# Uploaded robots.txt cripples Source theme **URL:** \ **Category:** Installation\ **Created:** [August 9, 2026, 3:41am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/uploaded-robots-txt-cripples-source-theme/63537 "2026-08-09T03:41:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ross\_Pruden](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/ross_pruden/32/41270_2.png) [@Ross\_Pruden](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Ross_Pruden)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2026, 3:41am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/uploaded-robots-txt-cripples-source-theme/63537/1 "2026-08-09T03:41:03Z")
_We are Ghost (Pro) members._ I uploaded a custom robots.txt file to Ghost’s vanilla Source theme and _our whole site broke_. This is the robots.txt file I uploaded: ```auto User-agent: * Sitemap: https://www.jeffcobeacon.com/sitemap.xml Disallow: /ghost/ Disallow: /p/ Disallow: /member/ User-agent: facebookexternalhit Allow: / ``` (N.B. the whole reason I am doing this is to force Facebook’s scraper to work properly, which it sometimes doesn’t; thus why I insierted **facebookexternalhit** into the robots.txt file.) Following the directions listed here in this forum, I added the robots.txt file to our theme by: 1. adding the robots.text code directly in the Ghost interface, and then later by 2. downloading the theme locally, moving over our robots.txt file, zipping the theme folder back up, and re-uploading it. In both iterations, it broke the site and I had to revert to Ghost’s vanilla Source theme. **BEFORE** Site as it should look, before the new robots.txt was uploaded: ![Screenshot 2026-07-29 at 08.01.23](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/ghost2/original/3X/c/9/c9c3bc347e2693487d27c9e92ce5ab8f5c3de956.webp) **AFTER** Site after robots.txt was uploaded—_all of the posts_ disappeared from the home page. ![Screenshot 2026-07-29 at 08.00.52](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/ghost2/original/3X/0/9/09826e2cbc7f4718c0dedfb32c8c1d07d4e4bba1.webp) ---
**Author:** ![Cathy\_Sarisky](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/cathy_sarisky/32/25750_2.png) [@Cathy\_Sarisky](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Cathy_Sarisky)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2026, 3:47am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/uploaded-robots-txt-cripples-source-theme/63537/2 "2026-08-09T03:47:26Z")
So, here’s my guess. You uploaded the theme with a slightly different file name. (Or maybe a (1) on the end.) When you do that, all the theme settings revert to default. So, what you need to do: In /ghost \> settings \> theme \> installed, find and activate the previous version of your theme. Copy down/screenshot all the settings. Then re-activate your edited version, and enter in the settings. That should fix you up. I recommend deploying from Github if you’re going to do a lot of edits, since it preserves the existing settings and version control is nice. Or, for the occasional edit, make sure you upload the file with exactly the same name each time, so that it overwrites instead of making a new version of the theme. (But keep backups locally, since you won’t have one on the server if you mess something up!) ---
**Author:** ![Kevin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/kevin/32/32_2.png) [@Kevin](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Kevin)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 6:15pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/uploaded-robots-txt-cripples-source-theme/63537/3 "2026-08-10T18:15:59Z")
> [@Ross\_Pruden](#): > > Following the directions listed here in this forum, I added the robots.txt file to our theme by: > > 1. adding the robots.text code directly in the Ghost interface > [@Cathy\_Sarisky](#): > > So, here’s my guess. You uploaded the theme with a slightly different file name. (Or maybe a (1) on the end.) When you do that, all the theme settings revert to default. Yep, that was the issue when editing directly in the Ghost interface. Source (and Casper) can’t be overridden so the editor creates a copy of the theme with a new name which means it has a new set of default settings. That unexpected behaviour has [just been fixed](https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/29839), so current theme settings get copied to the new theme if one is created through editing. The fix will be included in the next release. There’s no change to manually uploading a new theme, you’ll still need to be aware of how settings work if you’re changing the theme name. ---
**Author:** ![Cathy\_Sarisky](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/cathy_sarisky/32/25750_2.png) [@Cathy\_Sarisky](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Cathy_Sarisky)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 1:26pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/uploaded-robots-txt-cripples-source-theme/63537/4 "2026-08-11T13:26:53Z")
🎉 That’s great. Is there a reason this behavior couldn’t also be offered for activating a manually-uploaded theme? I’ve seen lots of folks upload my-theme (1).zip and be very confused when their settings all reset… ---
**Author:** ![Kevin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/kevin/32/32_2.png) [@Kevin](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Kevin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 1:34pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/uploaded-robots-txt-cripples-source-theme/63537/5 "2026-08-11T13:34:56Z")
There’s a new API param on the upload endpoint `POST .../themes/upload/?copy_settings_from=old-theme` to opt in to the behaviour. We’re not doing any automatic heuristics on theme names to try and guess which previous theme’s settings should be copied. ---
**Author:** ![Cathy\_Sarisky](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/cathy_sarisky/32/25750_2.png) [@Cathy\_Sarisky](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Cathy_Sarisky)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 1:51pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/uploaded-robots-txt-cripples-source-theme/63537/6 "2026-08-11T13:51:41Z")
Right - I was suggesting that maybe there should be the option any time a theme is uploaded through the dashboard (rather than just when edited)… or is that already in and I just haven’t seen it?