Will downloading a theme via FTP break anything?

  • LucaCW

    (@frustrationfrustration)


    8 years, 7 months ago

    I have a client who would like me to teach her how to use the WP site her previous developer made for her. I’m doing some research into her setup and I want to download her site’s theme and plugins via FileZilla to use for research purposes on my local setup (her theme and some of her plugins are unfamiliar to me, and I’ll need to figure out how to use them before I can teach her).

    I’ve downloaded themes, plugins etc. from previous WP sites I’ve made via FileZilla, but the current site in question uses a paid theme, and I’m not sure if it has safeguards built in to stop illegal duplication.

    Basically, I want to know if I’m going to jeopardize her current site by downloading the themes and plugins for personal research.

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  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    To be honest, it really depends on how that premium theme/plugin was setup.

    Ideally, there will be no issue and it will work as desired.

    In some cases, premium themes/plugins have safeguards that “break” duplicate copies.

    In some cases, premium themes/plugins have functionality that prevents them from operating in non-public server environments.

    In some cases, premium themes/plugins have special development modes that can be enabled either via a setting or file modification, so that they can be used as a duplicate on a non-public server environment.

    There really is no standard to it, and in the past 11 years I have seen so many different approaches that my only recommendation is to just try it and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, contact support for the premium theme/plugin for further assistance.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
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