WordPress not letting me install child theme

What are you installing? The theme or the child? A child theme is something you create yourself so the theme’s files are not modified when you customize it.

To create a child theme you need a style.css file that calls on Unite as its parent.

The parent theme must be in your themes folder in addition to your child theme’s folder.

I am installing the child theme directly into wordpress. The unite theme is already installed on wordpress. So I went to appearance> themes> add new and from there I selected the upload button where I was able to select my child theme from the folder on my desktop that I saved it in and then press the upload button but the issue is the error message I have above is the one I got.

This is the official wordpress child theme site which is the one I used in making my child theme: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Child_Themes and it says right there that @import url is not used anymore which is why I never added it to my child theme code itself in the style.css I created. Was I supposed to add that anyways?

Edit: Yea I tried that too and it did nothing for me adding the @import url code you gave me did not fix the issue I am still getting the same exact error message before telling me that the folder already exists when I already checked and the folder does not exist because I deleted it already.

no you don’t need the @import but you do need the rest. If you are using “unite” as your theme, place that in the template line. Place it in your Themes Directory /themes/unite-child/ and you should be able to activate it. You must have the parent theme in it’s own folder but doesn’t need to be active.

yes but you see I already did that this is what I am trying to explain. I already followed that here is the exact information I used that pertains to my template for Unite:

/*
Theme Name: Unite Child
Theme URI: https://colorlib.com/wp/unite
Description: Unite Child Theme
Author: Silkalns
Author URI: https://colorlib.com
Template: Unite
Version: 1.5.8
License: GNU General Public License v2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Tags: light, dark, two-columns, right-sidebar, responsive-layout, accessibility-ready
Text Domain: unite-child
*/

So I honestly have no idea why wordpress is saying the theme cannot be installed when I’m double checked and there is no folder that exists despite wordpress saying there is and despite the fact that I double checked the information on my theme and it is accurate.

One thing I noticed is that the Template: line must contain the name of the folder that holds the parent theme, and capitalization matters: “Unite” is not the same as “unite”.

I changed it like you said and now I am getting a different error message:

Unpacking the package…

Installing the theme…

This theme requires a parent theme. Checking if it is installed…

The parent theme could not be found. You will need to install the parent theme, Unite Theme, before you can use this child theme.

Theme installed successfully.

Return to Themes page

I checked and it shows on appearance> themes that Unite theme is installed and it also shows that Unite theme is activated so I have no clue why wordpress would say parent theme is not installed when it actually is.

What is in your child theme functions.php file?

What is in the child theme style.css file now?

Well in the child theme styles.css I found the official website for Unite wordpress theme and found that I needed to change some of the info so I did and it currently says:

/*
Theme Name: Unite Theme Child
Theme URI: https://colorlib.com/wp/unite
Description: Unite Theme Child Theme
Author: Aigars Silkalns
Author URI: https://colorlib.com/wp/
Template: Unite Theme
Version: 1.5.8
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
Tags: purple, light, white, gray, one-column, two-columns, right-sidebar, fluid-layout, responsive-layout, responsive-layout, translation-ready, custom-background, custom-colors, custom-menu, featured-images, full-width-template, post-formats, theme-options, threaded-comments
Text Domain: unitetheme-child
*/

I do not have a child theme functions.php file I never made one. I have a functions.php file that can be found by going to appearance> editor and the clicking on functions.php but that is for the actual unite theme itself not a child theme.

You must have a functions.php file unless you have an @import line in the child theme style.css file.

This is all that is required in the child theme:

/*
Theme Name: Unite Theme Child
Template: unite
*/

EDITED (it was wrong – sorry!) the functions.php file should have this:

<?php
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'theme_enqueue_styles' );
function theme_enqueue_styles() {
    wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
}

That’s the standard child theme – however, if the Unite theme has something unusual, it could be different. But maybe try this and see if it works.

Change the template line to what the folder for the theme is. It should be “unite” without capital letters.

Note that I just edited the above post to add the comment tags around the section in the style.css file

Thank you all! Finally I was able to fix this. Between changing the capital in Unite to lower case and then adding that 2nd part of the code to the end of my child theme in the style.css I was able to finally get it to work. Now the unite child theme is activated and working. This is great thank you to everyone for helping me I am just glad I could finally resolve this ??