Installing a custom theme for WordPress on iPage

Question:

I have been trying to get my custom theme uploaded FOREVER and no one can seem to help me. I host through ipage and use wordpress for my blog. I download a theme called rockwell from theme forest to use on my site. So I downloaded my theme to my desktop and extracted the files. Two folders appeared on my desktop. In the first folder there is a rockwell.zip file and a few other folders that say documentation, PSD and license.

In the second folder is a file that says rockwell_wp_themeV1.4.9 I am not sure what type of file this is. I just know it is not a .zip file. Then there is also a folder in there that when I open it up it has a few folders inside that say Documentation, PSD, etc. It looked like it has all the same information as the first folder but without the .zip file.

Well I went to wordpress and I tried to upload the rockwell.zip file I found in the first folder on my desktop but wordpress sits there for a good 5 minutes then it sometimes goes to a completely white screen that says installation failed at the tab or it will say are you sure? and I click that and it just brings me back to the them page again.

Well since that didn’t work I went into the second folder and added that rockwell_wp_themeV1.4.9 to my archive as a .zip file. Well when I add that in wordpress it actually says installed successfully, but then I get a bunch of long errors underneath it. When I go back to the main theme page it says style sheet is missing.

So I do not know what to do. When I go to my control panel the file that appears after I uploaded the .zip file in wordpress is completely blank. I see a style.css in the unzipped file on my desktop so I was just messing around and tried adding that in my file manager and then it just disappeared off of wordpress all together. Any help would be appreciated.

Yes I read the documentation. He doesn’t have anything in there for the installation. Just on how to use it once you install it.

Answer:

A missing style sheet is a tell-tail sign that the files didn’t get copied to the right folder.  Here’s how it’s supposed to work.  Unzip the file and it should create a folder.  The name of the folder is the theme’s name.  In that folder are all the theme’s files.  Make sure you don’t have a folder in a folder.  If you do, the theme folder might be that second folder.  Once you determine you have the right folder, drag that entire single folder into your wp-content/themes folder.  Then it should appear in the Dashboard: Appearance: Themes.  Refresh the screen with an <F5> if it doesn’t.

Also check that you are running a recommended version of WordPress and update if necessary.  Disable all your plugins and one by one re-enable them.  Sometimes plugins interfere with a theme.

It sounds to me like you’re not copying the files to the right place.