problems usings new custom theme
You must have forget to render $tabs variable in your custom theme. You have to render it before you render your $content in page.tpl.php

Example from my page.tpl.php --

&lt;?php if ($page['content']): ?&gt;
    &lt;div class="content"&gt;
        &lt;?php if ($tabs): ?&gt;
            &lt;div class="tabs"&gt;
                &lt;?php print render($tabs); ?&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--tab end--&gt;
        &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;
        &lt;?php if ($title) : ?&gt;
            &lt;h1 class="title"&gt;
                &lt;?php print $title; ?&gt;
            &lt;/h1&gt;
        &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;
        &lt;?php print render($page['content']); ?&gt;
    &lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--content end--&gt;
&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;


Structure your page.tpl.php like this by rendering $tabs variable before title, clear the cache &amp; you will have tabs..