Install Sublime

Installing adds Sublime to your theme library without touching your live store. Nothing changes for shoppers until you publish it, so you can take as long as you need to set it up.

Before you start

  • You need the Manage themes permission on the store (store owners have it by default).
  • Have your logo ready, ideally as a transparent PNG or SVG.
  • If you're replacing a live theme, make a note of any custom code or app snippets it has. Those won't carry over.

Theme limit: A Shopify store can hold up to 20 themes in its library. If you're at the limit, download a copy of an old theme and delete it before you install Sublime.

Option 1: Add Sublime from the Shopify Theme Store

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes.
  2. Click Visit Theme Store and search for Sublime.
  3. Click Try theme to add a free trial copy, or buy the theme to use it on your live store.
  4. Sublime is added to your Theme library. Click Customize to open it in the theme editor.

Trying before buying: A trial copy works fully in the theme editor and in preview. You only need to buy the theme when you're ready to publish it.

The Sublime style

Sublime ships with one preset, also called Sublime. It sets the starting colors, fonts, corner radius and button shapes, plus a homepage layout you can edit or replace. There's no second style to switch to, so you shape the look through the theme settings below rather than by picking another preset.

Set up the essentials first

Everything else builds on these four things, so do them before you design individual pages.

  1. Logo. Open the Header and add your logo, then set its desktop and mobile widths.
  2. Colors. Adjust the color schemes in Theme settings → Colors. Every section picks one of these schemes, so changing a scheme updates the whole store.
  3. Fonts. Choose your typefaces and heading sizes in Theme settings → Typography.
  4. Menus. Build your navigation in the Shopify admin under Content → Menus, then select the menu in the Header and Footer.

Tip: New to the editor? Read Theme editor basics first. It explains sections, blocks and settings that only appear once you switch something else on.

Moving from another theme

Your store data belongs to your store, not to the theme, so most of it is already there when you switch. What's stored inside your old theme has to be set up again in Sublime.

Carries over automatically Products, collections, pages, blog posts, menus, customers, orders, discounts, metafields, files, and your store's apps.
Needs setting up again Theme settings (colors, fonts, logo), everything you added in the theme editor (sections, blocks, images and text on your homepage and templates), app blocks and app embeds, and any custom code in the old theme.
Worth checking Products, collections or pages assigned to an alternate template in your old theme. If Sublime doesn't have a template with the same name, they fall back to the default template until you create one. See Theme editor basics.

Apps keep working after the switch, but their storefront pieces are switched on per theme. In the theme editor, open Theme settings → App embeds to turn app embeds back on, and re-add app blocks to your product page, cart or the Apps section where you need them.

Tip: Keep your old theme open in another browser tab while you rebuild. It makes it easy to copy over banner text, announcement messages and footer content.

Preview before you publish

In Online Store → Themes, click … next to Sublime in your theme library, then Preview. You can also share a preview link with your team from the same menu. Run through this checklist:

  1. Look at the homepage, a collection, a product, the cart and search, on both desktop and mobile.
  2. Add a product to the cart and go through checkout (a test order confirms everything works end to end).
  3. Check that the apps you rely on still show up: reviews, wishlists, upsells, subscriptions.
  4. Open the menus, the search drawer and the cart drawer to make sure your links point to the right places.

Publish

  1. Go to Online Store → Themes.
  2. In your theme library, click … next to Sublime, then Publish.
  3. Confirm. Sublime replaces your current theme straight away, and the old theme moves back to your library.

Keep the old theme: Don't delete your previous theme for a few weeks. If something turns out to be missing, publishing it again takes one click.

Will installing Sublime change my live store?

No. A theme you add or upload sits unpublished in your theme library. Shoppers see nothing new until you click Publish.

Do my products and pages carry over?

Yes. Products, collections, pages, blog posts and menus are store data, so they're already there. Only the design and the content you added in the old theme's editor stay behind.

Can I set it up on a development store first?

Yes, and it's the safest approach for a big rebuild. Build it there, download the theme, then upload the same .zip to your live store. Note that section content only carries over if the products, collections and menus it points to exist on both stores.

The upload failed

Check that you're uploading the original .zip file (not an unzipped folder) and that you have fewer than 20 themes in your library. If it still fails, contact support.

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