WordPress is an incredibly flexible platform, allows web developers and content creators vast opportunities for customization. One of the ways WordPress enables this customization is through its rich assortment of themes. While this variety is great, sometimes we find ourselves with too many themes accumulating in our portfolio. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to delete themes in WordPress.
Get Started
Before we start, it’s important to note that you can’t delete an active theme. You’ll need to activate a different theme before you delete the one you no longer want.
Here is your first step:
- Go to your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to Appearance > Themes.
Choose a Different Theme
A gallery of your themes will appear on the Themes page. To change your active theme:
- Hover over a different theme and click the Activate button that appears.
Delete the Unused Theme
Now that we have switched themes, you’re free to delete the theme you no longer want.
- Navigate back to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress Dashboard.
- Hover over the theme you wish to delete. Instead of an activate button, there will now be a Details and Preview button. Click on it.
- In the lower right corner of the theme’s details box, there will be a Delete link. Click it.
Alert: Be absolutely certain that you want to delete this theme. Once deleted, you will not be able to retrieve it unless you have a saved version of it.
Confirm Deletion
A pop-up box will ask you to confirm your choice because, as also mentioned above, this action cannot be reversed.
- If you’re sure, click OK, if not, click cancel.
There you go! If you’ve followed the instructions, you’ve just successfully deleted a theme in WordPress.
Additional Tips and Recommendations
While it’s a simple process, deleting a theme is a significant modification to your WordPress site. It’s recommended that you backup your website regularly, especially before making changes of this nature. To do this, consider using plugins like UpdraftPlus, which can make the process quite simple.
Remember that some themes could have extra settings inside them. When you delete the theme, those settings can disappear as well.
If you think you might use the theme in future, you could choose to install the theme again from the theme repository. To do this:
- Navigate to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress Dashboard.
- Click on Add New at the top of the page and use the search function to find the theme you want.
- Click Install to add it back to your theme collection.
In general, though, it’s a good idea to keep your WordPress theme collection clean and limited only to what you need. A tidy theme collection runs fewer risks of compatibility issues or security vulnerabilities. It also makes your site load faster, which helps with both user experience and SEO.
So, that’s how you can effectively treat your WordPress site of excess themes. Remember to always be careful when removing themes and make sure that you aren’t accidentally removing something that you will need in the future. And don’t forget to take backups, you wouldn’t want to lose all your hard work because of a simple mistake. Happy managing your WordPress themes!