Cannot Change Theme in Discourse — Nothing Works

Support
1

Hi,

I lost an entire day trying to set up AWS Cognito passwordless login.

It simply doesn’t work.

After giving up and accepting that I’ll ask users to create logins and passwords using the default Discourse system, I moved on to what should be the most basic task: changing the theme.

I’ve installed several themes, marked them as “Active”, and the UI confirms they’re enabled — but nothing changes.

This feels like it should be the easiest thing to do, yet it’s completely broken. What am I missing?

Can anyone help with this extremely basic issue?

Thanks,

3

You need to change the default theme and/or go to your settings and choose a different theme.

3 Likes
4

And to add to @pfaffman’s note, make sure you understand the distinction between Themes and Theme Components - you have to add the latter to the former and users can only select one of the former at a time.

1 Like
5

Thanks for your prompt response, and apologies for the tone of my previous message. I was just frustrated after losing two days trying to set up the Discourse app.

I ended up disabling the hosted site and decided to go with the self-hosted version instead.

My frustration stemmed from the fact that, after installing several different themes, I couldn’t remove the sidebar and the welcome message from the homepage. The screenshots of the themes didn’t show those components, but even after installing them, both the sidebar and the welcome message continued to appear in my setup.

After many hours, I finally learned that to remove the sidebar, I had to change the “Navigation menu” setting from “Sidebar” to “Header Dropdown.” I also discovered that removing the welcome message required creating a new theme and manually adding the following CSS:

.welcome-banner {
  display: none !important;
}

Initially, I (mistakenly) expected that installing a theme would automatically give me the layout shown in its screenshot, without needing additional configuration or CSS changes. That’s why it felt like the themes “weren’t working.” But I understand now. I’m just a regular user, and I eventually figured it out.

Thanks again,

2 Likes
6

There is also a site setting for the banner: Enable welcome banner.
It was added recently. That’s why most themes won’t show it in the screenshots.

1 Like
7

A suggestion: during the first admin access, during the wizard, when the system asks few configuration questions (forum name, description, font, etc.), maybe it should also ask for these basic configuration questions like presence of the sidebar and welcome message.

If that’s too hard to implement, just mention that these basic layout items can be disabled in /admin/whatever.

2 Likes
11

Great suggestion – in good news we are currently in the process of refactoring the setup wizard to do just that.

2 Likes
12

You are not alone in not being the sidebar’s default location’s greatest fan.

As you have discovered the Dropdown mode of the official Sidebar is recommended (change setting navigation menu to “Dropdown”)

This was the “classic” look for Discourse for many years and I still think it’s the best, even on desktop. Perhaps I’m a 2012 dinosaur. :sweat_smile:

Luckily it’s otherwise functionally equivalent and in that it has really improved.

1 Like