this is not a tutorial on how to do it, but rather a note on how to fix a the correct location of themes after data is imported. this is provided the sites are on the same server. for cases such as, using live or production data at another site for testing / development purposes.

note: for moving your forum, read this post from the official smf forum, which provides a better guide..

one thing i don’t like about smf is domain name and file path are hard-coded and stored in database. because live and test sites are at different locations or directories yet on the same server, the test site will continue to work but it is using the theme used by the live site. if you’re trying to make changes to the theme, you’ll be wondering why you don’t see the change no matter how many time the browser is refreshed.

to globally change the theme location

• export data from production db and import into testing or development db
• login as admin
• go to admin > themes and layout settings > Reset Theme URLs and Directories
• scroll down the page, click ‘attempts to reset all themes’