for being a moron. <3

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

I think you’re getting the wrong idea about child themes.

Child themes contain a style.css file, if they had no other file, it would still work. Any css changes you want to make to the theme, you should add to your child theme style.css file. You can also overwrite things like header.php, footer.php etc, you just make your changes then save the file to the child theme.

When there is a new theme update, you just update the parent theme, and your child theme will still overwrite the parent theme. Is this what you was doing?

Looks to me like you are using the whole of the theme as your child theme, ie all the files.

You should remove the 1.7 folder, and then create a new blank folder (child theme) and add the style.css file

Let me know if this is clear enough

– Kyle

P.S no, you don’t need to activate the parent theme to update, just click update and it will work

[lobsterass]

OK. I had changed php-files, functions, css etc in my child. Somebody told me that I should have all files with custom changes in the child folder so I copied everything.

So, you’re telling me the following is what I should do?

1. Activate the 1.71
2. Make all changes manually again.
3. Copy all files (php + function + css) with changes and put them in the same folder structure as the parent, but call the folder child?
4. Activate the child under “Themes”.

<3

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Hi

No you don’t copy all the themes files to the child theme, only ones that have been changed and ones that are supported in the child theme (root folder files)

1. Activate 1.71 and delete 1.7
2. Create child theme (with only a css file) and activate
3. Make your changes to your style.css file
4. If you make changes to php files, save them in child theme

– Kyle

[lobsterass]

OK. I’ll do this tomorrow. Thanx, Kyle!

🙂

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

No problem 🙂

[lobsterass]

This reply has been marked as private.

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Ok I have just checked your files, you have 3 themes, 2 version of Neighborhood and one child. Your child theme contains the full css file of the parent theme, which you do not need to do. Only custom css goes in here, as you can see the import rule will import the css from the parent theme. What you need to do is sort out your custom css, either add this to the theme options for now, or clean up the child theme css file so it ONLY HAS YOUR CUSTOM CSS, or write it in a text file and save to your computer, just make sure you have it somewhere.

Once you have done that. Delete the 2 parent themes, re-upload Neighborhood, and if needed update it. Once you have the latest version of Neighborhood, upload the child theme and add your custom css. Activate that and everything should be working

– Kyle

[lobsterass]

This reply has been marked as private.

[lobsterass]

The site is live right now and it looks OK but that’s only because I’ve manually made all custom changes again to the parent theme. I need to make the child work.