problems installing a new theme, newbie!

To back up your Theme:

1) Via FTP (or cPanel filemanager), navigate to \wp-content\themes
2) You should see \wp-content\themes\<theme-name> where <theme-name> is the name of your Theme
3) Copy (download) the <theme-name> folder to your local machine

in cpanel:
# Browse wp_commentmeta
# Browse wp_comments
# Browse wp_contact_form_7
# Browse wp_links
# Browse wp_newscategories
# Browse wp_newsletter
# Browse wp_newsletter_profiles
# Browse wp_newsstats
# Browse wp_newstatsclick
# Browse wp_newstatserasers
# Browse wp_newsusers
# Browse wp_options
# Browse wp_postmeta
# Browse wp_posts
# Browse wp_savednewsletters
# Browse wp_terms
# Browse wp_term_relationships
# Browse wp_term_taxonomy
# Browse wp_usermeta
# Browse wp_users

no wp-content

Are you in cPanel, or in PhpMyAdmin?

What you listed are DATABASE tables, not the WordPress file structure.

AHH wow i look stupid! haha ok so im in cpanel now, how would i navigate to wp-content?

Now that you’re in cPanel, launch the File Manager. It should default to your \home directory. You need to navigate to:

\home\public_html\wp-content\themes

Or, if WordPress is installed in a subdirectory called “wordpress”:

\home\public_html\wordpress\wp-content\themes

ok so i have found the file tried to copy and down load it, neither work

If you can’t download the file from the cPanel File Manager, then that’s probably not a WordPress-related issue. You might check with your host’s technical support.

i figured out the problem, had to compress the file before i could download it! ok so now i can change my theme and the settings will be safe?

Now that you have the current Theme downloaded, you can safely delete it from the server.

Once you have deleted it from the server, you should then be able to upload the original Theme again (which was the original reason for this thread, IIRC).

ok uploading the zip file didnt work i got the same error, could i do it via cpanel?

Did you delete your Theme files from the server first, before attempting to upload?

i deleted the cleanr folder and the zip version do i have to delete the whole themes folder?

What do you mean, you deleted the “ZIP version”?

Did you delete locally, or on the server?

on the server, you have to compress it to a zip version on the server to download it. i still have my copy

Okay, so you’re using the “cleanr” Theme? And now, in \home\public_html\wp-content\themes, you no longer have a “cleanr” directory:

\home\public_html\wp-content\themes\cleanr\

You should now be able to install it.

By the way, the “cleanr” Theme available in the repository. Why are you trying to upload it manually?

Go to Dashboard -> Appearance -> Add New Theme -> search

Search for the Theme, and let WordPress install it automatically.