I went to download the freebie Amelia (below) But when I uploaded it. I got the message:
The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet
I downloaded it and uploaded it a 2nd time. Same thing
Please advise.
Hi,
This article will guide you.
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Bear in mind that if it’s a free item then you won’t have the download link in your downloads page.
You just need to make sure that you are only trying to install the theme folder and not the entire download
I logged in, and the download button was on the home page for the free version. It gave me a zip file.
Then as usual I tried to upload it, then I got that message.
No, the .zip file you’re downloading is not a plugin, it is simply a .zip file containing the plugin as well as documentation. So extract it first! 
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Sorry. I meant that I uploaded it to the theme area, as a zip file.
I have never extracted zips in the theme area. I’ve only uploaded the whole zip file.
Here is the error
Installing Theme from uploaded file: themeforest-19434135-moana-personal-magazine-wordpress-responsive-blog-theme-file-and-license20180403-1995-lqh7ch.zip
Unpacking the package…
Installing the theme…
The package could not be installed. The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet.
Theme installation failed.
Ah my bad, I meant theme.
Extract the downloaded zip onto your computer somewhere using your operating system’s file explorer. Among the extracted files should be another .zip file which is the one you want to upload.
But as it is now, the .zip file you have is not a theme, it’s just an archive containing the theme and other files in it. WordPress doesn’t know how to handle that, it needs a special .zip file which you’ll find after you extract it.
I unpacked the zip I downloaded. Tried to upload the zip that was in the zip. Here’s the error code.
Installing Theme from uploaded file: themeforest-19434135-moana-personal-magazine-wordpress-responsive-blog-theme.zip
Unpacking the package…
Installing the theme…
The package could not be installed. The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet.
Theme installation failed.
I just had a look at the download. This is .zip-ception! In this case, it’s actually a zip, inside a zip, inside another zip. 
Extract the second zip and you’ll see this file:
Here’s an installation guide from the author, by the way:
Holy moly! that was the next one I was going to try. So, let me try
Thank you so much!
Finally… it worked.
Big lesson learned.
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