Dumb Theme Changing Question

For Q1: Yes, but don’t uninstall the old theme, just activate the new one. If you don’t like the new theme then re-activate the old one.

Q2. Will changing themes result in the replacement of any non-them related files where, if I revert back, I lose customizations?

Not if you just switch themes and the theme directories are different (this is almost always the case BTW, I’m just being complete).

You’ve minify’ed your site so I can’t get a read on how you’re entirely setup but I’m going to guess that you didn’t create a child theme for Reflecta 2. That means if you did modify the original theme and an update comes out, you will lose your file customizations.

That’s not good and I hope you keep current backups.

If you can do a comparison of the original versus what you’ve changed then you can keep the original intact and update your child theme accordingly.

Thank you for responding Jan and I appreciate your assistance.

So if I can confirm, if I simply install the new theme and activate it, my old website will be intact when an if I switch back. Apologies as well as I need to be sure all will work as the website has repidly changed from a hobby t a complete business.

All modifications are simply adjustments to the header/footer/css files etc and I never created any child theme whatsoever.

Next question… I am going to believe activating the new theme means it is visible and there is no way to activate and customize off line while leaving the original site intact?

So if I can confirm

Yes, but the caveat is always this: when in any doubt make full backups.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/WordPress_Backups
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Backing_Up_Your_Database
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup

Your WordPress installation is valuable to you, so you should have a backup schedule and strategy in place already. It never hurts and when the Bad Thing™ happens it will save you hours of grief.

All modifications are simply adjustments to the header/footer/css files etc and I never created any child theme whatsoever.

My recommendation for everyone is that they can and should do what they like. Just be aware that if Reflect 2 gets updated and you push the button on that update you may feel some pain down the line.

That said, what you’ve described isn’t difficult to do with a child theme.

Next question… I am going to believe activating the new theme means it is visible and there is no way to activate and customize off line while leaving the original site intact?

Many of us (myself included) setup a dummy site for testing out theme changes before putting them on the live site. That can be via localhost using MAMP or on your PC.

InstantWP is pretty slick for that and sets up a localhost WordPress install on https://127.0.0.1:4001/

If you setup a theme on your dummy site and want to move it over to the live site, it’s just a matter of copying the wp-content/themes/your-theme directory to the live web server.

Make sure you have backups as mentioned above. Accidentally erasing files on your live site is not fun.

Thank you for your detailed response and, yes, I understand backups very well since last year at CES and realizing someone hacked themselves into my site and me out. I relied on people like you to dig up the proper file and amended the username and e-mail once again.

I backup daily and also use VaultPress.

Thank you very much for your help and, I am not aware of policy here with respect to advise and assistance above the site, but I would be interested if you could contact me through the site. There is nothing worse than not having an immediate answer when things go bad.

Thank you again and I will start by taking a look at InstantWP and purchasing the new theme.

Jan next question…

I have the server running on my site with Instant WP and am wondering how to copy and paste my live site into that for work, posts, pages and files as well…the whole WordPress package.

I have backed it up through cpanel and extracted it on my local system…just not sure where to copy and paster.

Once I have my live system working on the local computer, I wil install new theme and work on it..

Further…crud never realized I had two names here…

Would I simply copy my entire public_html folder on the live site to the iwpserver/htdocs/wordpress folder as they appear to be similar?

Job posted and apologies for not knowing the rules. I have spent a very frustrating day trying to get my entire website (larger than 2GB Duplicate limit) downloaded and working on my InstantWP local server to customize the new theme.

Any suggestions TRULY appreciated.

Further… I have tried EVERYTHING to get InstantWP working and it just wont work. I get an index.htm of my own website host saying my site has been activated?!?!

See installing WordPress locally instead?

This doesnt help tx. I want to move my present site to a local host and then work on and install a new theme, subsequently moving the theme back up.

I cannot use InstantWP because my site is about 4GB and Duplicate doesnt work. When I try by moving the wp-content file separately, it doesnt work in the end.

Tx ahead! This forum has one major flaw, in that, when we find someone that knows what they are talking about, there should be an option to purchase their assistance rather than having to find elsewhere to farm out. I am fighting now with something that I started days back and hoped to have complete by now because I cant do it.

Further…tried WP.net and CAN say that there are several scammers there. First that sent me a link and offer for assistance … the link was picked up as malicious and pinpointed that it shouldnt be opened.

there should be an option to purchase their assistance

These are free, community, forums – not a place to hire people. That’s what https://jobs.wordpress.net/ is for.

CAN say that there are several scammers there

I’m sure there are but we cannot control who responds to your job ad. Whenever hiring anyone (eg a plumber, a web developer), you should always use your common sense and take reasonable precautions to protect your potential investment.

Why do you need to download your entire site just to tweak a theme?

I am not tweaking a theme. I am installing a new one to conform to categories etc that I have created along with adverts and so on. i WILL ALSO BE CUSTOMIZING IT EXTENSIVELY.

My new menus will be based on categories and pages already in place. I am already aware that the open post page width needs to be re-adjusted for my posts to format correctly…very important as we are seeing around 10000 daily.

In jobs.wordpress.net, the problem is my little brother can lie and say he is a developer. There needs to be a solution where I can see the reputation and trust ability of he who wilL have access to my site.

At least here, within a few lines of assistance, I know they could help me immensely if there were outside contact. It is unfortunate because there is so much more that I would have done if this was the case…AND GLADLY PAY FOR IT

Quite frankly, if I could find someone trustable, I could get the new thee up and running in a single day!

My new menus will be based on categories and pages already in place.

I still think you do not need to download an entire site to do this. If necessary, you can set up a few sample posts to replicate your live site with the rest of the content provided by the Theme Unit Test data. I must have created about 50 themes all told and customised many others but I have never had to download the contents of a live site to do any of this.

Unfortunately I am not of the expertise to do such. I just spent a whole weekend trying to find someone to help unsuccessfully and also trying to learn how to set up InstandWP with no luck.

I have received a million replies from people who have never even tried to set up a site above basic WP themes though…

OH and what I DONT get is why people who are so proficient at building websites have only a gmail address and no website of their own to show how good they are?