If you are considering switching to a new WordPress theme, you might want to delete the old one. However, deleting a theme in WordPress can be a bit terrifying, especially if you are worried about the safety of your data and the website’s security.
We’re here to say you have nothing to worry about.
In this post, we will not only encourage you to delete a theme you are not using, but we will also show you how to delete a WordPress theme without it affecting your website.
Let’s get started.
Reasons to delete a WordPress theme
There are multiple reasons one should delete a theme in WordPress.
We recommend you delete a theme if you are NOT using it. In fact, in that case, it’s highly recommended you delete it, as having an unused theme on your website can make your site prone to security breaches; it can prolong your website’s backups, and you can get updates on a theme you’re not even using.
Is deleting a WordPress theme truly safe?
Knowing that by deleting a theme you lose all code customization (including the ones related to site’s font, colors, etc.), it’s fair that you feel a bit anxious about deleting it.
It is safe to delete a theme only if that’s a theme you are NOT using, a.k.a, the one that is NOT active. As mentioned in our Can you delete default WordPress themes? post, WordPress allows you to keep one theme as your active theme; and the rest of them that you are not using can be deleted.
There’s also one more thing to remember when it comes to deleting a WP theme: if you are using a parent and a child theme, you will not be able to delete the parent one.
Note: We recommend keeping one WordPress theme installed on your website next to the active theme. The second theme will act as a ‘safety net’ if your current theme suddenly stops working.
How to delete a theme in WordPress
There are two ways you can delete a WordPress theme. We’ll go through both of them.
Method 1: Deleting a WordPress theme within the Admin Dashboard
This method is the quickest one. Here’s how to delete a theme in WordPress using the WordPress Admin Panel.
1. Log in to the WordPress Admin panel (WordPress Dashboard).
2. Navigate to Appearance → Themes and click on the theme you want to delete.
3. Click the Delete button.
4. You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the theme. Click the OK button to continue deleting the selected WordPress theme.
And that’s it. You have successfully deleted a WordPress theme.
Method 2: Deleting a WordPress theme using an FTP client
If, for some reason, you are unable to access the WordPress Dashboard, you can delete a theme in WordPress by accessing your FTP client.
1. Log in to your FTP client.
2. From the FTP client, go to your website’s server and find the theme’s folder. Every theme is installed in the wp-content → themes folder. Please make sure that you have selected the theme you want to delete and not the one that is active.
3. Do right-click on the folder name and select delete. And that’s it; you have deleted a theme.
Note: If you want to check whether you’ve deleted your WP theme, log in to your WordPress admin panel (WordPress Dashboard), and navigate to Appearance → Themes. The theme should not be visible.
What should you do if you accidentally delete a WordPress theme?
If you accidentally deleted a WordPress theme, you can restore the theme and its files from the backup. If you didn’t backup the theme’s files, you could restore the theme by downloading and installing it; just know that you will lose any customization you made to the theme.
Final thoughts
We hope this post helped you learn how to delete a theme in WordPress. If you have questions about your Themes Kingdom theme, feel free to get in touch一we’ll be happy to answer all your inquiries.