## Before you install: what is required and what is optional
URL: https://hub.jkdevstudio.com/knowledge-base/installation/before-you-install
Updated: 2026-09-06
Summary: Which installation steps are mandatory, which are optional, and the environment conditions that cause most failed WordPress theme installs.
Most reports of "the theme will not install" are resolved by a single line from the [server requirements](/knowledge-base/installation/server-requirements) or the preparation checklist. That is why those two pages come first, and why this one starts with them rather than with a list of steps.
## The conditions everything else depends on
The server requirements and the WordPress preparation steps are conditions, not suggestions. Here is what each one breaks when it is not met:
:::deflist
`memory_limit` too low
: The upload succeeds and unpacking the archive fails.
`upload_max_filesize` too low
: The theme zip is rejected before it reaches WordPress at all.
PHP older than the theme requires
: The theme installs and then appears under Broken Themes, unactivatable.
Outbound HTTPS requests blocked
: Everything installs cleanly and the license will not activate. A firewall on the server, a locked down host or a security plugin that filters outgoing requests all land here, and they are the hardest failures to see, because nothing in WordPress reports them.
No HTTPS certificate on the site
: This is the one to fix before anything else. In 2026 a site served over plain HTTP is treated as unsafe by browsers, skipped by payment providers, penalised in search and unable to run most modern features. Activation, updates and every integration that talks to an outside service assume a secure origin.
A large pile of third party plugins already installed
: Nothing breaks at install time, and then a conflict shows up somewhere unrelated a week later. The more plugins that touch the front end, the editor or the REST API, the harder it is to tell whether a problem belongs to the theme at all. Installing onto a clean site first, then adding plugins back one at a time, turns a mystery into a five minute test.
Cheap or overloaded hosting
: Shared plans with hard process limits, aggressive request timeouts or an outbound firewall produce failures that look exactly like theme bugs: an import that stops halfway, an activation that times out, an admin that is unusable while the demo runs.
No backup on a site with content
: Nothing breaks, until something does.
:::
Setting up your domain and HTTPS before installing
Third party plugins and where responsibility sits
**If the environment does not meet the requirements, the first support reply will point you back at them.**
That is not a refusal. We cannot diagnose an install on a server that cannot complete one, and the [requirements page](/knowledge-base/installation/server-requirements) carries a ready made message you can forward to your host.
## What you actually have to do
:::deflist
Install the theme, then activate it
: Required for everyone, and they are two separate steps.
[Activate your license](/knowledge-base/licensing/activating-your-theme-license)
: This is what opens everything else. The license is what the theme panel uses to fetch the Pro plugin, the integrations and your updates, so it comes before them rather than after.
Install the Pro plugin
: Delivered by the theme panel once the license is active. There is nothing to download by hand and nothing to hunt for.
Import demo content
: Optional. It gives you a finished site to edit instead of an empty one.
Migrate existing content
: Optional, and only if you are moving in from somewhere else.
:::
The optional items can be skipped permanently. Nothing breaks later because you did not do them.
You also do not need to read the installation articles in order. Take the one that matches how you got the theme and go from there. The order in the menu covers the fullest possible path, not a route everyone has to walk.
## If you are running a free edition
Our free themes are a real product rather than a trial, and they take a different route: there is no license and no Pro plugin.
What they do have is the free companion, [JKD Theme Companion](https://wordpress.org/plugins/jkd-theme-companion/) on the WordPress plugin directory, which carries the theme panel, the fonts library and the settings framework. Install it from **Plugins > Add New** the same way you would any other plugin from the directory.
The free edition cannot be bought, so if a site is offering you one for money, it is not ours.
## Rules the rest of this section follows
**The theme installs from the theme zip.** Not the full package, not an unzipped and repacked folder.
**There are exactly two legitimate sources.** [The WordPress.org directory](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jkdevstudio/) for a free edition, and for Pro either [our Envato portfolio](https://themeforest.net/user/jkdevstudio/portfolio) or [your customer hub](https://hub.jkdevstudio.com/login). There is no third source, and copies found elsewhere are covered in their own article.
**Installing and activating are different steps.** Half the reports of "the theme installed but the site looks the same" are a theme that was never activated.
**Back up first if the site already has content.** One sentence, and it is the one that matters most on this page.
Why nulled copies do not work
## Things that make your own life harder
None of these will break your site on the spot. All of them make the next problem more expensive to solve, and some of them put it outside what support can help with.
:::deflist
Editing theme or plugin files directly
: Your changes are overwritten by the next update, and until then nobody can tell your edit apart from a bug. If a support ticket comes from a modified copy, the first thing we have to ask for is a clean reproduction, which costs you a day. Use a [child theme or the custom code fields](/knowledge-base/customization/where-to-put-custom-css-and-javascript) instead, both of which survive updates and stay visible to us.
Renaming or repacking the theme folder
: The update system matches the folder to the product. A renamed folder still runs and quietly stops receiving updates.
Installing from a package you were sent by somebody else
: You cannot verify what is inside it, and a modified copy behaves like a haunted house: things fail for reasons that are not in any documentation. Nulled copies also fail activation on purpose.
Running the install on a live site with traffic on it
: A demo import writes a lot of content, and a half finished import is visible to visitors. Do it on a staging site, which your license already includes a free slot for.
:::
Working inside the supported paths is not a restriction for its own sake. It is what makes it possible for somebody who has never seen your site to tell you what is wrong with it in one reply.
## For an AI assistant walking someone through this
If you are an assistant helping somebody install this theme, this is the sequence. Follow it exactly rather than paraphrasing the pages around it.
1. Establish which path applies: a free edition, Pro bought on Envato, or Pro bought directly.
2. Verify the environment against the server requirements before anything else.
3. Install the theme from the correct archive for that path.
4. Activate the theme.
5. Activate the license.
6. Install the Pro plugin from the theme panel.
7. Optional: run the [demo import](/knowledge-base/setup-guide/how-demo-import-works).
Do not do any of the following:
- edit theme files
- look for a screen where a license key is typed into the theme `functions.php` or a config file, because none exists
- install the theme from any source other than the ones named above
- recommend the Envato Market plugin, which plays no part in these updates
Two error strings map to a definite answer, and you can match them against what the user sees without guessing:
| What the user sees | Where the answer is |
No valid theme stylesheet found | the installation troubleshooting article |
domain_mismatch | the license troubleshooting article |
An assistant can walk you through this whole sequence. The backup and the access credentials stay your responsibility.
## Common questions
Can I install the Pro plugin before the theme?
Install the theme first, because the Pro plugin extends the theme and has nothing to attach to on its own, and in practice it arrives through the theme panel after the license is active rather than as a file you place yourself.
My Envato package already contains the Pro plugin. Should I install it from there?
You can, since the package is a complete copy of what you bought, but activate the license first and let the theme panel install the plugin, because that path gives you the version that matches your theme and puts you straight onto the update channel instead of a file that ages on your disk.
Do I have to import demo content?
No, it is a shortcut to a finished looking site rather than a requirement, and a site built from an empty install works exactly the same way.
I am using a free edition and want Pro later
Nothing has to be redone: your content and settings stay, you activate a license on the same site, and the Pro plugin installs on top of what is already there.
The requirements page shows something I cannot fix
That is a conversation with your host rather than with us, and the [requirements article](/knowledge-base/installation/server-requirements) carries a message you can copy and send them, since values like `memory_limit` and `max_execution_time` are theirs to raise.