Trying to install a template on a Slave site and received the following error:

"This extension is not found in the master site.
Please install it first in the master site before installing it into the slave site
Install Template Error"

However, the extension (template) IS installed in the master site (fig1.) and is currently the default theme.

– fig1. Master Site Admin
– fig2. Slave Site Admin

where'd i go wrong?

---- STEPS I TOOK ----

1. (fig1.) Master Site Admin: Installed extension (theme) into Master site. made it the default.
2. (fig2.) Slave Site Admin: Attempted to install same extension (theme) and got the 'Install Template Error'

Concerning the Joomla templates, there are 3 methods to define how a website has the access and depend the method used to create the slave site.

1) You can share the /templates directory and in this case you don't need to re-install the templates into the slave site. The templates become automatically available.
2) You can perform a full copy of the master website /templates directory and in this case, you may have the permission or not depending on the JMS templates / themes folers parrameter. It seems that you are in this case and that you don't have given the permission to install specific templates.
3) You can perform a partial share of the templates directory. In this case, you can share subdirectories present in the /templates.

All theses three cases are illustrated in the tutorial video 0.b slide 31-34.
www.jms2win.com/tutorial#jms12x-0b

To allow install your own templates into a slave site, you have to setup the "themes folder" parameter with {deploy_dir}/templates or {site_dir}/templates.
See also user manual
- Introduction + chapter 3.2 + chapter 3.3

See also the tutorial video CP-05
www.jms2win.com/tutorial#jms12x-CP-05

So in your case as you seems to have a copy of the /templates directory, it seems that you let the "themes folder" parameter empty. Perhaps you should put {deploy_dir}/templates to be able install new themes (templates) into this slave site.

So in my situation, I've chosen option 1, to share the /templates directory from the master site. I'd like it set up though so that when I add new templates to the master, they're automatically available to the slaves. My Website Templates setup page doesn't have a symbolic link option for the /templates folder - it only allows Special Copy, Copy, Ignore, or Zip. So when I create the slave site, the symbolic links are created to the templates that currently exist in the master site's /templates folder, but new templates aren't available unless I create a link manually. Is there a way to set the entire folder to be a link, like most of the other folders are?

As explained in the tutorial video slide 34, if you select "specific copy" for the template, this create a Symbolic Link to the "/templates" directory.

In your explaination, it is inconsistent to say that the /templates directory is a link to the master and just after you say that you have to create a link manually.
If the link already exists, how do you create a new one at the same place manually ?

If you create a slave site slave1 into a directory
/multisites/slave1 then
/multisites/slave1/templates must be a link to /templates and is created automatically by JMS when you use the "special copy" action and the template folder is empty.

Perhaps you should review the tutorial vdeo CP-05 that explain how to have a specific /templates directory. This will help you do the reverse to keep the directory shared.L
www.jms2win.com/tutorial#jms12x-CP-05