Composed Look with Custom Master Page

Question

I am trying to make a Composed Look with a Custom Master Page. To start with, I copied Seattle.master to Test.master; Seattle and Test are exactly the same except for the name. I verified that I can switch the master page to Test.master. In Composed Looks, there is an OTB item named Orange; this is the look I started with. I created a Composed Look named Andrew. When I copy the values of Orange exactly into Andrew, Andrew appears in Change the Look. When I change the master page for Andrew to Test.master, Andrew does not appear in Change the Look.

Can anyone tell me why the Composed Look is not working with Test.master?

These are the steps to reproduce:

1. Open Browser1
2. Settings -> Site settings
3. Click “Composed looks
4. Click “new item” a. Title = Andrew b. Name = Andrew c. Master Page URL = /sites/development/_catalogs/masterpage/seattle.master d. Theme URL = /sites/development/_catalogs/theme/15/palette015.spcolor e. Display Order = 0
5. Save the item.
6. Open Browser2
7. Settings -> Site settings
8. Click “Change the look”
9. Andrew shows up in the list
10. Go back to Browser1
11. Edit “Andrew” a. Master Page URL = /sites/development/_catalogs/masterpage/Test.master
12. Save the item
13. Go back to Browser2
14. Refresh the page
15. Andrew no longer appears in the list

Answer 1

The problem was not having a .preview file for my Master Page. I figured it out by looking at this article: Custom composed look do not appear in "change the look"

To generate a .preview file:

1. Copy Seattle.preview and name it Test.preview.
2. Upload Test.preview to the Masterpage gallery.
3. Andrew now appears in step 15 in my original post.

Answer 2

I follow exactly same steps as yours for testing purpose. And I can see the Composed Look. The only difference from your description here is I have published the master page.

I will check this link that explain how to deploy the composed look, that is a more legit process. Because you would need to see the customized master page in drop-down of Change the Look.