Title: installing a theme
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# installing a theme

 *  [thevikas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thevikas/)
 * (@thevikas)
 * [16 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/installing-a-theme-3/)
 * Hi,
    Im a little experianced user in WP already. Just that I installed 2.9.2 
   on localhost and then tried to install a new theme. After ZIP upload form, it
   jumps to some FTP page. Firstly, I never remember WP asking FTP details before.
   I can’t understand this. Anyway I always give the details but in the end it always
   says Could not create directory in content/upgrade. I checked and im on php 5.2.6,
   my safe_mode is off and i tried all patches to mkdir I could find. Nothing works.
   Its quite silly for me that I could not even manage to install a theme when my
   own blog is WP for few years now. Please suggest.
 * Btw, In old WP, I used to simply extract the theme into the dir and then WP used
   to auto detect it. Mystical theme is not getting detected at all thats why I 
   have to use this other way to install which also is not working.
 * Thanks,
    Vikas

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [16 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/installing-a-theme-3/#post-1466972)
 * Simply downloading the theme archive file, unzipping it and placing the theme
   folder itself in your wp-content/themes directory should be sufficient.
 *  [shjacobs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/shjacobs/)
 * (@shjacobs)
 * [16 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/installing-a-theme-3/#post-1467192)
 * I am having the same problem as Vikas. Esmi, in your response you say “simply
   downloading the theme archive file…”. (Let me preface this by saying that I’m
   new to all of this so thank you in advance for your patience…) I only see an 
   option to “install” or “preview” the theme. Is there a workaround for downloading
   it another way?
 * Thanks,
    S
 *  [shjacobs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/shjacobs/)
 * (@shjacobs)
 * [16 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/installing-a-theme-3/#post-1467193)
 * I think I just figured out how to do this. I was searching WordPress.org and 
   came across a listing of what appear to be the same “free” themes that are available
   when I’m actually logged into my blog. So I clicked download, unzipped, transferred
   and …. it’s not working. But I’ll keep at it. I put “free” in quotes because 
   although the title says “Free Themes”, I received a message when I downloaded
   that I need to pay for it after 40 days. ??
 * -very confused
 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [16 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/installing-a-theme-3/#post-1467194)
 * Maybe the application on your computer that unzipped the file is a demo and will
   expire unless paid for in 40 days?
 *  [shjacobs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/shjacobs/)
 * (@shjacobs)
 * [16 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/installing-a-theme-3/#post-1467196)
 * Bingo! You’re right.
 * And the reason I couldn’t upload the theme was a problem with access which has
   been resolved and now all is well.
 * Thanks!
    S

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘installing a theme’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [Themes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/themes/)

 * 5 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [shjacobs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/shjacobs/)
 * Last activity: [16 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/installing-a-theme-3/#post-1467196)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics