Hey, I have a general support policy. I understand that after 6 months, a theme buyer should renew technical support to get technical help.
However, is there an official policy around downloading the updates to the theme when there is a new one?
Thanks.
Updates are free for life no need to have paid for support active for those
Is that an official policy by envato or just a general trend by authors?
I would like your opinion of something I came across in a theme if you have a second.
Recently a theme I have been using released an update where it requires you to fill in your license # or theme functions will break. If the authorization “fails”, which from their customer support forum happens, you have to send them a ticket through their support system. Of course to use their support system you have to regularly renew your license.
I posted on their comments asking a general question about if verification will work on a staging AND production environments (on their forum they say something about it will work on 1 “online site”). They don’t answer my question and say if the verification doesn’t work submit a support ticket.
For one, I don’t want my site to break for even a day if verification doesn’t work. Also, this all seems to be a tricky, or maybe smart, roundabout way to make people always renew their support service if all a person is doing is updating the theme.
What are your thoughts about this? I also feel this is sort of a trust thing for me. If something goes wrong with their authorization system, they can continue to force people to use paid support arbitrarily.
What is your opinion on this? Thanks.
It’s an envato policy https://themeforest.net/page/item_support_policy
I’ve never heard of updates requiring purchase codes except in the case of auto updating from the admin.
You can always download the latest version from your downloads page and update it that way.
If it’s not working then send them a message via their profile - they can’t deny you updates
Thanks. I read that, but wasn’t sure if it was “discretionary” or not.
Yeah, this was the first time I have run into something like this. I understand an authors need to protect against piracy, however this seems fairly hardline and just be something that has a chance to break a site that has nothing to do with the code of the theme.
Where does it say in this link that updates are free for life?
For me, it is a little confusing whether it only pertains to the 6 month period or beyond that. I think it is worth discussion or clarification. This authorization code they require can essentially block me from updating the theme without renewing support. Technical support and updating the theme, are either two separate things or the same.
They are separate.
110% updates and bug fixes are free for life.
If they are preventing you from updating directly from WP admin then go to your downloads www.themeforest.net/downloads and get the latest version that way and update it.
If the issue is not direct updates and requires license codes irrelevant of how you update the theme and your code is not working then
a) try contacting them via the form on their profile
b) if they still ignore you or refuse to help speak to support who will resolve it
I guarantee there is zero doubt that you are entitled to a free updates for as long as the theme is active on the marketplace. It’s in the Terms and there are endless examples of where official envato staff reference it over the years.
Thanks for that. We will see how it goes.
