27 January 2014

Blogger template designer not working (not showing or applying changes): Here's how this tech dummy fixed the problem (with illustrations)

Apparently many bloggers using the Blogger platform have encountered the problem of not being able to apply changes to - and hence customise - their blog's template using Blogger's Template Designer (this I gathered through Google).  I was one of them.  Whether or not this had anything to do with Blogger upgrading to their new interface last Sept/Oct, I'm not entirely sure; but in my case at least, the timing seemed to coincide.  Having said that and because I'm no techie, I really don't wanna jump to conclusions and point fingers at the good people at Google.... and neither should anybody.

Anyway, the good news is I've figured out how to fix the problem and have since customised this blog the way I want it to appear; and here I wish to share with all how I did it.  Now this post may seem longish, but that's only because of the diagrams I've incorporated for ease of reference; so bear with me.  It's really quite simple.

Step 1.  IMPORTANT: You must first have your mobile template enabled (I really don't know why; I found out by trial and error that it's a pre-requisite).  This is how you enable it (see Diagram 1):  At your blog's dashboard, click on the arrow-down button located left of the "View Blog" button.  Select "Template".



Diagram 1

* * *


Step 2.  At your template screen (Diagram 2), click on the cogwheel under "Mobile".  This will take you to the "Template > Choose mobile template" screen (Diagram 3).



Diagram 2

* * *


Step 3.  At the "Template > Choose mobile template" screen, select "Yes. Show mobile template on mobile devices".  Click "Save".



Diagram 3


Your screen will revert to the "Template" screen as in Diagram 2 above.


* * *

Step 4.  Next click on "Edit HTML".  A screen as in Diagram 4 will appear.  Here, click on "Revert widget templates to default" and save.  You'll be taken back to the "Template" screen (Diagram 2).


Diagram 4


* * *


Step 5.  Next, at the "Template" screen, click on the orange "Customise" button.  The "Blogger Template Designer" screen will appear (Diagram 5).  Click on the blue "Remove customisations" link near the top of your screen - this removes ALL customisations that you've previously made.

If all these steps are done correctly and in that sequence, your blog will have by now reverted to the default Blogger template (boring!).  In short, you're on a clean slate.  You may now proceed to choose your new preferred template and customise the look of your blog to your whim and fancy using the template designer - and this time, it ought to work.


Diagram 5


* * *


I suspect the problem of Blogger's template designer not showing or applying changes is due to the numerous customisations you've previously made to your blog template that may have resulted in some kind of "conflict" with the Blogger platform.  In other words, you fiddled too much with them.  This I believe causes the template designer to malfunction and become non-responsive.  Note: This is notwithstanding the fact that some of you may have NOT imported any third party HTML scripts as part of your previous customisations.  You'll find that merely switching templates doesn't solve the problem.  I'm guessing this is because doing this in itself does not remove previous HTML customisations or reset gadgets.

I've no doubt there are other ways of fixing this problem - but being a tech dummy, this is how I fixed the problem on my blog....  and it worked.  Do try out the steps I mentioned if you're facing problems with your template designer and let me know (in the "Comments" field below) whether it works for you.  If it does, well and good - but please tell me.  If it doesn't, I'm afraid you may need to turn to the experts - please tell me too.

Good luck.  Waiting to hear from you guys.






100 comments:

  1. I followed all your steps...still doesn't work. Frustration is not even a word to describe me right now!

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    1. Sorry to hear that, Denise. Did u set your mobile template to Enabled?

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  2. omg it worked! i love you!

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  3. aw it worked once then it didnt work again :(

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    1. Hi, Olivia. Thanks for dropping a line. So, is it okay now?

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  4. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! It actually worked! Oh my gosh thank you so much! I've been stuck with this problem for days and your tutorial is the only one that actually worked for me! :)))

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    1. I'm delighted to hear that, Georgia. And thanks for letting me know.

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    2. The same thing happened to my blog too... But it is now fixed, Thank you so much

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  5. Thanks for the help i already had nothing on my page so for me it helped to click the "no.show destock template on mobile devices"

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  6. Hello, Gabriela. Glad to be of help. I see you've only one post on your blog. New to the blogosphere?

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  7. Tried your method and it stilldoes not work...any other suggestions?

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    Replies
    1. Did you ENABLE your mobile template first?

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  9. Thank you so much!!! This saved me a lot of time and headache :)

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    1. So happy it worked for you, Andra. Thanks for letting me know.

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  10. Half the time when I go to edit my template the section stays blank. Thanks for writing the tutorial, it will be nice when more bugs are ironed out of the new blogger

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    1. Hi, TPS. Bottom line; did it work eventually?

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  11. You're the first blog I located in reference to this and it worked beautifully. The only thing I did differently was when you stated the 'revert widget to default " was I checkmarked just the blog section, went back to my time settings and saved- reloaded and voila. You're a lifesaver!Thanks you for sharing your experiences.

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    1. Thank you so much for your feedback. I'm really glad it worked for you.

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    2. Hi BloomGyrl - can you confirm exactly what you did so you didn't have to completely re-do your customization? Just want to make sure I follow the right steps as I'm terrified to hit the 'revert widget to default' button

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  12. Thank you so so so much! It worked for me and I can finally begin creating my blog!

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    1. Thank you for letting me know, Bea. I could almost feel your joy there, which I find most encouraging as a blogger. Will follow you once your blog is up proper.

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  13. Hello, Sotonye. Just go to "Pages" from your dashboard and proceed from there. It's quite simple and pretty much self-explanatory. Good luck.

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  14. It didn't work. :( It works on Internet Explorer but on Google Chrome it's not popping up.

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    1. Hello, Caleah. I don't quite understand. If u're able to perform the changes on IE, then that's well and good.

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  15. I did what you said and it worked only on the internet explorer..Better than nothing.Thank you :) Any idea why the apply to blog button still doesn't work on google chrome? )i enabled te mobile template in bothe of thebrowsrs..

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  16. i tried this but nothing happens once I click the save template button after reverting the tamplates to default.

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  18. Ah I deleted my comment accidentally..here it is again:

    Hey I don't know if my problem applies, but I will explain it.

    So, for a week now after I disabled my mobile template, whenever I went to advanced editing on my blogger customize, I cannot change the color or font. I tried your steps, including enabling the mobile template and defaulting the templates, yet my blogger did not start fresh. I still cannot change the font or color of any words. Any suggestions?

    Thanks!

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    1. Thanks for the feedback, Sarah. Looks like you got the steps right there. Try doing it on Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer. BUT FIRST clear your computer's cache. Do try and let me now. Thanks.

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    2. Oh!..... Thank you for the comment, sir.... I work in a proxy-based network..... So, I was getting the cached copy.... Ctrl + F5 did the job..... Thanks, a lot! :)

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  20. Hi Vincent, I tried everything possible and it didn't work I am extremely disappointed, got any other ideas?

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    1. Hi, Angelina. Try (1) clearing your cache, then (2) perform the steps on Google Chrome instead of IE or Firefox. Do let me know.

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  21. Hi, it worked, so thank you!! But I really do not want my mobile enabled. is there anyway for me to now disable my mobile without the problem occuring again???

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    1. Hi, Dorothy. I'm so glad it worked for you. And thanks very much for your feedback. Yes, after having made the customisations you want, you may proceed to disable your mobile template. No worries there.

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  22. I've tried everything and it won't work. :(
    I tried it in IE and in Chrome, I deleted my cache and everything. D:

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  23. Hi! i don't how you came across this neat little trick but it worked fine for me. the mobile template was already ticked so i tick no the yes then save
    and followed the steps, on the Revert widget templates to default page i selected all widgets & saved the template the continued with the steps.
    cleared the cache yesterday so don't know if that have had any effect.
    this was with firefox 24.0

    Thank for the solution!

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  24. Thanks Very Very Much, Its Worked For Me :)

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  25. This was excellent advice! Thank you so much

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  26. Hi, I was simply checking out this blog and I really admire the premise of the article and this is really informative. I will for sure refer my friends the same. Thankstemplate designing

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  27. Thank you. It really helpful :)

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  28. "Remove customisations" doesn't appear.

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  29. I tried to click save changes on when I reverted the widget templates to default but even that didnt save:(

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  30. I tried to click save changes on when I reverted the widget templates to default but even that didnt save:(

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  31. Hey..! thats a really good post. Even though in spite of doing all this, it dint work, but now i know what went wrong. I was trying to even find a reason as to why it dint work. Now i know, i fiddled a LOT with the template in the name of customization! :P Thanks!
    Atleast i know, i need to start all over again.. :)

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  32. didn't work to my blog! help me!

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  33. Worked great for me. Thanks. ;)

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  34. Hi Vincent,
    I've done at lot of custom editing on my blog, pin it button, hidden navigation bar, ect and these are elements that I really like. However I would also love to be able to edit my template again.

    If I reset all my custom edits, I can edit my blog, but obviously I will want to put them back again. If I do, will that just break it again?

    Thanks,
    Lydia
    Chic on the Cheap

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    Replies
    1. Hi Lydia. Before I reply proper, did u mean whether it'll break what u've reinstated?

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    2. To fix the blog I must remove custom CSS.

      Once I've done this, the template editor will work and I can change my font colors and background and such.

      Then I will put back the custom code I cleared.

      Will my template editor become broken again?

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    3. Hi, Lydia. I see what you mean now. I would have to say the answer is "No" simply because, in my case, the template editor continued to work just fine.

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  35. It didn't work at first, but then I rolled up my sleeves and man-handled it. I ended up deciding to change some things about the layout and make it more simple. Thank you SO MUCH!

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  36. Thank you very much for the advice :)
    It worked,Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. I'm happy to hear that, Bube. Thank you for informing me.

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  37. Nice Post....!!

    I have found another Very Simple Method as when I faced this problem.
    It was showing bX-b05.... something this error, Template Designer not opening at all.

    What i did ?

    I waited for some time.
    -Log out my account.
    -Clear all browser history and Cache.
    -Close the Browser.
    -Again Log in my account.

    And Surprisingly, It worked and working fine now.

    However, Your reason is correct as it happens as a result of numerous customizations.

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  38. Hey thanks but I wanted a fix AND to keep my customizations, I dont want to revert my blog to the initial look. So I dare not follow your instructions. I have to many customizations to undo all that.

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  39. Vincent, many, many thanks!!!! You have saved my bacon. I was beginning to think I'd have to go learn HTML from the ground up. Cheers!!!

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    1. Pleasure's all mine, Gordon. Glad it worked for you. Just checked out your blog; love it. Have started following you. I hope you'll follow kind too.
      My blog: http://www.vincequek.com

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  40. I am having problems uploading my own header image, does these steps help fix it?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Shannon. Before I answer, could you please be more specific as to the exact nature of the problem you're encountering? :-)

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  41. Thank you so much. This has been driving me crazy and your step-by-step instructions have been a great relief.

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  42. I want to make just one small change. I don't want to lose everything I have already done and start over. Is there any other way without losing everything?

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    1. Hello, Christen. Thank you for writing. I'm no tech expert, but do tell me what you'd like to amend. I'll see if I can help.

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  43. It worked! SOOOO pleased! I thought I had to delete my blog just to make some simple adjustments! THANK YOU!
    -Lucy

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  44. Thank you so much! I've been trying to figure this out forever! I was even going to start completely over and just give up and move to wordpress. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! This was so helpful!

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    1. My pleasure, Tora. Thanks for your feedback. Appreciated.

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  45. I'm a new blogger - everything was going great 9 posts and 1 week into the blog. Today I come in and everything is screwy. The header and blog description is covered up, right sidebar is showing up at the bottom and template won't go back to default. Ack! Your blog popped up when I went to search for answers and in a few minutes I was back on the road with defaults. Thanks for sharing the fruits of your research! You saved me much time and aggravation! I liked the spammer post too...

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    1. Excellent, constructive feedback there, FAS. Thank you for letting me know; most appreciated.

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  46. Hello good day like this? I am writing to see if I can help with a problem I have with a code to insert into blogger I am new to the codes and the system ..
    Download 3 business and all well but when the load on blogger I get this error
    Failed to load the preview of the template: Error parsing XML, line 53, column 3 "link" element type must be resolved by the end the match tag ""
    What does that mean? What I have to do?
    Thanks in advance and sorry for the trouble
    this is the link of some of the codes to see if I can help with that problem
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FEY3mh3H0u3Cq6zqH3Vb0qadEmfKqEM8KlYgN4w9R9g/edit?usp=sharing

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  47. Hello Vincent, my problem is that I can not see the background picture that I have selected for my blog. What can the problem be? http://carpediemofme.blogspot.com.tr/ this is my blog, the background has not picture.. But actually it has...

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  48. I can't find remove customizations

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  49. Sorry, didn't work for me. I hadn't made any customizations. There's definitely a difference between the blog on the PC and on the mobile device, but the mobile is throwing up the posts in such a miniscule list. Not good for business!

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  50. There is no blue button saying remove customization. Not working for me..

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  51. There is no blue button saying remove customization. Not working for me..

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  52. Not Working For me....
    This problem came as a sudden death. because yesterday my template was working fine. when i posted about (adsense box under the post title) on my blog
    http://www.bestrightway.com/2015/05/create-advertisement-box-under-post.html
    After then my html editor not working.
    Still i am finding to solve the problem.

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  53. Thank you SO much!!! I was so frustrated then boom following all your steps worked! I wouldn't have thought removing everything would make it work but it did! Thanks again!

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  54. CSS code apply to blog dose not work . how to apply css code please help me

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  55. It didn't work for me. I followed all steps including enabling mobile template. The strange thing is all but my most recent post show the customizations. My most recent post will not show the font I chose in blogger template settings or any posts that I try currently....?

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  56. Didn't work for me also. i dont know what else to do

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  57. Thanks,
    Today I fixe this problem, you must remove some widgets without relation with google
    see my new template of my blog.

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  58. Great post. Your design is really good. I appreciate your work

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  59. Very clear and precise! It worked for me. Thanks.

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