If you’re installing Thesis for the first time, please follow the steps outlined in the video below. If you’re hosting with GoDaddy, the rules are a little different. You’ll find note on this below to help you out. Also, you’ll find notes on installing Thesis on Windows IIS servers at the bottom of this page.
The installation process described here assumes familiarity with the use of FTP clients and the setting of file/folder permissions. You’ll see these concepts applied in the video below.
- Upload the new Thesis 1.8 folder to your
/wp-content/themesfolder. - Locate the
/custom-samplefolder and change its name to/custom. - Locate the
layout.cssfile inside your newly-renamed/customfolder, and change its permissions to 666. - [optional but highly recommended] If you’d like to give Thesis the ability to auto-crop thumbnail images for you, then you’ll want to change the permissions of your
/custom/cachefolder to 775. - Inside your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance → Themes, and then activate Thesis 1.8.
- You’re done!
Configuring Thesis on GoDaddy Linux Hosting
These notes assume that you have already uploaded the /thesis_XX folder to the appropriate location on your GoDaddy Linux account.
The FTP client provided by GoDaddy does not allow for the setting of permissions. Instead, GoDaddy customers must set permission by using the File Manager feature of their Hosting Control Center by following the steps below:
Log into your GoDaddy account by clicking the ‘My Account’ tab at the right end of the upper menu of the GoDaddy site.
Under the ‘My Products’ header in the left-hand GoDaddy navigation bar, click on ‘Hosting.’
A list of your GoDaddy hosting accounts should appear. Click the’‘Manage Account’ link beside the domain where your Thesis installation is located.
Your Hosting Control Center page should appear. Click the ‘Content’ link in the vertical dropdown menu, then click on the File Manager icon which should appear.
In the green left-hand navigation bar of the GoDaddy File Manager, open your online folders (/wp-content/themes/thesis_XX) until you have opened the Thesis /custom folder and exposed its contents in the right-hand side of the File Manager display.
In the right-hand side of the File Manager display, select layout.css. Click the Permissions icon in the upper horizontal menu, which will reveal the Set Permissions panel. Click the Advanced Permissions tab.
Under Advanced Permissions, check these boxes:
Web user permissions
[x] read [x] write
Owner permissions
[x] read [x] write
Figure 1. Setting your layout.css file permissions in GoDaddy.
Click OK to save settings.
In the right-hand side of the File Manager display, select the /cache folder. Click the Permissions icon in the upper horizontal menu, which will reveal the Set Permissions panel. Click the Advanced Permissions tab.
Under Advanced Permissions, check these boxes:
Web user permissions
[x] read [x] execute (directory)
Owner permissions
[x] read [x] write [x] execute (directory)
Figure 2. Setting the /cache folder permissions in GoDaddy.
Click OK to save settings. Congratulations, you’re done!
Installing Thesis on a Windows IIS Server
Installing Thesis on a Windows server – whether through a dedicated FTP client or through file managers or other tools provided as part of web hosting accounts – follows the same guidelines as installing Thesis on a non-GoDaddy Linux server. Setting permissions, however, is not required or even possible when working on a Windows-based host, as *nix-type permissions do not exist and are not recognized on a Windows server.
When tested on a Windows IIS 7.0 web server, Thesis functioned without issue and without the need for permissions.
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{ 78 comments… read them below or add one }
I have spent over 6 hours trying to install thesis 1.7 to my site which is hosted through godaddy.com
I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!! I don’t care how easy thesis supposedly is to use, I cannot install it, I cannot get the help I need to install it, and I cannot contact anyone at either wordpress.org or diy.
Florence, it’s unfortunate you’ve had this bad experience. Installing Thesis is super easy. Touch base with me and I’ll do it for you in less than 5 minutes.
OK, so I took a breath, took a nap, and tried again. I’m really stubborn, so in spite of your kind offer, Paul, I had to try it one more time myself. And, voila, I’m live on wordpress via godaddy and rockin’ thesis right now.
I’m still frustrated that neither wordpress.org or diy offer the option of talking to a live person for help. I’ve encountered many less-than-glowing reports on godaddy during this adventure, I like that the real live people I talked to on their help line could actually help with my questions.
I’m playing with layout right now, but will copy in some content soon. Check out my site: cormorantcoaching.com
Thanks again.
I had lots of problems installing Thesis.1.8.2 myself. How can I get some help? I use Dotster for my hosting.
What sort of problems? Tell me specifically and I’ll let you know what’s going wrong. Please also make sure you followed the instructions above.
Go Daddy sucks! But here is how you do it… follow these instructions, then follow the thesis theme instructions.
Log into Go Daddy
Go to Hosting Dashboard
Go to ftp Manager
Navigate to wp content- then to themes folder
Upload thesis theme file or zip file into “themes” folder
unarchive file
Change permissions on 2 files as per above instructions
I upgraded to Thesis 1.7 then upgraded to Wordpress 3.0. The website looks OK, but when I try to log into wp-admin, I get this error:
500 Internal Server Error
When I was running Wordpress 2.8.5, I didn’t have this problem.
Please help!
Hi Monica. I’ve seen this happen before. My guess is that it isn’t a Thesis issue, but rather something that went wrong during your WP upgrade. Just follow these manual upgrade instructions from WordPress and you should be okay. Make sure you scroll down to the “Manual Update” part.
I have the same problem than Monica. I’m trying to install Thesis 1.7 in a brand new data base with WP 3.0 (installed from zero) and when I try to activate the theme I get a 500 Internal Server Error. Then, if I try to log into wp-admin, the same error persists. I made all the necessary changes in the custom folder (names and permissions).
When I delete the Thesis folder from wp-content/themes the error disappear and I can activate any other theme or log into my wp-admin without problems.
Hope you can help me.
Hi Oscar,
I was finally able to get the solution to my problem from tech support from my website server host (1and1(d0t)com). My problem (and looks like yours, too) was that I needed to upgrade to PHP 5. What tech support instructed me to do was to write this line of code into my .htaccess file:
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
You may already know this about the .htaccess file, but in case you don’t: Normally the file is hidden, but in programs like Fetch you can set the preferences to show the file. If you don’t have the file already (I didn’t), it’s easy to create one and then upload it to your server. It should be in the main directory level, where all your other wordpress files are. Make sure it’s UTF-8 (at least, that’s what my server wanted).
Good luck and feel free to contact me directly if you have other questions.
Paul and Monica,
It worked! I had just done contact with the support team of 1and1 where also I have my domains hosted, but I even have not had response, so it will not be already necessary since the procedure that Monica indicated me worked perfectly.
Thanks a lot for your kind attentions. I am to your orders.
Thanks
it really worked for me
Thank you that worked for me as well!
Hello,
I have installed Thesis 1.7 twice but I’ve noticed that both times the “Thesis Options” do not appear under the Appearance tab. I was watching some tutorials and they all recommend to start there. What do I need to do to activate it?
Thank you
Michael
Hi Michael. Actually, you won’t see the Thesis options under the Appearance tab. All the Thesis settings are located in a section called “Thesis”. If you’re running 1.7, you’ll find it above Appearance. Thanks for commenting.
Thanks – it worked for me too, on the UK version of One and One.
Why don’t they just update all their client accounts and be done with it – or at least add a Wordpress and 1 and 1 guide to their site, next to the MYSQL setup?
Hats off to Monica Lam!! Thanks for taking the time to come back with a solution to the 500 Internal Server Error.
Hello
Could you please tell me something important about the permissions for the layout.css file. It has been changed to 666, and once the installation is complete, should it be changed into a secure type of permission again?
Thank you
Nicole
Hi Nicole, you shouldn’t have any issues with it and I don’t believe you’re supposed to change it back. You could check our the DIY Themes Forums, or read this post on it. Thanks for commenting.
Hi,
Using a Mac and Yummy FTP. Yummy is not letting me change the name of the custom-sample folder. I should say I have already activated the 1.8 Thesis theme and made one blog post, now I’m trying to go back with my FTP and make the changes. Could that have something to do with it?
Hi Justin, try using Filezilla. Alternatively, just rename the folder on your local hard drive, and upload that renamed folder to the appropriate place on the server, which is inside the main Thesis theme folder.
What an amazing way to show us how to install this stuff, bravooooo
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Thanks, I actually tried to install Thesis on my new blog: http://techinfoblog.net/, but my badluck it want successful, but your tutorial was really helpful for me.
Thanks alot
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Hello outthere,
I do have a problem. I can’t install Thesis. Perhaps it’s because my english isn’t very well but the problem is: Attention! In order to take advantage of all the controls that Thesis offers, you need to change the name of your custom-sample folder to custom. This is the message in my blog. But where ‘for heavens sakes’ can I find it.
PLEASE HELP!!!HELP!!HELP!!!
Take a look inside your Thesis folder and you will see another folder called “custom-sample”. You need to change the name of that folder to “custom.”
I’ve installed Thesis 1.8. I am unable to locate
the layout.css file. Any suggestions?
It’s inside the folder called “custom.”
I am trying to use WordPress 3.0.4 and Thesis 1.8 on GoDaddy. For some reason, I’m only getting one Thesis Theme 1.8 by Chris Pearson in the Manage Themes tab, and under the Install Themes tab, I’m only seeing a limited selection of WordPress themes and not the full array of Thesis themes. Is there an additional setting in my godaddy hosting account that I need to tweak? I placed Thesis 1.8 folder in wp content folder/themes and tweaked advanced permissions according to instructions. Thanks!
ska, not sure I’m following you here. You say you only see one Thesis theme and not the full array of Thesis themes. There’s only supposed to be a single Thesis theme and not multiple themes. What makes you think there should be more than one? Just copy over the files, change ‘custom-sample’ to ‘custom’ and then update the applicable permissions and you’re done. You’re looking for something that doesn’t exist.
i guess I was looking for the same pre formatted theme options you get with WordPress. i need to read more of the tutorial on thesis. thanx!
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Not sure what “pre formatted theme options” are, but yes, it sounds like you need to learn more about Thesis and how it works. There are numerous tutorials on this blog, or you can also visit the official users guide: http://diythemes.com/thesis/rtfm/
Getting error only when I click on custom file editor? I changed the permissions like the instructions said. Latest version of wordpress..
HTTP Error 500 (Internal Server Error): An unexpected condition was encountered while the server was attempting to fulfill the request.
If you’re hosting with 1&1, make sure you’re running PHP5. That could be what’s causing the error.
was following the instructions for installing thesis on GoDaddy, all was good up to the cache folder, it says “this folder contains no files or subfolders”
I am wondering if it is because I have not uploaded the thesis_XX folder to godaddy:
“These notes assume that you have already uploaded the /thesis_XX folder to the appropriate location on your GoDaddy Linux account.”
I don’t understand how to do that part?
….oops I meant to ask, did it not do that when I uploaded Thesis to word press?
You just need to upload the thesis_18 folder to your “themes” folder in WordPress. So it would look like this: /wp-content/themes/thesis_18. It doesn’t matter that there aren’t any files in the cache folder and there won’t be initially. As to uploading the Thesis folder, I recommend you do that using an FTP program like Filezilla. Hope that helps.
Yes, thanks!
you guys rocks !!! you solved my 6 hrs problems in just one minute..thank you so much
Nice! Good luck with your new site!
how to change the post order i.e how we can change the navigation of post. Most of the thesis themes do not have navigation of posts one below the other. i.e they are not placved in a simple manner.
Huh??? Not following you at all here…. Posts are typically displayed on the home page from the most recent down to the oldest. Perhaps you can explain this a little more so it’s easier to understand. Thanks for commenting.
Sorry Perhaps I could have explained better. So I am linking to images of themes where post are arranged in this manner http://bit.ly/nCqdBJ. This is what I see after installing thesis & I want the post to be arranged simple manner i.e like this one below the other http://bit.ly/ozL8Ot
Now What can I do?
Sure, go to the Thesis Design Options which are located under the “Thesis” section in your WordPress dashboard. Then scroll down to “Home Page Display Options” and then “Features & Teasers.” Now change the value in the drop down to the highest value. This will remove the teasers and show a single post one after the other like in your example.
If you don’t want to show the whole post, and just an excerpt, you can do that under “Posts” which is under “Display Options” on the same Thesis design options page.
Hi. I have done all these actions above . Thesis does not appear in the appearance / Themes section of the Word press dashboard.. I am hosting the site at gator host and have uploaded thesis to the folder there and re directed wordpress to use that site name. I am a bit perplexed why it won’t show up. Hope you can help
pal
Hi. If Thesis isn’t appearing in the list of available themes in the WordPress dashboard, then it’s possible that you haven’t uploaded the Thesis theme files to the correct folder. Make sure the entire Thesis folder is uploaded the to the /wp-content/themes/ folder. Also make sure you rename the custom-sample folder in Thesis to custom. If the files are there, you should see the theme in the themes section of WP. As to your comment about redirecting WordPress to use that site name, that isn’t making sense to me. I don’t know what you mean by that. You don’t need to “redirect” WordPress to use a site name. If after copying the files to where I indicated, it still doesn’t work, you may need to explain what you mean by this last comment. Thanks.
Thanks for getting back to me re the re direction
1 I purchased a Domain Name ukulelelessonstoday.com
2 I installed the the site at Gator Host and uploaded the theseis to that ftp site as per the instructions
3. I pointed the name server to ns1.wordpress.com etc
4. in domains on the wordpress dashboard I added the domain ukulelelessonstoday.com
(cost me $12 a year to do this) then I set it to the primary domain with the ukulelelessonstoday.wordpress.com version not set as primary.
this is where the problem is I am sure that I have uploaded thesis to the wrong place or something
does this help?
PAL
Pal recently posted..Hello world!
Are you using WordPress.com? If so, I can’t really be of much help. I work predominantly with self-hosted installations. Also what you described above isn’t making sense. If you’re hosting at hostgator, why are the nameservers pointed to wordpress.com. This seems like a rather convoluted way to go about this. The easiest way is to just self host your site. Perhaps you can get with hostgator or wordpress.com to figure out what’s going on.
Thanks for your help… you’ve answered my question exactly… drop wordpress hosting.. point the name server to hostgator… wait till everything updates then log onto word press on the site
I guess this will work… you rock…. Pal
Pal recently posted..Hello world!
I’m in the process of configuring thesis on GoDaddy. Everything has gone great as I’ve been following the instructions until I get to this part:
“In the right-hand side of the File Manager display, select layout.css. Click the Permissions icon in the upper horizontal menu, which will reveal the Set Permissions panel. Click the Advanced Permissions tab.”
I select on the “layout.css” but it does not allow me to click on the permissions icons (the icon is faded like it’s not an allowable option), so I’m not sure what to do.
Also in the next step:
“In the right-hand side of the File Manager display, select the /cache folder. Click the Permissions icon in the upper horizontal menu, which will reveal the Set Permissions panel. Click the Advanced Permissions tab.”
I do not show a cache folder at all. The only folder it shows is a “custom” folder as a subfolder of my “thesis_18″ folder.
What might be the problem?
The cache folder is inside the custom folder. As to the issue with not being able to change the permissions, I recommend you call GoDaddy tech support and they should be able to help. Just tell them you’re trying to change permissions on a file and folder and it isn’t allowing you to.
I bought my domain name and hosting from bluehost. I purchased and downloaded thesis, however when I extracted the files, I cannot seem to find wp-content/ themes anywhere. I am currently using Windows Vista if that helps. Also, when I try to change permissions on layout.css it opens up notepad and I can’t figure out why. And lastly, when I set up the FTP the only thing that showed up on the right hand side was a blank folder with a “…” What am I doing wrong?
Well, I mean this in the nicest possible way, but by the sound of things, you’re doing everything wrong.
First off, you’re not going to find a “wp-content/themes” folder when you extract the Thesis files because those folders aren’t supposed to exist in Thesis. These are WordPress folders, not Thesis.
Extract the files, and copy them to the “wp-content/themes” folder.
Next, Windows Vista is an operating system which has nothing to do with installing Thesis.
As to the file opening in notepad when you try to change permissions suggests that you’re actually opening the file and not setting permissions. Get Filezilla, set up the connection to your web host, find the file you need to change permissions on, and right click on it. Then choose “Permissions”. Then just type the applicable permission number in there. Don’t open the file.
Finally, as to why you aren’t seen the folder structure you want in the right hand pane, it’s likely because you have to browse to it. If you’re in the root, look for a folder called public_html or htdocs. Something like that. Double click it and navigate to “wp-content/themes/” and continue to the Thesis folder.
Hopefully this helps. Good luck.
Hey thesis-blogs!
Wonder if you can help please?
I upgraded one of my sites from 1.6 to 1.8 and it all seemed ok for a time, but now the site is refusing to load, simply showing a “500 internal server error”. I’ve followed your link through to the wordpress manual upgrade steps in case that could help, but to no avail.
1 important bit of info, in case you have any spare time to take a quick look at the site – although the domain is http://www.carlukeshamrock.com, the wordpress blog and thesis theme all reside under a “blog” directory (www.carlukeshamrock.com/blog) which I have had the domain redirecting to for a long time now.
I’m quite sure this is something daft – one page or one file that I could recover – but it’s doing my head in.
Any thoughts?
Richard
It could be that you’re not running PHP5 on your server. See these comments for a solution, or contact your web host: http://thesis-blogs.com/how-to-install-thesis/#comment-126
Thanks for your reply. I just started looking at that code when HostGator have came back to my ticket and said “apologies….something wrong with directory permissions in your domain….now resolved…”
So we’re back in business – phew! Thank you anyway, and great site.
Go Daddy should be called No Daddy! Sorry, but I have been hosting and managing html based sites since 1998 on many hosts, and with GD I almost always have to call tech support to find the simplest things.
Just getting into WP now and appreciate your tutorial and help.
My custom folder doesn’t have a cache folder though so I am not sure about what to do for cropping as you suggest in #4. Any clue? I am using Thesis182.
Thanks!!!
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Thesis should have a cache folder inside the custom folder. I’ve never seen one that doesn’t. I’d recommend you log into your DIYthemes account and download a fresh copy of Thesis again. Alternatively, just add a new folder called “cache” inside of the custom folder. It’s just an empty folder anyway. Thanks.
Thanks … I do see it on my other WP sites … hmm.. I will fx as suggested.Thanks, again!
MJ Taylor recently posted..SEO 2012 – What The Future Holds for Social and Search Optimization
Hey — I am trying to do the CUSTOM vs. CUSTOM-SAMPLE — followed many many videos etc. and when I do the change my WP-ADMIN and site to blank. I went from 1.8 to 1.8.2
Any suggestions? Yes, I uninstalled and reloaded etc.
Thank you!
You never keep the folder name as “custom-sample.” If you’re looking to upgrade, just copy the new Thesis folder to your themes folder, and then copy the entire contents of the custom folder from your previous version to the new version, then activate. You can delete the custom-sample folder. Really don’t know what you mean by this: when I do the change my WP-ADMIN and site to blank. It makes no sense.
I know – I’ve followed the instructions from many sources and get the same results . . .
Phillis Benson recently posted..Power in Honesty
I’d need to know what results you’re getting. What problem are you having. Also what are you trying to do. Upgrade Thesis, install for the first time? I’d need specifics in order to help you.
I installed 1.8.2 and went to the file manager on GoDaddy but the custom folder doesn’t say custom-sample, it just says custom and when I hit permissions on the css file, there are not numbers to change. I’m so frustrated! I can’t seem to get the css option to work in my thesis theme. Just a blank page.
Rebecca Varon recently posted..Hello world!
It’s supposed to be called “custom” and not “custom-sample.” As to permissions, rather use Filezilla to change permissions. It’s an FTP program which you can download for free, or just call godaddy to change the permissions.
I’ve installed 1.8.3 for the first time onto a new WP 3.3.1 website. I’ve followed the install instructions exactly. Thesis 1.8.3 indeed appears as an available theme in the Appearance section, however the screenshot image shows as a broken link. I presume that is not normal. Thesis seems to do a bang up job of making my site look absolutely and nearly incurably horrible. (I can turn it off and my site looks great – but with it on, it looks terrible.) It appears to be using Times New Roman as its font (hard to think of a worse font for a website); when I tell it is use a different font, it just ignores me – even if I choose a pedestrian font such as Arial. It similarly ignores everything I tell it to do, except that it “listens” to what “character separator in titles” to use. I think that’s the thing I can get it to do. I’ve tried downloading a fresh copy from your website, with the same set of problems.
Do you have any ideas of what might be wrong?
Hi John,
First off, you couldn’t have downloaded a fresh copy from ‘my’ website because I don’t have Thesis for download here. You must have this blog confused with the DIYthemes website because that’s where you would download Thesis. Both sites look completely different, so not sure where the confusion comes in.
Now, with regard to the problems you’re having here, it’s a bummer that you seem to be experiencing so many problems. The thing is, with regard to your comment about how Thesis is doing a great job of making your site look terrible, well I had to laugh with that one.
If anything, Thesis makes sites look better, not worse, and judging by the issues you’re having, I’d say they have absolutely nothing to do with Thesis at all, but rather something to do with your installation of the theme.
I’ve used Thesis for years, and have never had these problems that you’re describing. Without logging into your server and taking a look, I can’t say for sure what is wrong.
The only suggestion I can make is that you download Thesis again from your DIYthemes account, and follow the instructions.
If you’re doing this for the first time, it’s really so easy:
If it’s still not working, I’d be happy to install it for you. Just submit the “Hire Me” form from the link in the menu of this blog.
Thanks for commenting.
Aargh!!! Normally I can handle this stuff, but I’m definitely doing something wrong and I can’t get this thing properly installed. Somebody help!!! Please…
Send me your FTP and WP logins using the “Hire Me” form and I will get it installed for you.
I’m having a difficult time as well uploading this theme to my wordpress.org page. its not allows me (or i’m not finding) the place where I can change the permissions. PLEASE help!
Follow the instructions above. If it isn’t working for you, I recommend you use an FTP program like Filezilla to change your permissions. If you want me to do it for you, submit the “Hire Me” form in the main menu. Thanks.
its not going to be hosted by godaddy should that pose a problem ?
Miata recently posted..Hello world!
No, won’t be a problem.
Thesis sucks. There is no live support from the DIY team. I just asked to include social media buttons beside the post content and they have no solution in the forums as well. The forums are also useless, only they give tips on whats existing already.
I recommend not to buy Thesis, better go for Colorlabs or Genesis framework!
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I’d have to disagree with you here. It sounds like you just had a bad experience. The forums are incredibly helpful and there are some regular moderators who do a fantastic job.
As to adding social media buttons, that doesn’t really have much to do with Thesis. Just install a plugin like addthis or digg digg. There are many out there.
If you have some specific problem, let me know what it is and I will try to help.
Thanks.
I’m trying to install Thesis_184 for a friend on her site, and am getting the following error message from WP:
“Broken Themes
The following themes are installed but incomplete. Themes must have a stylesheet and a template.
Name — thesis_184/style.css
Description — File not readable.”
My friend installed the unzipped file to the wrong folder, so I moved it over to the themes folder. Then I renamed the custom-sample folder, edited the permissions of both the cache folder and the layout.css file, but I get the above error message in WP.
What’s gone wrong please?
URL: amritaunty.com
WP 3.3.2
Thanks so much!
- Lauren
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I’d have to see your installation to comment. If you want, send me the FTP login through the “Hire Me” form above and also your WP login. I won’t charge to take a quick look. Thanks.
Thanks, will send it now. Much appreciated!
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