# Remote themes not in database
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [November 8, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619 "2018-11-08T18:09:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619/1 "2018-11-08T18:09:55Z")
I’ve got a site running `Discourse 2.2.0.beta4 - https://github.com/discourse/discourse version 75340424274f4347e5f1f46b39d33468b9bfe5d7` with a remote theme. I don’t see in the UI how to see where the remote theme is coming from. I tried looking in rails and see a whole bunch of remote themes with all of the fields (except timestamps) empty or nil.
When I try to “check for updates” from the UI I get `/var/www/discourse/lib/theme_store/git_importer.rb:74:in `import\_public!': fatal: The empty string is not a valid path`.
I’m upgrading now, but the URL for the theme seems not to be in the database.
I haven’t tried replicating anywhere else.
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 6:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619/2 "2018-11-08T18:15:18Z")
Is it a theme that was uploaded using the [Theme CLI](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-theme-cli-console-app-to-help-you-build-themes/82950)? I see the same error if I try to check a theme for updates via the UI if that’s how it was added originally.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619/3 "2018-11-08T18:20:06Z")
That’s gotta be it. That would explain most everything. Thanks, @awesomerobot.
Seems like the UX should indicate that it was uploaded that way somehow, though. It’s confusing in the UX and I was even more confused when I looked in the database.
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619/4 "2018-11-08T18:50:55Z")
I ran into this issue not too long ago too, when a theme moved Github repos. The error message wasn’t particularly helpful and I ended up having to redownload the theme and fire up a text editor to be able to see the origin.
An icon indicating where the theme came from (upload/CLI/github) with any URLs in the tooltip would be hugely helpful when digging into this stuff.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619/5 "2018-11-08T18:52:53Z")
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> An icon indicating where the theme came from (upload/CLI/github) with any URLs in the tooltip would be hugely helpful when digging into this stuff.
Cc @Johani and @sam we need this.
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### Author:  [@danekhollas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/danekhollas)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619/6 "2018-11-08T19:23:52Z")
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> An icon indicating where the theme came from (upload/CLI/github) with any URLs in the tooltip would be hugely helpful when digging into this stuff.
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Cc @Johani and @sam we need this.
FYI Already discussed here:
> [@Display link to github for remote themes](https://meta.discourse.org/t/display-link-to-github-for-remote-themes/99490):
>
> Hi folks, it would be nice if a remote theme page contained a direct link to the respective Github repo. There is a link “About theme” which typically leads to a topic here on meta (where the link to github can be found) and the License link would typically link to the github repo. However, both of these are useless if you happen to fork a theme and make local modifications. Maybe something like this could work? [image] Alternatively, the link could be below the Check updates button. Also,…
I started working on a PR but got stuck. I can have a second look this weekend, but am happy to pass over.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/remote-themes-not-in-database/101619/7 "2018-11-08T19:25:15Z")