[Plugin: BuddyPress Template Pack] After Installing Plugin, Unable to Edit Certain Theme Files

If you installed using wordpress dashboard and your site runs on an Apache server, it will happen.

you must install it manually, otherwise it will not edit the files.

Also, the theme files are littered with BuddyPress theme code and have made a total mess of the theme.

When you install the BP Template Pack to make your WP theme compatible with BuddyPress, BP template files are transferred to your WP theme folder in server. If you decide that you don’t want to use BuddyPress or that you prefer to use another WP theme, then you just delete the BP template files which were transferred during the process to clean out the “mess”.

https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/wordpress-to-buddypress-theme/
https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/bp-template-pack-walkthrough-level-easy-2/

Also, auto install of BP Template Pack plugin from dashboard works very well. But as was mentioned above, manual upload is a good backup plan in case the auto install doesn’t work for you.

Hello @mercime,

Unfortunately for some reason I am not able to delete any of the files or folders created as a result of activating BP Template Pack. This is totally frustrating since on the plugin page on WP.org the authors say the process is completely reversible, which turns out is complete BS.
Whenever I try to delete any of the files off my server using FTP, I get an error:
Permission denied.
Error code: 3
Error message from server: Permission denied
Request code: 13

This is equivalent to hijacking my server… I’d have to agree with WisTex “DO NOT INSTALL THIS ON A LIVE SITE”.

It is not BP Template Pack that does that. More like server issue to me. I’ve deactivated BP Template Pack and deleted BP template folders from server so many times in test installs locally and online, and have had no issues at all.

Just tested deleting BP template folders again in WP 3.3, BP 1.5.2 and BP Template Pack 1.2 == no issues at all.

It’s possible that this will happen if the following hold:
1) you install the BP Template Pack plugin using the auto-installer;
2) the plugin successfully copies the BP theme files to your theme;
3) your hosting space is configured in such a way that the Apache process is run by a different user than the one you use for FTP;
4) your hosting space is configured in such a way that files/directories created by the Apache user are given the permissions 644 or 755, ie they are only writable by the user.

This combination is not extremely common, because often if (3) and (4) are true, then (1) and (2) will fail (and vice versa). However, it’s possible that you might have this configuration in your environment. If this is the case, you’ll want to contact your system administrator so that new directories created by the Apache user are also writable by your FTP user.

I should note that this issue has *nothing to do* with the BP Template Pack. It just happens to arise in this situation because the BP Template Pack copies files around your server, which it then asks you to edit. This is uncommon among plugins. You’ll probably find that if you try editing/deleting any other files through FTP that were created with WP’s auto-installers, you’ll see the same problem.

As for whether this involves “hijacking” your site, or otherwise make a “total mess” of things – I’m not sure I understand how this could be the case. BPTP copies *additional* files into your theme, but it does not edit any of your *existing* theme files. So the parts of your WP theme that have nothing to do with BP will continue to look exactly the same (from the markup point of view, at least) as before you installed BPTP. If you find that the BPTP styles are being loaded and you don’t want them to load, just deactivate the plugin.