Theme Updater & Backups | OOTS
Effortlessly update themes, add new sections, and backup data
Rating
4.1
feedback
264
chart
#1,855
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Sept. 24, 2019
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
Sept. 23, 2019
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.
Sept. 22, 2019
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.
Sept. 20, 2019
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.
Sept. 20, 2019
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.
Sept. 20, 2019
Last year in July 2018 I rated with 5 stars as you can see at the end of this now updated review. Changing to three stars now. The numerous negative reviews of the last two days clearly show the displeasure of the users about the upcoming pricing model of OOTS for the Theme Updater App. And I can only agree as I’m angry as well. While many of the reviewers mentioned technical issues with the Theme Updater App I can only report positive things from my experiences with two shops (both with the Turbo Theme). So far all updates with the free basic version of the app have worked without any problems at all. But now to pay a monthly fee although there is an update available only each two or three months is nonsense in my view. Anyway, also here it’s to dare, that it is possible to subscribe the moment if you want to do an update and then cancel the update immediately afterwards. So if you want to update your theme for example only two or three times a year, you can simply subscribe for two to three times a year for 30 days each! Instead of $108 you can end up with $18 or $27 per year. Due to this flexibility, my rating is not quite as negative. But in one point I agree with most other users: Your support is regularily unsatisfactory. As already mentioned by other reviewers the friendly advice to contact one of your development partners seems unfortunately to be part of your standard procedure. And even worse, I think that OOTS doesn't have any plan to support Shopify's recent possibility to state base prices. At least that’s the statement I received from the support. And this is beyond doubt not understandable, as base prices in Germany and many other European countries are mandatory by legal terms for numerous product types. It is incomprehensible that OOTS does not update the topics here accordingly and thus deliberately avoids a massive business potential in Europe. Dear OOTS Team; you have mega cool themes, a fantastic Theme Updater App ... but the list of negative points is getting longer. The unsatisfactory support, the refusal to support this basic functionality of base prices, is now followed by a questionable licensing policy. Too bad .... With thoughtful greetings from Germany. --- Just fyi my former 5* rating from July 2018 before I made some negative experiences with the OOTS support and at a time while Updater Theme was fro free. Super valuable App! Had our store running on Turbo theme v3.0.3 and performed upgrade to latest v.3.1.0 half an hour ago. Whole process of applying a new version incl. adoption of our tweaks and customization changes took approx 3-4 minutes. Afterwards, a manual adoption of language files was required as outlined in the app description. So, uploaded my used v.3.0.3 language files to TextWrangler editor and compared these two files to the v3.1.0 default files. Review of differences took another 5 minutes including applying required additions to new v3.1.0 language files. Overall, whole upgrade process done in less then 10 minutes. Couldn't be easier! Great app, OOTS-team. Greetings from Germany.
Sept. 19, 2019
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.
Sept. 19, 2019
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.
Sept. 20, 2019
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.
Sept. 19, 2019
Very poor service and underhand fees - simply read the reviews. The app doesn't work very well, and now a greedy developer wants to charge over $100 a year (forever) for an app to update a couple of lines of code. Their themes are full of bugs, support is very slow (at times even leaving bugs in the code - I'm looking at you 'Artisan'), and now they are trying to sneakily charge for something that was advertised as part of their theme purchase. I doubt this is acceptable practice, or legal, in most countries. We have already had to change two Out of the Sandbox themes due to bugs in their software, and now they do this. If I were them, I would be very embarrassed as to how they treat long standing customers. The most insulting thing is the email we were sent, spinning this charge as an 'opportunity'. Please don't patronize us with PR, you are simply milking merchants for all you can get before moving on. P.S. Following the developers response: You seem to miss the point - everyone who purchases an Out of the Sandbox theme agreed to do so with the knowledge that the updating app comes along with it (and we have also paid an initial premium for the theme and updater app). You are significantly changing the agreement by now charging for the app, and I would say that is unlikely to be legal here in the EU. Also, you mentioned in one response that you need the money to fund your IT systems - well, if you can't afford to provide a service, don't offer it for free with the intention of locking customers into a 'blackmail scheme'. Have the dignity to admit you simply want more money by charging customers twice.
Hello The Hosiery Box, We appreciate your honest feedback - it is true the Theme Updater App will soon have a number of flexible subscription options available, required to use the tool to automatically configure your updated theme, and access advanced perks (like our new Priority Support feature in the Pro Plan). However, updated theme files and support will continue to be FREE, as we continue to improve our themes with new features and bug fixes; with these updated theme files, the normal process of updating a Shopify theme can be followed, which does not require use of the app. 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. Sincerely, - The Out of the Sandbox Team
Sept. 18, 2019
A premium theme should not require an additional $9 per month to upgrade the few times per year that is necessary. This will not build good will for Out of the Sandbox or Pixel Union. I imagine this will also impact reviews of their themes directly. I like Empire but would not recommend it to others given this recent sheisty maneuver.
Hello danformshoesvt, Thanks for sending these remarks; we take your input to heart. It is true that periodic updates are a necessary part of using a theme, as the theme is updated to include new features and improvements. However, you are not required to use the Theme Updater App to update your theme - updated theme files with new features and improvements will continue to be available for free, as they are for all Shopify themes. You can optionally use the Theme Updater App when an update is released to retain your previous setting configurations and transfer some code customizations, to make the updating process faster and easier. This is accomplished through the app's unique functionality that we continue to develop and maintain. To take advantage of these updating benefits, along with new and exciting features such as Priority Support (available in the Pro Plan), we'll have several flexible subscription options to choose from. But, rest assured, the normal Shopify theme updating process will continue to be possible for your premium theme, and the updated theme files will continue to be available for free. Sincerely, -The Out of the Sandbox Team
Sept. 18, 2019
Like many others not happy this app is going from free to paid with no details on how to avoid being charged. This app never worked for me due to my custom code.
Sept. 18, 2019
Stay away from Out of the Sandbox themes. First you pay dearly for the theme, then if you want to apply the theme upgrades you will have to pay 9$ a month for a service that you will use 2/3 times in a year. But what is your choice? None. Because to update the theme manually it's a nightmare. I am going to find a better theme that doesn't charge me for updates. I am not happy.
Sept. 18, 2019
They just notified that they moved this to a paid app. 100+ a year to keep their app updated on top of what you pay for the theme.
Sept. 18, 2019
We have used this app once and it worked well but it just sits there majority of the year. Now that they are charging $9/month for this app we will be deleting it. This isnt something constantly used that we can justify paying them for especially for something that should be free with the theme.
Sept. 18, 2019
I'm a long time online seller and this app has been great the handful of times that I"ve updated in the past three years. But I cannot believe that I paid $350 for a theme (with 1 store usage allowed), and now OOTS wants to charge $9 a month and/or $108 a year (forever) to let an app stay installed in my store that I use two or maybe three times a year at a maximum?? BOO HISS. Horrible. The updater is great so I hate to leave 1 star because of this new policy, but its a complete disappointment to see these guys get so greedy when their themes are highly priced.
Sept. 18, 2019
Getting rid of the Free Plan and starting to charge $9 for it? Big Mistake! You, As a Company that sells templates (For Big Money!) and charges money in order to update them, create very, an extremely bad business relationship between a provider and a consumer. Does Microsoft charges money for their Automatic system Update? Or Does Adobe Charges Money for their Automatic system updates? I can provide you with many more Companies With good and Loyal Marketing towards their Customers. But You are simply getting Greedy. That will be a downfall for you if you actually gonna initiate your policy. Customers and their Loyalty come First. Without Customers and their Loyalty there is No Business. Don't Forget about this golden rule before getting greedy
Sept. 18, 2019
I have received an email telling me that they intend to delete the free plan of this app, so think twice before to buy one of Out of the Sandbox theme: without the app you will have to start new every time they publish an update! I am utterly disappointed by their policy...
Aug. 28, 2019
This app works like a charm and gets the job done without any problems. Support is also quick and fantastic, often going above and beyond what I expect of them.
Nov. 12, 2019
RUN FROM THIS APP. DOES NOT WORK. RUBBISH. Guarantee we'll get a faster response to this Review than we will support. The App is not worth the time, money and energy. It does not work with PixelUnion. It creates more work. Who has the time to wait 1-2 days let alone 24 hours with "premium" support for a response. Find a better Theme than using PixelUnion and this App from Out of the Sandbox. More importantly-find companies with better support. Day 2 STILL WAITING FOR SUPPORT. A MONTH LATER AND IT STILL SUCKS. LOOK AT ALL THE POOR REVIEWS-DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY OR ANY OF THEIR APPS. Shopify should dump them