Cannot install themes

jdaviescoates

Do I have to do something special in order to be able to install Ghost themes?

I just get this error whenever trying to install any theme via /ghost/#/settings/design/change-theme/ :

Validation (FieldIsRequired) failed for ref

jdaviescoates

But! Just uploading the new .zip of the latest Casper release DID work for updating that over on https://uniteddiversity.coop !

I hit Activate and got another little notification pop-up bottom right informing me it had worked. And doing the same with the Source theme worked over on https://nzts.info too!

But there doesn't appear to be any releases of the Headline theme https://github.com/TryGhost/Headline, so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to try to update that over on https://westdorset.news

...but I was able to find a download of it via https://ghost.org/themes/headline/ (clicked Install button top right, then download link in the pop-up...

And uploading that .zip worked too! (but it seems it's still actually on 1.0.0 which I was on anyway, so actually no change there).

scooke

@jdaviescoates said in Cannot install themes:

Validation (FieldIsRequired) failed for ref

This Github link has a similar issue, and a solution, plus two workarounds.

jdaviescoates

@scooke said in Cannot install themes:

@jdaviescoates said in Cannot install themes:

Validation (FieldIsRequired) failed for ref

This Github link has a similar issue, and a solution, plus two workarounds.

Thanks!

It was very late/ early here when I hit this problem, and I was freezing cold (don't know why I didn't move to a warmer room or put the heating back on) so my brain wasn't working.

Seems the issue was the ClearURLs Firefox extension!

scooke

@jdaviescoates I only wish I knew why.

jdaviescoates

said in Cannot install themes:

I just get this error whenever trying to install any theme via /ghost/#/settings/design/change-theme/ :

This was previously solved, but these days I can't even get to the Change theme options on any of my Cloudron powered Ghost sites

This Change theme option (as shown at https://ghost.org/help/update-official-theme/ ) just isn't even displayed:

jdaviescoates

Doh, it's just moved completely and the Ghost docs are outdated!

I searched settings for theme and it's now it's own design, not in Design and branding:

jdaviescoates

Ah, but when I hit Update theme, it doesn't work

On https://uniteddiversity.coop when trying to update Casper I hit this Update Casper button:

And then get this pop-up:

So I hit OK (after taking a backup for good measure). But nothing at all happens (don't see anything in browser console nor app logs either, it seems just nothing happens)

The exact same thing (i.e. nothing at all) happens when I try to update the Source theme over on https://nzts.info too.

But on https://westdorset.news when I try to update the Headline theme I get this pop-up instead:

But when I click Overwrite it also doesn't work, but I do get this little Validation (FieldIsRequired) failed for ref error down in the bottom right:

Screenshot from 2025-08-16 17-19-16.png

And this in the app logs:

Aug 16 17:33:07 Validation (FieldIsRequired) failed for ref
Aug 16 17:33:07 2025-08-16T16:33:07Z
Aug 16 17:33:07 Error ID:
Aug 16 17:33:07 b06aa780-7abe-11f0-9e86-0d202d680ccd
Aug 16 17:33:07 2025-08-16T16:33:07Z
Aug 16 17:33:07 ----------------------------------------
Aug 16 17:33:07 2025-08-16T16:33:07Z
Aug 16 17:33:07 ValidationError: Validation (FieldIsRequired) failed for ref
Aug 16 17:33:07 at /home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/validators/input/all.js:38:25
Aug 16 17:33:07 at /home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:4967:15
Aug 16 17:33:07 at baseForOwn (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:3032:24)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at /home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:4936:18
Aug 16 17:33:07 at Function.forEach (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:9410:14)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at validate (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/validators/input/all.js:36:7)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at Object.all (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/validators/input/all.js:100:32)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at allShared (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/validators/handle.js:34:37)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at sequence (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/promise/lib/sequence.js:16:33)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at module.exports.input (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/validators/handle.js:66:12)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at doValidation (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/pipeline.js:38:42)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at sequence (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/promise/lib/sequence.js:16:33)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at Object.input (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/pipeline.js:45:20)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at getResponse (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/pipeline.js:256:41)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at ImplWrapper (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/pipeline.js:264:36)
Aug 16 17:33:07 at Http (/home/cloudron/ghost/versions/6.0.4/node_modules/@tryghost/api-framework/lib/http.js:70:34)

jdaviescoates