It sounds a lot more difficult than it actually is, it's just difficult to wrap your mind around unless you are a coder or programming type and very familiar with the system.

But:
Try and think of it like a video tape of your grandmother's birthday!

You stick it into the vcr and press a button and it plays, and depending on your wishes, knowledge and ability you can leave it as is or you can attach a mike and dub sound describing what is happening etc etc.

All is well and good with the world! Until someone presses the record buttons and suddenly it's all gone replaced by something else.

That's a simplistic explanation of what happened to all your hard work, Now if you have a backup copy you can fairly easily rebuild it, or maybe you just have a copy of the original before you added your changes, in which case you have to start from scratch (or give up).

You with me so far?

Now with your tape you can protect it by popping that little tab out of the back, which prevents it from being recorded over, unless it is deliberately taped over to allow it to be recorded, and you have the only access to tape (you are the tape admin so to speak).

You have been around long enough to know that periodically the developers come out with an upgrade, and when they do and you apply it you are recording over what is already on the program including any changes you have made with the default files and data the developers use for the upgrade.

Got that?

So if you are like most people the only significant changes you made to your forum installation beyond the global settings and permissions, would be to change the CSS, header, footer, theme files and maybe the registration agreement and or welcome messages (if you have done more than that you should be helping others rather than asking for help).

And these are all files that are derived from the default and path info templ files and rewritten when the upgrade is done.

Just so you understand; these are all files that are seldom if ever changed by the developers, in fact I believe the recent change to the header is the only one I can recall since 2006, So what you need/want to do is make your own Tmpl files and thus protect your changes (Just like popping the tab or using the tape) that way you save all your hard work.

That way when all your changes are re written during the upgrade, they are automatically restored when the themes are rebuilt, But! ..................Wait for it!


They are rebuilt using your Tmpl files instead of the default tmpl files, and all of your modifications are changed to your tmpl files when you make them so you save yourself all that hard work because it has already been done for you By you.

At the very worst you will need to reinstall/upload your tmpls and rebuild your themes by pressing the rebuild key in the themes manager. And to be honest there is not much reason for the developers to modify the header, footer, CSS, or the welcome registration agreement etc to begin with, and it would not matter much any how because you have it your way and probably want to keep it that way.

By now you are asking but where are instructions on how do this, which means that you forgot that you asked for idiot proof instructions!

Naudefj has already told you how (in his own way), and where, (in his own way) just as I am doing now! Just as you are and have done for others, and as I hope you will do for others in the future.

I am just now grasping the extent of the templating system myself although I do comprehend it and that is what I am trying to do now by helping you comprehend it, but I am not writing this just for you I am writing it for myself and for all those who will come along later.

The blind leading the blind so to speak, but if you are a sharp cookie by the time I finish writing the idiot proof version you will already understand it better, and I hope this will help some newbie understand.

It sounds to me like you are making all your changes to your default files, and as long as you do that they will be over written more often than you like.