I changed theme colors but nothing happens

Thank you for posting here. I also wanted to mention that I’m helping Brian out with theme support, so he still may follow up with you.

Let’s tackle the label colour first…If I understand right, you are referring to the “Featured” labels on a post or the captions under the gallery images? Also, what colour setting specifically are you referring to in the customizer?

What I will do is try it on my local test site to see if I can replicate the issue you are facing. If something is not working, we will definitely fix it.

Next, you mentioned about the link text, this is the colour for the links in your content? What I can probably have you do is to set the colours you are trying to change, then give me the links to the pages in your site where they are not working. I can then look at the source code and find any problems with the theme.

By the way, Mediterranean food….my favorite!

Hello Andre,

In the menu Appearance>Customize>Colors I’m trying to change the following colors:
Sidebar Bottom Background
Date Circle Background
Post Featured Label
Top Social Icon Background
Link Colour
Link Visited Colour
Tags Hover Background
Mobile Menu Toggle Background
Main Menu Hover & Active Colour
Button Background

I can see the changes in the preview screen located on the right side of this menu, changes are also saved, but the published site remains with the original colors. It’s not working for all the links in all blogs and pages.

Oh!, you mention the labels under the gallery images. How can I also change this color?

Thanks for your support

Thanks for the list of colour settings… so all these change in the customizer and preview but they are not changed when you view the front of your website?

Have you set the colours you want for each of those? If not, can I get you to do that and then I will look at the source code. Let’s actually try the “Date Circle Background” one first. Once done, reply back here and then I will check your site.

As a side note, all those colour settings work on my local test site, so I am thinking one of two things…

1. You changed the colours but did not click the “Save and Publish” button at the top of the customizer window.

2. Or, your site has a cache set that is holding the old colour versions (or the browser cache.

However, if there is a problem somewhere, we will get this solved for sure.

UPDATE: Actually, don’t do the date circle because I notice that you don’t have that enabled. Try a colour setting for something else that is currently showing on the front of your site and then give me the page where I am to look.

Ah! I just looked at your source code. You are using Auto optimize. Each time you make a change, you need to clear the cache of that plugin settings ??

Try that and see if that works.

I cleared the cache and nothing happened, all the same!
I also changed only the “Date Circle Background” and, once again, nothing happened.
All my changes are published, so this isn’t also the cause.

Can I get you to disable your auto optimize plugin?
Also, I just discovered you are using cloudflare…this could also be the problem of caching too. I just got a 502 page error which shows a bad connection between Cloudflare and your website.

One recommendation when customizing a website, is to disable or put Cloudflare in development mode. Same for any caching plugins you have installed on the site (such as Auto Optimize). Once done, then turn all the optimization stuff back on.

pro-tip; you can disable Autoptimize on a per-request basis by adding ?ao_noptimize=1 to the URL.

if the problem is not there at that point, some autoptimize (re-)configuration might be needed to fix this. there are troubleshooting tips and info on how to exclude in the AO FAQ.

hope this helps debugging,
frank (ao dev)

I found the problem: I need to deactivate the AutoOptimize for changes taking effect.
The problem is if I activate the plugin the colors are back to the original. But I think this is a problem with this plugin I need to solve.
One more question: how can I change the colors under the gallery images.

Thanks again for your support

From what I can tell, you have two cache systems in play, one is Auto Optiimize and then the second is Cloudflare…Cloudflare takes a snapshot of your site and creates a cache of it which helps load your website faster. When you are developing your website and customizing things, it’s best to keep the cloudflare disabled and any optimizing plugins, and then once you are happy with the changes of your site, then turn it all on.

Anyway, for the caption backgrounds under the gallery images, I see I did not provide a colour setting for this, something that we will need to do. However, in the meantime, this is the styling for the captions:

.gallery-caption {
    display: block;
    background-color: #ef9d87;
    color: #fff;
    padding: 4px 10px;
    font-size: 0.75rem;
    font-weight: 600;
    letter-spacing: 1px;
}

So you can copy this code and add it to the Additional CSS tab in the customizer; this will update your colours to whatever you change them to.

.gallery-caption {
    background-color: #ef9d87;
    color: #fff;
}

Hopefully everything will be OK now. Time for me to head to the land of sleep….it’s 4:00 am ??

I just realized that I have another plugin for optimization (WP-Optimize) that don’t give me this problem and makes its function. So, for now, I will disable the AutoOptimize.
I made the intended modifications and everything is running smooth. I will mark this post as solved.

Thanks for your help. Most appreciated.

Good to hear and thanks for the update!
Cheers!

I just realized that I have another plugin for optimization (WP-Optimize) that don’t give me this problem and makes its function. So, for now, I will disable the AutoOptimize.

Afraid WP Optimize does database optimization (cleanup) and not JS/ CSS optimization which is what Autoptimize does Lorenz. If you want to fix this and keep CSS/ JS optimization active, have a look at the troubleshooting tips and info on how to exclude in the AO FAQ.

frank

I just read the AO FAQ and followed their recommendation to deactivate “aggregate inline JS” and “aggregate inline CSS” options. It worked.
So now I have the new colors in my site and the AutoOptimize plugin. All is working.

Thanks for your advise, Frank

glad to have been able to help! ??

have a nice day!
frank