error updating theme after adding multicolumn sections to header and footer

[dlr22]

EDIT: json finally updated - the cache really hung on, but it finally cleared, but my original question still exists.  How can I add the multicolumn block into my header and footer without causing errors when trying to update the theme? Thanks! 

In order to add multicolumn to the footer, you remove footer from the disabled groups in multicolumn.liquid.  

  "disabled_on": {
      "groups": ["header"]
    },

Got that info from this thread: 

https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-design/how-to-add-multicolumn-section-to-footer-area-in-dawn...

However, I wanted to also add multicolumn to the header - and it won't allow a blank between the brackets, so I commented that whole section out. 

//  "disabled_on": {
//      "groups": ["header", "footer"]
//    },

This worked just fine and there have been no issues until I tried to update the Dawn theme.  It's throwing validation errors at me "Validation failed: Section 'multicolumn_gwQk6K' is not supported in section groups"

There must be a better way to allow multicolumn within the header and footer without causing errors - I'm not clear on why it would be disabled by default anyway.   

I have since tried to remove my multicolum sections just so that I could update the theme and then I'd put them back, but for some reason, when  I delete the multicolumn section from the home page, it remains in the footer-group.json and is therefore still preventing me from updating.  I can just remove that from the json file manually, I suppose, but bothered that the json isn't updating when I remove the sections from the page.  

Any help appreciated!

[Dan-From-Ryviu]

Hi @dlr22 

Did you try to remove that code and try to upgrade your theme again? 

Also, as I know, when updating the theme, it will create a new draft version in your list of theme without affect to the current one. 

[dlr22]

Hi -

As I mentioned, even after I removed those header and footer multicolumn areas, the json wasn't clearing, so the update would not complete.  (And the validation errors were preventing it from adding the draft version.) When json finally caught up, I was able to update the theme.

To answer your question, Dan-From-Ryviu, I didn't even have to uncomment the "disabled on" code in order to successfully update.  All I had to do was remove the multicolumn sections from my header and footer.  

My question again, to be clear is how can I add multicolumn sections to the header and footer without triggering these errors and having to remove my sections when trying to update? Other than commenting out that code in the multicolumn.liquid file, there is nothing that is customized in that file. There must be some other code that can be added (or subtracted) to make the multicolumn sections 100% compatible with the header and footer, because obviously commenting out is an unacceptable or incomplete method.  

Thank you!

[dlr22 · Accepted solution]

Just to close out this thread to get an accepted solution, I'm going to add {% section 'multicolumn' %} to the theme.liquid file in the appropriate places above the header and footer sections. 

After speaking with Shopify support, they confirmed that "This approach is indeed designed to be a more complete solution, allowing the multicolumn sections to function properly without creating issues when updating the theme."

Won't know for sure until it's time to update the theme again, but hopefully this will be sufficient.