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WordPress Local WordPress Development Local WordPress Development Installing WordPress Locally

Posted by rvandaalen
rvandaalen
24,090 Points

Themes don't properly activate on localhost wordpress site

When I upload a theme, or transfer it directly to the themes folder, most features of the theme don't show up when I activate it. They all look like the same basic 'Hello World' blog just with different colors. It seems like none of the styling and content/images packaged with the gets activated. I have MAMP setup with a localhost on the pre-defined ports and everything else appears to work fine. I've changed the folder permission to read/write for all. Not sure what to do to fix this. Thanks!

rvandaalen
rvandaalen
24,090 Points

Actually some do seem to work as they should, but some still don't.

Colin Marshall
Colin Marshall
32,861 Points
Colin Marshall
Colin Marshall
32,861 Points

Add define( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); to your wp-config.php and see if you get any errors.

2 Answers

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

With any content management system, themes are separate from the content. Unless the image is critical to the theme, it won't come along, neither will any of the content.

Theme's for sell are staged with pseudo content and images to show you how it could look. But it'll be up to you to fill out, or add the content to it.

Colin Marshall
Colin Marshall
32,861 Points
Colin Marshall
Colin Marshall
32,861 Points

I think Kevin is correct. Some themes will come with an XML file of demo content that you can import using the WordPress importer to get it looking like the author's demo site for the theme. This can save you a lot of time so you don't have to recreate everything. On the other hand, you can learn how to use the theme better if you recreate the demo from scratch without an import.

Contact the theme's author or check the theme's documentation to see if they provide this demo content.

rvandaalen
rvandaalen
24,090 Points
rvandaalen
rvandaalen
24,090 Points

Thanks. That's helpful. I compared the same theme between a hosted server and a local one through MAMP and the output was different for a few themes. Most of them however, do work fine. Thanks again.