Magento, Customized theme not using overridden images
Q: I have created a new skins folder beside my default theme’s skin folder, and placed some images that I want to override into an images sub folder. I have changed the ‘Skin (Images / CSS)’ setting in System -> Configuration -> Design -> Themes to point to my new skins, I have cleared the magento cache about 10 million times, but magento still won’t use my new images, it keeps using the originals…. what do I do?
A: This has caught me out once or twice and I have always forgotten about it by the time it happens again! The problem stems from the fact that the theme css file calls in images using a relative path, e.g.:
body {background-image:url('../images/bg.gif');}
So because the css file that uses your images remains in its original location it will still use your original images, to get it to use your overridden images you must create a css folder in your new skin folder and copy any css files that reference the images into there and clear the cache a further 20 times – hopefully magento will then use your new images!
Have a look here for some more details:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/2445/