Updating Ghost to latest version overwrites casper theme custom changes

I made some custom changes to the Casper theme.

After I update ghost to the latest version, the custom changes were overwritten with the original Casper theme. How can I update ghost such that custom changes can be retained? I updated ghost by running the command “ghost update”

It is inconvenient to make custom changes whenever a new update is done.

Only the core casper directory is overwritten when upgrading so it sounds like you’re modifying files directly on the server? Instead, download Casper, rename the directory, make your changes, zip and then upload it as a custom theme. That way nothing will be overwritten.

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I have tested and confirm that this solution works. Thank you very much.

Ghost newbie and non-developer with limited coding skills here trying to understand this process a little better. I am using Journal, and want to make some very minor changes to the theme, but want to avoid any issues with future updates or break anything. I am used to doing child themes in Wordpress, but this doesn’t seem to work the same way. I have downloaded the current version of the theme. When you say “rename the directory” do you just mean rename the Zip file before i reupload, or is there some code i need to change also? And if mess something up, can i just switch back to the original Journal theme? Also, if there are future updates to Journal, will I just have to repeat the process on the new version? Sorry if these are stupid questions.

Hey John, I imagine your questions aren’t relevant for you now 8 months later, but in case they are… I’m very much still learning about all this as well so can’t answer all your questions, but my understanding is:

Yes you can switch back to the original Journal theme if you mess something up. You would just redownload Journal fresh and upload that to your site.

And yes, you would have to repeat this process with new updates to Journal. You could also just skip the update if your custom version of Journal is working, but if you want to both get the update and retain your customizations, you’ll have to merge the two somehow. This thread helpfully lays out the 3 basic options available to you.