Troubleshooting
Fixes for the most common Highend problems: demo import failures, unsaved settings, stale styles, 404s, and more.
Common problems and how to resolve them. If you're still stuck after trying these, see Get support.
Demo import needs an active license: check HighendTheme License first if the Import Demos page shows an "Invalid license" notice.
The importer runs in small steps over AJAX rather than one long request, and raises the PHP time limit and memory limit for itself, so ordinary shared-hosting limits usually aren't the problem. If it still stalls partway through, it's typically a hard cap your host enforces at the server level (regardless of what PHP settings allow). Try again (the importer resumes from where it left off), and if it keeps failing at the same step, ask your host to raise memory_limit and max_execution_time, or contact support with the step it stops on.
Enable WordPress's debug mode to see what's actually failing. In wp-config.php, set:
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );This logs errors to wp-content/debug.log instead of showing them on the page. Check the log for the failing file and line, fix or deactivate the cause, then turn debugging back off.
Highend Options has several hundred fields across all its tabs, submitted together when you click Save changes. If your host sets PHP's max_input_vars very low, some fields can be silently dropped from the request. Ask your host to raise max_input_vars (1000 or higher is safe), or add it yourself if you manage php.ini:
max_input_vars = 3000Highend regenerates its CSS automatically whenever you save theme options, save the Customizer, import a demo, or update the theme, so this is almost always a caching issue rather than a stale stylesheet. Clear any caching plugin (and your CDN, if you use one), then hard-refresh the page. If you're testing in an incognito/private window and still don't see the change, double check you saved the right tab in Highend Options.
This means no menu is assigned to that location yet. Go to AppearanceMenus, create or select a menu, and check the box for the relevant location (such as Main Menu) under Menu Settings.
Portfolio and Team Members are custom post types with their own URL structure, which WordPress needs to register in its permalink rules. This usually happens right after activating the theme, importing a demo, or migrating the site. Go to SettingsPermalinks and click Save Changes (no need to change anything) to rebuild the rules.
Check Map Provider under HighendHighend OptionsMap Settings. With Google Maps, maps need a valid key in the Google Map API Key field, with billing enabled on its project; you can create a key in the Google Cloud Console. A gray box with "Oops! Something went wrong" means Google rejected the key. If you'd rather not deal with keys, switch Map Provider to OpenStreetMap, which needs no setup.
Enter your license key on HighendTheme License. Activation contacts HB-Themes' licensing server, so your site needs outbound internet access from the server itself (some locked-down hosts block this). If the key shows as disabled, contact support if you think this is a mistake.
Go to HighendInstall Plugins to see the required and recommended plugins for your setup and update them from there. If a plugin still won't update, deactivate it, delete it, then reinstall it from the same page.