Title: Ares Free Theme Error
Last modified: November 7, 2017
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# Ares Free Theme Error
* Resolved [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/)
* I’ve been successfully running a WP site based on Ares since 2015. In the last
week, the site is now serving up only blank pages. A glance at the source of
one of those pages shows this error message –
* Fatal error: Call to undefined function of_get_option() in /home/breakwat/
public_html/wp-content/themes/ares-child/header.php on line 42
* Why would this suddenly break, and how can I fix it?
* The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fares-free-theme-error%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
to see the link]_
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
* Theme Author [smartcat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/smartcat/)
* (@smartcat)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9661286)
* Hi there,
* Sorry to hear you’re having issues.
* The Ares theme has been updated, and it looks like there’s code in your child
theme that needs to be updated. Please remove all references to `of_get_option`
in your child theme.
* Please take a look at the current header.php in the parent theme to see how you
can use the options properly.
[https://github.com/smartcatdev/Ares/blob/master/header.php](https://github.com/smartcatdev/Ares/blob/master/header.php)
* I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9662785)
* Thanks so much! So, I’m a little confused by your reply. I’m thinking I should
replace the parent theme with the 2.0.1 version, correct? Then what should I
do in the child theme?
- This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/).
* Theme Author [smartcat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/smartcat/)
* (@smartcat)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9662916)
* Basically, de-activate your child theme, then update Ares to 2.0.1.
* If you want to use a child theme, create a new one, because the theme had a major
and necessary update. Your current child theme basically has code that is no
longer supported, which is causing the fatal error.
* If you don’t want to edit the theme code, just use Ares as your main theme, you
can do CSS customization through the theme customizer ( Appearance – Customize).
* The theme options are now moved to Customizer API, this is a required standard
in wordpress.org themes.
* Let me know if this makes sense.
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9663355)
* The site has been running already on a customized Ares child theme for several
years. Please tell me what I need to do to update to the 2.0.1 version using
the customizations I’ve already made to the existing child theme. I hope I don’t
have to search them out individually and copy/paste them. My preference is to
always use a child theme. Is that not the best practice here?
* Theme Author [smartcat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/smartcat/)
* (@smartcat)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9663432)
* so basically you have two options:
* – keep using the old version of Ares with your child theme, do not update to
Ares 2. This is not recommended because eventually your site will have issues
as WP deprecates legacy functionality. The last version before Ares 2 was 1.52
[https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ares/](https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ares/)
* – Update to Ares 2 and re-create your child theme. The header.php file, footer.
php, functions.php have all had many required updates. if you want the latest
version of the theme, it’s highly recommended you replace your files with a fresh
copy from the parent theme, then re-do your modifications.
* Child themes are a good approach forsure, however this theme was build when WP
was around version 4.2. WP is now at version 4.9 and there have been a bunch
of changes in terms of code and guidelines, so when the framework updates, the
theme updates, and therefore, child themes should be also updated.
I know it’s
inconvinient to have to redo work, but that’s part of the process with updates.
This would be the same case with any theme that have been around for years.
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9670917)
* Thanks for your suggestions! I opted to keep using the old version (1.5.2) and
that seems to have worked fine (so far!).
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9671340)
* Actually, it looks like the theme updated itself automatically! How do I stop
that so that I can remain at 1.5.2?
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9671345)
* Or maybe I was just looking at a cached version…
* Theme Author [smartcat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/smartcat/)
* (@smartcat)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9671416)
* Check out this helpful article to see how to turn off automatic updates.
* [http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-disable-automatic-updates-in-wordpress/](http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-disable-automatic-updates-in-wordpress/)
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9671495)
* I had imagined that Ares was automatically updating due to my looking at a cached
page in my browser. There is no automatic update of Ares, is there?
* Theme Author [smartcat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/smartcat/)
* (@smartcat)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9671531)
* Automatic updates are a WordPress feature.
* Here’s another WP Codex resource on how to turn off updates:
[https://codex.wordpress.org/Configuring_Automatic_Background_Updates](https://codex.wordpress.org/Configuring_Automatic_Background_Updates)
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9673070)
* Thanks for that link. I can see that it’s possible to disable WP’s automatic
theme updating by placing a filter in a “must use plugin”, which is mentioned
in this codex article. I have done that. We’ll see tomorrow if it worked!
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9674335)
* Good grief! I can’t stop this thing from updating itself!
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9675210)
* Yesterday morning, I made that must-use plugin containing the theme filter –
add_filter( ‘auto_update_theme’, ‘__return_false’ ); – and put it in the wp-content/
mu-plugins folder I created. That should disable the automatic update for all
themes, no? Last night, the theme updated itself again. I reversed that this
morning but I expect it will update again. Can you imagine what I am doing wrong?
* Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* (@msummers)
* [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9675528)
* I’m sorry for flooding this thread, but I just checked and the theme updated
again. What can I do to stop this?
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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* Last reply from: [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
* Last activity: [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/ares-free-theme-error/#post-9675528)
* Status: resolved