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Loading Custom Themes

Currently there's two ways to load themes using aroma

Loading with SDCafiine

What you need

  • SDCafiine Plugin
  • A patched Men.pack, Men2.pack or cafe_barista_men.bfsar
    • If you do not have a patched menu file, follow Patching

Installation

  1. Download and extract the .zip file and copy the sdcafiine.wps file to SD:/wiiu/environments/aroma/plugins.

  2. For SDCafiine to load the files, you will need create the following folders:

    • Create an sdcafiine folder in your wiiu folder on your SD card.
    • Inside the sdcafiine folder create a folder with your Wii U Menu's title ID. This will vary on your consoles region:
      • USA: 0005001010040100
      • EUR: 0005001010040200
      • JPN: 0005001010040000
    • Inside your title ID folder, create a folder with the name of your theme.
    • Create a content folder inside your theme's name folder.
    • Create a Common folder inside your content folder.
    • Create a Package folder inside your Common folder.
    • Place your modified Men.pack and Men2.pack files inside of the Package folder.
    • Create a Sound folder inside your Common folder.
    • Create a Men folder inside your Sound folder.
    • Place your modified cafe_barista_men.bfsar file inside of the Men folder.

  3. Your final paths should be

    • sd:/wiiu/sdcafiine/[TITLEID]/[ThemeName]/content/Common/Package/Men.pack, Men2.pack
    • and
    • sd:/wiiu/sdcafiine/[TITLEID]/[ThemeName]/content/Common/Sound/Men/cafe_barista_men.bfsar

Usage

Insert your SD card into your Wii U and boot into CFW.

A screen like this will pop up

Image title

Select your theme with the A button

Credits to wiki.hacks.guide for the information in this section

Loading with StyleMiiU-Plugin

This is an Aroma plugin to safely apply custom themes!

No system file is modified by this plugin.

What you need

  • StyleMiiU-Plugin
  • A patched Men.pack, Men2.pack or cafe_barista_men.bfsar
    • If you do not have a patched menu file, follow Patching
If you used an older version of this plugin

If you happen to have installed an older version of this plugin, delete the previous theme_manager.wps and rename sd:/wiiu/environments/aroma/plugins/config/theme_manager.json to style-mii-u.json

Installation

  1. Copy the file stylemiiu.wps into SD:/wiiu/environments/aroma/plugins.

  2. Requires the WiiUPluginLoaderBackend and ContentRedirectionModule in SD:/wiiu/environments/aroma/modules.

Usage

This plugin can detect Men.pack, Men2.pack and cafe_barista_men.bfsar automatically to make the theme have any folder structure you desire. SDCaffine's file structure is still compatible with this plugin.

Extra info
Custom Language Files

Additional files like AllMessage.szs do still need to be on their corresponding folder structure, like this: SD:/wiiu/themes/[ThemeName]/content/[TheLanguageToPatch]/Message/AllMessage.szs

Usually themes will load from SD:/wiiu/themes/ but, if it detects valid themes in the SD:/wiiu/sdcafiine/ folder and SD:/wiiu/themes/ folder doesn't exist, it will load the themes from the SDCafiine's folder.

However, it is recommended to move them to the SD:/wiiu/themes/ folder to prevent issues between SDCafiine and StyleMiiU as it may cause issues when loading themes.

A step to step guide on how to use it:

  1. Open the WUPS menu (L + ↓ + SELECT) and enter the StyleMiiU menu. Make sure StyleMiiU is enabled, otherwise it won't do anything.

  2. Enter the Available Themes option and you should see the folders that are in SD:/wiiu/themes/ (Or SD:/wiiu/sdcafiine/ in case no themes folder exist), showing up empty if no theme is present. Once there, set whatever theme you want to Current Theme. If no theme it's set, the Wii U's default home menu will be loaded.

  3. Once you exit the WUPS menu, the Home Menu should restart and once it gets restarted, your Home Menu will now have the theme you chose applied to it.

Additional options
  • Shuffle themes: This option tries to mimic the 3DS' option of shuffling themes, you can use it by simply activating the option and then in Available Themes, select the themes you want to shuffle through. The themes will change every time you restart the console. If you disable this option, then the last theme you selected will become the default theme for it to fallback on.

This plugin is only compatible with SDCafiine's folder structure, meaning that you have to put every file on it's corresponding folder. Usually themes will load from SD:/wiiu/themes/ but, if it detects valid themes in the SD:/wiiu/sdcafiine/ folder and SD:/wiiu/themes/ folder exists, it will load the themes from the SDCafiine's folder.

Success

Your theme should now have loaded

Fonts

If you want to use custom fonts, follow Fonts

Troubleshooting

  • If you're stuck on a black screen follow Black Screen

  • If your console freezes on the Wii U Menu loading screen follow Freezing

  • If your theme didn't load and it's showing the stock one follow Theme not loading

  • If the console is bootlooping on the "Wii U Menu" splash screen, you can follow Wii U Menu Bootloop