# Most themes are incompatible with Hugo 0.12?

**URL:** <https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565>\
**Category:** support\
**Created:** [January 9, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565 "2015-01-09T01:36:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![snej](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/snej/32/195_2.png) [@snej](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/snej)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/1 "2015-01-09T01:36:29Z")

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Hi! I’m getting started with Hugo (v0.12), and looking for a theme I can live with. I’ve installed all of the themes from the `hugoThemes` repo as per the QuickStart, and tried them all out.

Unfortunately most of the themes don’t work — they cause the server to spew some errors on startup, and the output HTML is mangled or missing.

I’m guessing the problem is that the APIs used by themes have changed and a lot of the themes haven’t been updated to match yet. Is there a plan to fix them? Or is there an alternate source of working themes?

For example, here are the errors I get trying to use the “journal” theme:

```auto
$ hugo server --theme=journal --buildDrafts --watch
ERROR: 2015/01/08 Unable to render [post/theme/post/post-title.html _default/theme/post/post-title.html theme/post/theme/post/post-title.html theme/_default/theme/post/post-title.html]
ERROR: 2015/01/08 Expecting to find a template in either the theme/layouts or /layouts in one of the following relative locations [post/theme/post/post-title.html _default/theme/post/post-title.html theme/post/theme/post/post-title.html theme/_default/theme/post/post-title.html]
ERROR: 2015/01/08 Unable to render [page/theme/post/post-title.html _default/theme/post/post-title.html theme/page/theme/post/post-title.html theme/_default/theme/post/post-title.html]
ERROR: 2015/01/08 Expecting to find a template in either the theme/layouts or /layouts in one of the following relative locations [page/theme/post/post-title.html _default/theme/post/post-title.html theme/page/theme/post/post-title.html theme/_default/theme/post/post-title.html]
ERROR: 2015/01/08 Unable to render [post/theme/post/frontpage-post.html _default/theme/post/frontpage-post.html theme/post/theme/post/frontpage-post.html theme/_default/theme/post/frontpage-post.html]
ERROR: 2015/01/08 Expecting to find a template in either the theme/layouts or /layouts in one of the following relative locations [post/theme/post/frontpage-post.html _default/theme/post/frontpage-post.html theme/post/theme/post/frontpage-post.html theme/_default/theme/post/frontpage-post.html]
ERROR: 2015/01/08 Unable to render [page/theme/post/frontpage-post.html _default/theme/post/frontpage-post.html theme/page/theme/post/frontpage-post.html theme/_default/theme/post/frontpage-post.html]
ERROR: 2015/01/08 Expecting to find a template in either the theme/layouts or /layouts in one of the following relative locations [page/theme/post/frontpage-post.html _default/theme/post/frontpage-post.html theme/page/theme/post/frontpage-post.html theme/_default/theme/post/frontpage-post.html]

```

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**Author:** ![dkebler](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/dkebler/32/7285_2.png) [@dkebler](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/dkebler)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/2 "2015-01-09T17:09:00Z")

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have you tried this one? I just tried it yesterday with V.12 and it rendered.

[https://github.com/tmaiaroto/hugo-redlounge](https://github.com/tmaiaroto/hugo-redlounge)

I’m working on zurb-foundation based theme (it’s actually a complete site you can quickstart from) but it won’t be ready for a month or more.

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**Author:** ![snej](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/snej/32/195_2.png) [@snej](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/snej)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/3 "2015-01-09T17:36:19Z")

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Yes, that’s one of the ones that works. (I didn’t say they were all broken, just the majority of them.) I’ve settled on herring-cove for the time being.

Maybe the non-working themes should be removed (as submodules) from the `hugoThemes` repo until they’re fixed? That would make for a better new-user experience.

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**Author:** ![spf13](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/spf13/32/37_2.png) [@spf13](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/spf13)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/4 "2015-01-09T17:54:23Z")

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I don’t think they should be removed necessarily. We just need a better process around this. Themes should document their compatible version. Hugo should read that and issue a warning if it’s not compatible, not list it in `hugo list`, etc.

>

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**Author:** ![alexandros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@alexandros](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/alexandros)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 10:35am UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/5 "2015-04-22T10:35:38Z")

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Aha! So that’s why I couldn’t get most of these themes to work.

Version compatibility will be very appreciated.

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**Author:** ![bep](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/bep/32/3332_2.png) [@bep](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/bep)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/6 "2015-04-22T14:10:51Z")

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See:

> <https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/issues/1070>
>
> If Hugo is run with theme
> And theme.toml is present and min\_hugoversion is set
> And min\_version \> running Hugo version
> Then print an ERROR...

Pull request welcomed.

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**Author:** ![octalmage](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/octalmage/32/542_2.png) [@octalmage](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/octalmage)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 8:15am UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/7 "2015-07-14T08:15:03Z")

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Yeah I’m seeing the same thing. Very discouraging for new users. I think at the very least the quick start guide should be updated to use a theme that works. `hyde` is currently broken.

I suggest `angels-ladder`, it works and it’s very good looking.

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**Author:** ![digitalcraftsman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/digitalcraftsman/32/4142_2.png) [@digitalcraftsman](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/digitalcraftsman)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 8:28am UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/8 "2015-07-14T08:28:16Z")

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@octalmage The Hyde theme shouldn’t be broken anymore. The PRs, that make the theme compatible with newer versions of Hugo (see .BaseUrl vs .BaseURL), have been merged yesterday.

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**Author:** ![octalmage](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/octalmage/32/542_2.png) [@octalmage](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/octalmage)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 8:42am UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/9 "2015-07-14T08:42:03Z")

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Weird, I just cloned and tried and it’s still throwing errors.

These were merged into the `spf13/hugoThemes` repo? I’m not seeing the PR.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![digitalcraftsman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/digitalcraftsman/32/4142_2.png) [@digitalcraftsman](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/digitalcraftsman)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 9:15am UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/10 "2015-07-14T09:15:09Z")

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It’s possible that `spf13/hugoThemes` hasn’t been updated so far. You can see the [PRs](https://github.com/spf13/hyde/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed) in the [original repo](https://github.com/spf13/hyde). Consider to clone from there (until the `spf13/hugoThemes` will be updated).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bep](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/bep/32/3332_2.png) [@bep](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/bep)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 10:20am UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/most-themes-are-incompatible-with-hugo-0-12/565/11 "2015-07-14T10:20:13Z")

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The hugoThemes repo is up to date.