How to Recover Your Website After a Template Kit Overwrites Content

Many users of the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin encounter a common and stressful issue: importing a new template kit and finding their previous website content, homepage, or global settings have been overwritten or lost. This guide explains why this happens and outlines the steps you can take to try and recover your site.

Why Does This Happen?

Based on community reports, this problem typically occurs for a few key reasons:

• Kit Import Behavior: Some template kits are designed to be full-site demos. When imported, they may create new pages (like a 'Home' page) and set them as your site's front page, making your old homepage appear gone.
• Global Style Overwrites: Kits often include global settings for colors, fonts, and themes. Importing them can replace your existing customizations.
• Theme Builder Conditions: If you import a single template (e.g., a post template), its conditions might be incorrectly set to apply site-wide instead of only to posts, changing the layout of other pages.
• Lack of a Backup: This is the most critical factor. Without a recent backup, recovery becomes significantly more difficult.

Step-by-Step Recovery Guide

Solution 1: Check Your Reading Settings (Most Common Fix)

The template kit likely created a new page called "Home" and set it as your homepage. Your original content might still be intact on a different page.

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings > Reading.
3. Look at the "Your homepage displays" setting. If it's set to "A static page," see what page is selected as the "Homepage."
4. Change this setting back to "Your latest posts" or select a different page that contains your original content.
5. Save changes and check your website.

Solution 2: Manage Theme Builder Conditions

If a single template changed your entire site, its conditions are likely misconfigured.

1. In your dashboard, go to Royal Addons > Theme Builder.
2. Find the imported template (e.g., under "Single," "Header," etc.).
3. Click "Manage Conditions" for that template.
4. Ensure the condition is set correctly (e.g., a "Single Post" template should only be applied to "All Posts," not "Entire Site"). Adjust or delete the condition if it's wrong.

Solution 3: Clear All Caches

If you've deleted a kit or reverted changes but still see the old template, caching is often the culprit.

1. Clear your WordPress caching plugin's cache (if you use one).
2. Clear your browser cache and cookies.
3. Contact your web hosting provider and ask them to clear any server-level or CDN caches.

Solution 4: Restore from a Backup (The Guaranteed Solution)

This is the most effective way to restore your site exactly as it was. If you have a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus or BlogVault active, use it to restore your site to a point before you imported the kit. Always create a full backup before importing any major template kit.

What If You Don't Have a Backup?

Unfortunately, as seen in community threads, if the kit's pages have directly overwritten your original pages and you have no backup, recovery may not be possible. This highlights the critical importance of always creating a backup before making significant changes.

How to Safely Test Template Kits in the Future

• Use a Staging Site: The best practice is to test new plugins and templates on a staging site (a copy of your live site) first. Many hosting providers offer one-click staging environments.
• Always Backup: Create a complete backup immediately before importing any kit.
• Read Import Notices: Pay close attention to any warnings during the import process about replacing existing content.

While frustrating, this issue is often reversible by checking your settings and managing template conditions. The key to stress-free website management is a robust backup strategy.