Update Dawn theme from 2.4.0 to 6.0.2

[PrintNStuff]

Hello everyone! I noticed long time ago that the theme Dawn has been updated quite much and decided to make this step and update the current theme that I am using. I am now using Dawn version 2.4.0 and would like to update to latest version available. 

I downloaded the latest version, but when  I click on preview, it shows empty, with just a few of my original products and menu items. I am afraid to hit publish and to loose everything that I have made on the "old" theme. Also, I do not want to go through the process of customizing manually again the new theme and make it look like the existing one.  Is there a simple smart way to navigate all the customizations from an old theme to a new one?

Please help, thank you!

[drakedev]

Hello,

unfortunately, it isn't possible to upgrade any Shopify theme to a newer version automatically and keep all existing customizations (that's a general rule not only for Dawn theme).

The only way is to import manually all customizations that have been added from 2.4.0 to 6.0.2.

I did it many times for various themes and I usually follow this approach:

1. I get the original and clean version of the theme (in this case Dawn 2.4.0)
2. I compare it with the live theme (Dawn 2.4.0 customized) and identify all customization, taking notes on which files they are and try to understand the purpose of this customization if I was not the original author/dev that implemented them.
3. I get the original and clean version of the target theme (in this case Dawn 6.0.2) to keep as a backup
4. I do a copy of target theme version and start merging all customizations from the previous theme.