[Support request] Do I need to have GP "active" to work with premium?

[Norman]

I’m working on making a switch to Generate Press from my outdated theme.

I’ve been working with the customizer a bit before activating GP and have found the auto-save does in fact save a lot of the settings. When I do the switch, I’d like to have a lot of the settings I’ve worked on already working.

Is it possible to work with the premium settings without activating the theme?

I hope that makes sense, but this switch is a fairly big deal for me, and I don’t want a lot of panic trying to get the site back to where it needs to be after I activate it.

Thanks,
Norm

[Leo]

Hi there,

GP Premium plugin requires the free GeneratePress theme to work.

You won’t lose any of your customizations when activating GP Premium.

Let me know if this helps 🙂

[Norman]

Hi Leo,

Yes, I already have it installed, however I was just using the preview feature to make some minor changes before clicking to “activate” –

In other words, can I make many of the changes needed without clicking to activate the new theme? It seems I can work with the free version and get some things changed by using the auto-save- However, I can’t access any of the premium features.

I’m sorry I can’t explain it better 🙁

[David]

Hi there,

in Appearance > Themes -> Leave the GeneratePress theme installed and activated.
in Plugins – upload and activate the GeneratePress Premium plugin.

Any of the settings you applied when only using the Free Theme will remain.

[Norman]

Hi David,

Thank you. I hadn’t actually activated the theme yet. I was just using the preview aspect. I’m sure that’s why I couldn’t fully activate the premium plugin. I guess.

[Norman]

When I click “this”, it brings back what I previously worked on without activating the theme.

I’m able to continue working evidently on only the free theme.

[David]

You can ignore that notice, click the X to remove it and then activate and publish.

[Norman]

My problem is I want to have many of the changes done before I “activate and publish” –

I know there are probably better ways to do this, but it’s going to be quite a jolt of change once I move from one theme to the other unless I can have much of the work done in advance. I didn’t realize there was a bit of an “auto-save” feature in the preview area of a theme.

So, I guess the bottom line question is this: How much work can be done in GP and Premium “before” clicking to activate and publish?

[David]

I would not rely on using the auto save of a previewed theme to make change for later publishing. There is a risk that they may not transfer over leading to a lot of wasted time.

The better method for switching theme is to ask your Host to set up a staging site, this will allow you to switch the theme safely and make changes without effecting the live site. Once you’re happy with the changes you can ask them to push the staging site live.

[Norman]

Thank you David. I have a membership site with people joining every day. Would the method you’re speaking of be only for the theme aspect? I’ve never done it so just want to make sure I don’t wipe out members who may join while I’m working on the new theme.

[David]

A staging site makes an exact duplicate of your current site and adds it to a subdomain eg.

Live site: mywebsite.com
Staging site: staging.mywebsite.com

You can then work on the staging site to make any changes, theme related, content related or anything. Once happy with the changes your host pushes the staging site to the live domain. Worth speaking with the host to get their input.

[Norman]

Sure enough. I appreciate your help.

[David]

You’re welcome 🙂

[Author]

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