It’s not an error. :/
What’s happening is that the preview shwos hwo the author has designed the theme in all of it’s glory, but the preview sites with the themes on them have a very limited set of content that doesn’t show everything that the theme can actually do. Some themes do include starter or dummy content to show this when you install them, but that’s theme-dependant and doesn’t shwo in the repository here.
Thread Starter
Dbee
(@dbee78)
thanks. so i’ve emailed the theme creator and I’m waiting to hear back.
I’m guessing I have to pay to get the theme in the demo?
That’s downright confusing and misleading IMO. You should only be able to show screenshots of the theme as it appears when you download it.
I’ve set up a fresh WP installation and downloaded the theme. It’s a lot less attractive than the Demo. I can’t remember any message informing me that the Demo theme and the Downloaded theme were likely to end up being 2 different overall designs.
This is going to put off WP newbies. Many of whom will think they’ve done something wrong.
I’ve been using WP for a while and I’ve come across this issue before.
Maybe the community should think about either putting a warning message, or else only allowing screenshots of actual free theme downloads?
I can only imagine you get a similar post to this regularly on this forum?
@dbee78 – I totally agree with you. When I come across that situation I just move right along. I test too many Themes to be worried about bait n’ switch Theme Creators.
If you like the Astra Theme you may also like these–which have passed the Theme Check.
Almighty https://wordpress.org/themes/almighty/
Azuma https://wordpress.org/themes/azuma/
Neve https://wordpress.org/themes/neve/
I use Theme Check Plugin, by the WordPress Review Team. Helps to test Themes for a lot of requirements Themes need to work with WordPress.
Thread Starter
Dbee
(@dbee78)
Thanks @website-rob
While i’ve no problem with theme creators making a living. It’s bad UX, bad business and harmful to the WordPress community IMO to allow this to continue indefinitely.
Generally, I develop custom designs for my own sites. But on this occasion, I’m using a microsite and a WP theme.
To give you some idea. The first link is the listed theme from WordPress.org/themes as ‘advertised’. The second link is how it comes out when I download and install the free version…
https://ibb.co/Wx2PbGt
https://ibb.co/GvLxYk8
Thanks for the plugin tip 😉