New to installing templates

I'm trying to install a new template to my OpenCart system. I've uploaded the root of the template to the "theme" directory as per the instructions, but when I change the template in "Settings," EVERYTHING disappears on the store except the title and the welcome note. I checked and all of my file permissions are 644, and everything seems to be in the right place... Is there something I'm missing? Just fyi, I've tried both "Blue-leaf" and "Blue_lite" from the extensions community on this site.

Sounds like the templates are not built for opencart v1.4.

Are they not backwards-compatible?

Unfortunately no. The layout has changed a fair bit over the last few versions.

Yeah the templates have to be written for 1.4

1.3.4 or earlier will not work.