Theme Updater & Backups | OOTS
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I just purchased a subscription for Theme Updater to save me the job, However I updated the theme and the app is functionless since it doesn't work at all. The theme I updated is exactly as if I've installed the theme (EMPIRE by Pixel Union) and there are no changes at all, it's all at its defaults. This is so annoying. These are the files which don't have any changes (it's a ridicule amount of files, it doesn't make sense in most of them). Empire (Dec-23-2019) (May-3-2020) has been successfully installed. However, 55 template files contained customizations that could not be automatically applied to the latest version. - Hide template files assets/Account.bundle.js assets/Contact.bundle.js assets/ContainSwatchTooltips.bundle.js assets/DynamicBlogPosts.bundle.js assets/DynamicFeaturedCollection-StaticCollection-StaticProductRecommendations-StaticSearch.bundle.js assets/DynamicFeaturedCollection.bundle.js assets/DynamicMenuList.bundle.js assets/DynamicNewsletter.bundle.js assets/DynamicPromoBlocks.bundle.js assets/DynamicRichText.bundle.js assets/DynamicSearch-StaticHeader.bundle.js assets/DynamicSearch.bundle.js assets/DynamicTwitterFeed.bundle.js assets/DynamicVideo.bundle.js assets/GiftCard.bundle.js assets/instantPage.min.js assets/Page.bundle.js assets/polyfills.js assets/PXSMap.bundle.js assets/StaticAnnouncement.bundle.js assets/StaticArticle.bundle.js assets/StaticBlog.bundle.js assets/StaticCart.bundle.js assets/StaticCollection.bundle.js assets/StaticFooter.bundle.js assets/StaticHeader.bundle.js assets/StaticHighlightsBanners.bundle.js assets/StaticPassword.bundle.js assets/StaticProduct.bundle.js assets/StaticProductRecommendations.bundle.js assets/StaticRecentlyViewed.bundle.js assets/StaticSearch.bundle.js assets/StaticSlideshow.bundle.js assets/theme.scss.liquid assets/vendors-DynamicBlogPosts-DynamicFeaturedCollection-DynamicInstagramFeed-DynamicTwitterFeed-StaticCol-09aa5aa9.bundle.js assets/vendors-DynamicFeaturedCollection-StaticCollection-StaticProduct-StaticProductRecommendations-StaticSearch.bundle.js assets/vendors-DynamicSearch-StaticHeader.bundle.js assets/vendors-main.bundle.js assets/vendors-StaticCart.bundle.js layout/none.liquid layout/theme.liquid sections/dynamic-instagram-feed.liquid sections/static-article.liquid sections/static-cart.liquid sections/static-product-reviews.liquid sections/static-product.liquid snippets/cart-item.liquid snippets/product-form.liquid snippets/product-grid-item.liquid snippets/product-price.liquid snippets/product.liquid snippets/structured-data.liquid templates/404.liquid templates/page.contact.liquid templates/product.liquid The template customizations will need to be manually applied from Empire (Dec-23-2019) to Empire (Dec-23-2019) (May-3-2020) only for these individual files.
Hello Ameyalli, Thank you for sharing these details! We're very sorry for the inconvenience here - the Theme Updater App was experiencing a temporary issue with certain versions, and we believe this version of Empire was impacted. The issue has been addressed, and attempting the update again should result in a more expected outcome. We have followed up on the support request as well, where we can continue the correspond if there's anything amiss with the update - feel free to let us know the version number of the Empire theme you're updating if the issue persists, and we'll get it squared away. All the best!
I subscribed to the ProPlan of this app on Wednesday 4/1/2020 and, on the same day, I contacted ProPlan support asking a couple of questions via the correct link inside the app interface. Today is Saturday 4/4/2020 and no reply has been received, even though they promise priority support for ProPlan Subscribers. 72 hours is by no means priority support. Additionally, after I subscribed to the ProPlan, the section on How to Update still says the following: "If any error messages are received when updating your theme to the latest version, all customizations to the mentioned files will need to be carried forward manually. If you need assistance with carrying over your previous customizations, we'd recommend reaching out to some of our recommended experts." Here it is paramount to mention that the ONE AND ONLY point of this ProPlan subscription is to GUARANTEE a fully automatic, hassle-free theme update. The second I have to manually carry forward my customizations, I should be refunded for my subscription. I also asked about this on my support request three days ago, but I have received no response. Please contact me ASAP with full response to my support request, including a clarification about what happens when the app does not work. Do I get refunded for a non-working app?
Hi there Luis, Andrew here from Out of the Sandbox Support. Thanks for taking the time to provide that feedback! It looks as though we received an email from you, however it doesn't appear it was sent in via priority support which would explain the time taken before we got back to you. Priority support can only be accessed directly via the app: https://help.outofthesandbox.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026083613-Accessing-Priority-Theme-Support Sorry for any confusion there - we'll be sending along a separate email shortly to address any outstanding issues, so if you have any questions, please just reply there! Take care.
We purchased Turbo theme which at the time was your most expensive product and were promised free upgrades via the theme updater. Now you've switched the updater to a monthly subscription? How could you screw over your customers like this? I see from other comments that you can upgrade manually. This was NOT part of the original deal and was never mentioned at the time of purchase but I guess that is what we are left with. Awesome support for your premium product! Also some detail on how to upgrade manually would be handy. To other would-be purchasers - don't buy this product, or anything else from Out Of The Sandbox. What will they switch to subscription-only next?
just wasted a years subscription. deleted, not cool. ...............................................
The app doesn't work if you have minimal customization on your page. The company and its shady practices are even worse!
From a business owner to another, this is a risky move that you are making with your brand. Sure you get the money now, but is this really worth it in the long run, destroying your relationship with your existing customers. The app was a great tool, which I'd gladly pay a little fee to update, but not as a subsciption.
This is our first theme from out of the sandbox (Turbo). I did not think this app would work based off of others; however, it updated my theme with only 4 lines of code needing to be manually converted over. Hopefully there will be more options for pricing in the future. www.acumetalfab.com
Hello ACU Precision Sheet Metal team, Thank you for taking the time to leave that great review and we’re glad to hear the app worked well for you! We’re always looking to improve our support while also keeping the Updater App competitive in pricing and feature offerings. Hopefully the app continues to help you, and if you’re currently using the Pro plan, you can also take advantage of our Priority Support feature should anything come up! If there’s anything else we can help with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’d be happy to help! Sincerely, The Out of the Sandbox team.
This company is by far one of the shadiest companies in the app store. Beware. The Basic Plan of this app was originally offered as FREE FOR LIFE - Everyone who purchased a theme based on this Free For Life Updates plan is now out of luck. You are forced to pay. If you purchased one of their themes based on the fact that you'd be easily able to update your themes as Shopify makes changes, then guess what, now you suddenly have to pay for that service. The crass emails from support who claim that they can reserve the right to change prices adds more insult to injury. How can you justify selling themes for 300+ dollars, then charge monthly to keep those themes functional? Avoid this company like the plague. Out of the sandbox and directly into to the litter box.
Hi there Eighty Sixed team, Thanks for taking the time to reply and providing that feedback. While we can definitely understand the frustration with the changes made to the subscription model for the Theme Updater App, it’s important to note that we will still be providing free lifetime updates on all of our themes. If you choose not to use the Theme Updater app, you can still update your theme the free method following Shopify’s normal updating process, where the new version is added to your ‘Themes’ panel and reconfigured manually. This is how all themes are updated across Shopify as the Updater App is an exclusive feature/offering for our themes. You can find instructions here on how to access those files, depending on where you bought your theme: https://help.outofthesandbox.com/hc/en-us/articles/115007099548-How-to-Update-Your-Theme#alternative-method Ultimately we will continue to offer free updates regardless of whether or not you choose to use the app. Hopefully that helps clear up any confusion, and please don’t hesitate to reach out should you have other questions regarding that or anything else! Take care. Sincerely, The Out of the Sandbox team
I agree with the others - I purchased and always recommended outofthesandbox because of their vast knowledgebase and continual updates - but now along with paying for the themes we have to pay for the privilege to easily update - you're turning against your own loyal customers and moving goalposts - not cool
Hello The Architectural Forum, Thank you for taking the time to review our app. We understand your frustration, but we wanted to follow up on this review to clarify a point regarding the update process. Purchasing a theme comes with free updates for life. These free updates come in the form of brand new files of the latest version of the theme. The new version of the theme does need to be rebuilt, as is the standard process for updating any Shopify themes. Our Theme Updater app was developed to provide a shortcut for updating. The app can update a copy of your theme while preserving your home page sections and theme editor settings. We have recently implemented a subscription fee for the app, but all new theme purchases come with a free year of the app’s Basic Plan. The free year begins from the date the new theme file is registered in the app, a process which is necessary to unlock the updating feature. So in short, any purchase of our themes comes with the guarantee of free updates for life following the normal Shopify procedure for updating. The app is also free for the first year with the theme, after which, a subscription is required to continue using the Theme Updater app. We’d be happy to answer any additional questions you have regarding updating the themes, or any shop-specific questions you might have. You can reach out to our Help Centre here: https://help.outofthesandbox.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. All the best, The Out of the Sandbox Team
I just wanted to Upgrade from Turbo to Flex but not anymore. If you don't move back the pricing of the updater app to free plan and pro , like it was before, you will loose all your clients. I was told when purchased the Turbo theme that we have free updates forever, doing this manually is impossible. Especially when the previous version has glitches , and now we can't do anything without paying the extra buck.
Hi OchelariDirect — thank you sharing your feedback and concerns! We understand that updating a Shopify theme by uploading the updated version and reconfiguring the settings can be time consuming, so we have been working hard on improving and maintaining the Theme Updater App, adding new features and support for more themes, and want to keep offering you the time-saving convenience of updating without needing to reconfigure your settings. We understand your grievance with the change in pricing, and hope the subscriptions options we're offering line up with how you value the app, so we can continue to offer you the fastest updating experience possible. Regular updates via the standard Shopify updating process will remain free, and in addition to that, the first year of the TUA Basic plan is free with each theme registration. So if you do happen to upgrade to Flex, you would have a year of free use from the date you register your new theme! Please feel free to reach out to us directly here: https://help.outofthesandbox.com/hc/en-us/requests/new for any additional questions about the Theme Updater app, the Pro Plan or any other theme questions in general. All the best, The Out of the Sandbox Team
I did a lot of research and selected OTSB for our theme choice. Never had an issue, questions were answered timely, and no problem with previous updates. I didn't so much mind the $9/month if it kept my theme updated which I assume is the proper thing to do. So I did sign up, did update the Responsive theme with this latest update, and now ALL of my critically important options are a mess apparently from some light customizations for options and for the cart by another popular and commonly used app provider. Even on the product pages the options are all out of order! I submitted a ticket 2 days ago to OTSB w/no response yet, and then submitted a priority ticket yesterday, which I should have done initially not realizing how critical this problem is.. The timeframe for a ticket response says the same thing- 1-2 days so what is the priority ticket advantage? And I do NOT want to talk to someone from zendesk with a generic response that never takes care of a problem. What is the advantage of updating if it deconstructs the current theme/website? I could have stayed with wordpress for that! This was our whole purpose of selecting OTSB for shopify! We are launching this site NEXT WEEK!! I contacted a shopify expert and they want hundreds of dollars to update these few lines of customization! WHAT??? No thank you!!! I am also reading all the complaints here and the responses from OTSB do not sound very empathetic or helpful to those having problems with the update. We were fine with previous updates and NO ISSUES until this most recent one! I am hoping to hear from someone TODAY and how this will be taken care of! I would advise anyone considering an OTSB theme to hold off. I am happy to provide a previous positive review AFTER this has fixed! UPDATE: I did receive an email back from OTSB and they did take a little deeper look at the issues we had with the theme update. They were very courteous and somewhat helpful but basically threw it back to the options app we were using to fix the issues. Interesting that one of the suggestions was NOT to do the update, or use a previous saved version before the update, and work out the issues later. This is opposite of what OTSB suggests on their site. We did work with the options app and they have been very very helpful. Again, we did not expect OTSB to fix these (light) customization issues, but did expect a heads up notice that upcoming updates can and most likely will affect the architecture of your site. The majority of Shopify users are not web developers, coders etc. . Most purchase a theme so as not to have build a site theme from scratch (note: a big selling point on the themes is you can customize it however you want), which is why we switched to Shopify/OTSB..It was our expectation that this would resolve the Wordpress issues of a current site, however at least Wordpress always gives you a heads up on major updates. We are continuing with it for now as we have quite a bit of time and money invested, but we are wiser to the communication and limitations we experienced and hope that OTSB sees all these reviews and will give their fellow business owners and customers a better experience in the future as promised on their sales pages.
Hello Bella Lino Linens! Thank you for the review, for updating the review with your more recent remarks, and for sticking with Out of the Sandbox for your theme choice on Shopify. We're glad we had a chance to look into this issue deeper, and we share your concerns around theme updates when working with customizations and apps. As themes, apps and the Shopify platform change over time, updating and ensuring compatibility can become complex and time consuming. While the Theme Updater App can make some of these updating steps quicker and easier (obtaining the new version, carrying over previous setting configurations, carrying over compatible code customizations), some aspects of updating still require special consideration (especially app installations and more complicated code customizations). Unlike the Wordpress platform where much of the updating process occurs automatically affecting themes and the platform simultaneously, updates on the Shopify platform generally require a number of manual steps. The Theme Updater App is unique to Out of the Sandbox (and Pixel Union) themes, and offers time-savings by addressing some of these manual steps automatically - however, it remains that past app installations and code customizations may require special attention (from app support or a custom developer, depending on the nature of the modification) to ensure compatibility with a new version of the theme, like in the normal updating process on Shopify. We take this review to heart, and will continue to improve the experience of the Theme Updater App to make the outcomes and expectations clearer - the Shopify ecosystem is vast, and offering an updating tool that can ensure ongoing compatibility with the wide array of apps and customizations is an ongoing challenge; trust that Out of the Sandbox is in your corner for making this process as easy and quick as possible! Sincerely, The Out of the Sandbox Team
I've been a loyal and happy customer for years having purchased the Parallax theme and now on the Turbo theme. Received the email like everyone else and decided to update prior to the price increase for the basic plan. All of a sudden updates that were smooth with no user input from me, changed to 'we cannot update these three customizations'. Following the instructions to manually update the code, I keep getting an error on one of the customizations. Emailed support multiple times and no response AT ALL which has never happened in the past. Why all of a sudden is there radio silence from a support team that was very responsive in the past [even though I upgraded to the PRO plan as they wanted which is supposed to get me priority support]. I'm very disappointed in Out of the Sandbox. If you're going to start charging for updates then at the very least offer support for your products. Given my current situation and the feedback of other irate customers, I would NOT recommend purchasing a theme from this company in the future. Developer response is useless as it seems that they haven't even read my review. I've already submitted two support requests with NO response.
Hello Dalasini, Thanks for the remarks on the Theme Updater App - we're always looking for ways to improve the experience. From your note, it sounds like some customizations to your theme were not automatically carried over during the update - while the app can detect all your code customizations, it will only carry over customizations that will not cause a conflict with the new version of the theme. For instance, if you have customized a part of the theme that is then updated in some way in the new version, this customization would need special attention to be sure it's working/necessary with the updated feature. The app provides the note to let you know there are templates that require special attention, since simply carrying over the customizations 'as-is' could cause problems. We hope you value this improvement to the updating process, as updating normally would involve you finding all the code customizations throughout your modified code templates, after you had manually reconfigured the theme settings. Even without the code being applied automatically, the app still provides significant time-savings compared to the normal updating process. Thank you for your patience as we work to reply to our support requests in order - we have a lot of questions at this time of year, and trust that you will receive a reply as we address the support requests in the order they were received (or updated). If you're submitting multiple notes, we strongly suggest submitting a new ticket, so as to avoid updating the date/time on the original submission. As a Pro Plan user, you have access to the Priority Support contact form, which is a feature within the app. Any questions we receive from this contact form are replied to first, so we can prioritize your support experience. To access Priority Support, go into the Theme Updater App, and choose 'Action' below the theme you'll be asking about - choose 'Contact Priority Theme Support' to open the special contact form. We look forward to replying to your priority support request! All the best! -The Out of the Sandbox team
I'm in complete agreement with all the recent (re)views of this company. I've bought two of their themes; Turbo ($350) and Flex ($450). One of the main reasons we chose to buy these themes is because the FREE Theme Updater helps to make their very high price tag slightly more digestible. Their recent decision to start charging for this app is a ridiculously shady move; luring people in with a free service and subsequently charging for it is the ultimate form of greed. ...And before someone replies to this review suggesting that manual theme updates are still free - the idea that manually updating the theme is supposed to replace the Theme Updater is laughable. This behaviour coupled with THE WORST customer service we've ever come across, is enough for us to leave $750 on the table and go in search of a company that values their customers. This is quite frankly disgusting behaviour. AVOID AVOID AVOID.
Really obnoxious bait-and-switch money grab. I've bought several themes from this company in the past but won't do business with them in the future, and am on the hunt for a new theme now.
Really obnoxious bait-and-switch money grab. I've bought several themes from this company in the past but won't do business with them in the future, and am on the hunt for a new theme now.
Wow. I'm shocked ... I haven't even used this yet. No idea we were being billed. Surprise, surprise! Why not just do a once a year update and charge a flat fee of $150. That's actually reasonable instead of continually updating ... what a mess.
I recently purchased the Parallax theme and just about have my store set up to open and now I get an email saying to automatically update the theme is now $9 per month. I honestly wish this would have happened sooner so I would have purchased a theme from a different provider.
Seems I am not the only one, maybe this company should take a hint!! Not that great, first I did pay lots of money for a simplistic theme, then they want to charge for an update that is automatic, but of course does not include our customized portions of the theme? Seriously, then they sent an e-mail today letting me know that they will be increasing their Free plan... to $9 a month??! Holy crap that's astronomical for what the app is, so byeee. I will just make my own updater app the only appeal was the free part, then I just copy and paste the custom sections, being that the theme is updated so often I feel the theme is super buggy as well and have had to fix a lot of issues with it in the past. Also a word of advice is update the thing like once every 2 months or more, having to update a theme on a larger site like every 2 weeks to a month is ridiculous.
A good idea when it came out, though it was only partially helpful for complex customizations that had been added to the default themes. Unfortunately, now that even the basic version is to be a monthly subscription, we'll be deleting and finding other options.
Literally nothing happens, it does not function when I try to open the app. Deleted and reinstalled with the same result. Disappointing. UPDATE: I believe this was my cookie settings as I tried on another browser and it updated ok. Review changed from 1 to 4 stars.
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