FAQ and common issues

/notes/ redirects forever

The page you chose in Customize → Notes → Notes page has the same slug as the note base, so the theme’s redirect from the archive to the page points at itself.

Fix it either way round: change Settings → Permalinks → Note base to something else, or change the page’s slug. Full detail on Notes. The portfolio can hit the same thing if you slug its page like its own base.

I set an accent color and nothing changed

Accent color does nothing on its own. Pick a Link style under it — Basil, Thyme, Rosemary or Fennel — and the accent is what those styles wear. Sage, the default, leaves links reading as plain text. See Design.

There isn’t one. Fern is a single column by design — no widget area beside the content, on any template. If you need a sidebar, this is the wrong theme rather than a setting you have missed.

My notes or projects 404 after changing the base

Changing a permalink base needs the rewrite rules rebuilt. Visit Settings → Permalinks and press Save Changes without editing anything — that flushes them. The 404s stop immediately.

Comments do not show up

Two switches have to agree. Customize → Single post → Display comments? is off out of the box, and WordPress’s own Settings → Discussion and the per-post discussion box still apply on top of it. A post created while discussion was closed stays closed even after you turn the theme setting on — open it in the post editor.

Fern does not invent a menu from your pages. Build one at Appearance → Menus and assign it to Primary menu, or run Setup, which builds and assigns one for you.

Live search suggests nothing

Check Customize → Misc → Enable live search is on. If it is, the thing you are searching for may be excluded: pages are left out of results by default, and so are projects. Notes are included by default. See Search.

The blog shows only titles and dates

That is the Inline blog layout, which is the default. Switch Customize → Blog → Blog layout to Stack for thumbnails and post text. See Blog and posts.

How do I add my own CSS?

Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS for anything small. The theme publishes its colors as CSS custom properties — var(--accent) and var(--secondary-text) among them — so your rules can follow the Customizer rather than hard-coding a second copy of the palette.

For template changes, use a child theme so an update cannot overwrite them.

Can I use the classic editor?

Yes — Customize → Misc → Enable classic editor, and Enable classic widgets beside it. Neither needs a plugin. See Misc and the admin.

Where do I get support?

The support desk and the wordpress.org listing are not up yet. In the meantime the Fern → Info screen in your admin lists the versions and limits your site is running on, which is the first thing anyone helping you will ask for.