So you’ve finally purchased your WordPress theme, but you can’t find out how to properly upload it? There is no .zip file with the theme’s name or its file size is too big that it leads to uploading errors?
If this sounds familiar to you, then this article is what you need. Also, if you’re one of those who like making their online presence more personal by using a premium theme, then follow this tutorial about the WordPress install process.
WordPress is an open source platform made for blogging, which can be downloaded from their official site (WordPress.org). To clear things from the beginning, downloading WordPress from the original site (WordPress.com) won’t allow you to upload custom themes. You can find more detailed description of the differences between them by following this link.
WordPress installs usually come with default sets of premade templates. Since these designs stay the same for every buyer, it’s common that many clients don’t like them. As a matter of fact, almost 80% of WordPress users change their free themes to premium themes as soon as they install the platform.
Downloading the blogging software, and making a self-hosted website is the only way to use third-party themes.
A new WordPress theme can be installed in these three ways:
- Semi-manual installation: You have to go to the WP Admin Panel, and use their upload method;
– Manual installation: By installing a theme using an FTP client;
– Through the hosting Control Panel.
Before you start, let us tell you that there is nothing complicated about it. The only thing to be concerned about is choosing a theme that will match the looks and functionality you want your website to have.
Semi-manual installation method
This method is great for premium theme users. If you want to upload a theme using this particular method, you have to download the .zip file directly from the source.
Step 1: Login into the WordPress dashboard. Open the menu on the left side, and choose ‘Appearances’ > ‘Themes’. You will see a page with different options from which you’re supposed to choose ‘Install theme’ to continue with the process.
Step 2: This page is, in fact, your WordPress theme manager, which also provides a wide range of free themes. Since you already chose a specific theme, move to the next step of the installation process.
Step 3: With this phase begins your setup process. You should select ‘Choose file’, and navigate to the folder which contains the .zip file of the theme. Click on the theme you want to install and press ‘Enter’. The next step is to click on ‘Install now’, and the theme will start installing.
Step 4: Until the theme will be completely installed, you’ll get to a specific preview page. You need to click on ‘Live preview’ to see how the theme would look before you’ll confirm your choice. Sure that’s the one? Then click on ‘Activate’ and install it!
Step 5: Assuming that you’ve chosen your premium theme based on its demo, at this step you should upload the demo content and install the necessary plugins. For most of the available themes, this process may require several steps, starting with the import of the corresponding ‘.xml’ file and following certain instructions.
Since this process may be quite tedious, we decided to ease it us much as possible in our latest WordPress theme The Core. Once you finish uploading the theme, you’ll be redirected to the ‘Auto Setup’ page, where you can choose one of the three installation options: Plugins & Demo Content, Plugins Only or Skip Auto Setup. We recommend you to choose the first option in order to complete the full theme installation and get access to the demo content.
After the theme is installed, you can easily choose the demo for your site by following this menu path: ‘Tools’ > ‘Demo Content Install’> ‘Install’. Quick and easy!
Yet, keep in mind that if your server hasn’t enough resources or you use a shared hosting service, these facts may slow down your installation process. Make sure to choose one of the most reliable hosting providers before installing your theme and its demos.
More than that, The Core gives you the possibility to create and import your own demo by using the backup feature. Through this method, you can design your demo layout on the local host and migrate it, by creating a backup file, and export the file within The Core.
Remember: Semi-manual installation may not always succeed, because:
Reason 1: The .zip doesn’t contain a direct theme folder. This issue can be easily solved. Use WinRar (or any other file archive tool) to extract the .zip folder. Assuming that the .zip is correct, there will be a single folder with the theme name, which must contain a file called ‘style.css’. If you see anything else except this ‘style.css’ file, or you get the ‘The package could not be installed. The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet’ error then it means that your zip isn’t suitable for any uploads. You can find more detailed guidelines on how to fix this error on this article from Envato market.
But you don’t have to give up! Go inside the folder, and look for any other folder that has the name of your theme and contains this file. This folder can be easily compressed into .zip format. Once you’ve compressed it, upload it and check if it works. It’s the best shot you’ve got on checking if the theme works.
Reason 2: Your file exceeds maximum upload size. Your file exceeds maximum upload size. Another problem that could encounter is to receive the following alert: ‘The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini’ or ‘File_name exceeds the maximum upload size for this site’. It means that you should either go for a smaller file or resize the one that you already have, using the PHP.ini settings. In most of the times, the error appears when adding files that are larger than 2 MB, because many hosts haven’t updated their size limits up to at least 8 MB.
This is also the case for our latest WordPress theme. The theme is based on high-quality items that make its size is slightly more than 2 MB. So, keep in mind to check your host upload limit before installing our theme to avoid this issue. If you don’t want to do this manually, (contact both the hosting provider and the theme manager, and ask them to increase the file size limit.
Reason 3: Your site isn’t new. You’ve already launched your site based on another WordPress theme. Nowadays, WordPress themes are complex structures, with distinct features and layouts. Don’t expect that if you will change your theme, it will automatically adjust the layouts of your previous theme. This is process is like trying to fit a European plug intro a USA socket – it won’t fit without an adapter. The same principle applies to your theme migration – you’ll have to work on adjusting your theme.
The installation process is quite easy and straightforward, but it’s not always 100% effective. There might be glitches that will cause the installation to fail, but you don’t have to worry about that. You can always upload your themes through the Control Panel File Manager or the FTP. Keep reading to see how you can do it.
Manual installation method: The FTP manager
Compared to the semi-manual process, manual installation is really slow. This happens because it requires access to numerous options that many hosts don’t have (in particular those that are running the sites on VPS/Dedicated services). In order to use this method, you have to install an FTP client on your device (use Transmit for Mac OSX, FileZilla for Windows).
There are a few details related to your service/hosting account that you should keep in mind before initiating the installation:
• The server address/domain name;
• The FTP username;
• The FTP password;
• The exact location of the WordPress installation within the hosting account (most of the time it’s the public_html folder or a smaller folder inside it).
The structure of the folder can differ from host to host. This is why the installation steps are rather similar than equal for all hosts:
Step 1: Start with extracting the theme archive. You should find a folder named after the theme, which contains different files inside it (the style.css and functions.php are a must).
Step 2: Use the login details provided by the hosting service to connect to the FTP server.
Step 3: Once you’ve connected to the hosting server, look for the following directory: ‘yourwebsite.com/wp-content/themes/’, and open it.
Step 4: Upload your chosen theme inside the theme folder of your FTP server. The upload process usually takes few minutes.
Step 5: After your theme is uploaded, login into your WordPress dashboard and select themes clicking on ‘Appearances’. If everything succeeded, then the chosen theme should appear there. You also have the chance for some real-time preview on its looks. That’s what you were looking for? Then apply it!
It may sound complicated at first, but this is definitely the way to go for installing any theme that you like.
You can check this video about how to install our WordPress themes using FTP to see a clear walkthrough of the installation process.
Installing WordPress themes through the Control Panel
This installation type is usually required by older WordPress versions that don’t support single-click installation performed directly from the admin page. Installing a theme to your web hosting account using Control Panel is very easy.
The simplicity consists in the fact that you don’t need a third-party program to do it, and there is no unzipping of any theme archives. Even a person that doesn’t know much about FTP can quickly do it by following these steps:
Check whether your ‘Theme Files’ are in a .gz or .zip archive. Open the Control Panel’s ‘File Manager’, and look for the ‘Themes folder’. Assuming that WordPress is installed within the server’s document root folder, click on “public_html/wp-content/themes”. If WordPress is installed within a sub-folder named ‘wordpress’, click on “public_html/wordpress/wp-content/themes” and follow these steps:
Step 1: Download your theme from the marketplace on your computer. No unzipping is necessary.
Step 2: Look for the ‘Upload’ icon within the ‘File Manager’.
Step 3: Upload your theme straight to the themes directory.
Step 4: Select ‘Extract’, and unzip the theme’s archive.
Step 5: Go back to the WordPress admin zone to find the recently installed theme inside. A single click on it will be enough to activate it.
Also, you can follow this link to watch how to install our premium WordPress themes using the most popular auto-installers.
If all the above methods fail to do the job, it probably means that you’re experiencing problems with improper or outdated themes. This issue has nothing to do with WordPress, so you have to ask the theme’s author for the theme’s up-to-date version.
Installing WordPress themes isn’t difficult. You should only keep in mind these essential steps and choose a good hosting service. Moreover, with themes like The Core, you have the opportunity to quickly and easily install the demo content. Once your stunning theme is installed, you can customize it the way you like.
If you have your personal tips on how to make the WordPress theme installation process more effective, please share with us!