theme footer deleted

When you use the Editor, does the file appear on the list of editable files in your Child Theme (I assume you are using a Child Theme)?

If not, you need to load the file to the same directory in the Child Theme as in the Parent Theme. You cannot create files in the Editor.

Does that help?

I don’t have a child theme for twenty seventeen. Yes in the theme files it has theme footer listed,but if I click on it there is a blank page.I could see the file before, but after I tried to edit, it disappeared.

You really should be using a Child Theme, because it makes things more secure when you are making your own changes to a Theme. In other words, you can always delete your changes and start again. Using the original theme files does not allow that.

It sounds as though your editing may have made things disappear somehow.

You want to reinstate the original files for the theme to see if you can recover the footer files. Then try again on a Child Theme.

Regards,
Stilman

How do you reinstate the original files for the theme? Would you do this before you add a child theme? Thanks

Reinstall twenty-seventeen and activate it. Ensure that it is working correctly. Then create a Child Theme (there are a number of plugins available).

Then you can begin to change things on the Child. That way the Parent theme is unharmed/unchanged.

If you want to change the structure of anything, do it in the Child Theme. So, for instance, if you want to make up a new footer, copy that file from the Parent to the Child (via FTP) and work in that file in the Child.

I hope that is clear.

Fixed it. Thanks so much for your help. Bonnie