In this post, I will show you two methods of deleting or uninstalling a theme on your WordPress website.
For this tutorial, we will be uninstalling the Divi theme.
How to delete a theme on WordPress
Below are the steps to deleting a WordPress theme.
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Deactivate the theme
First, you will want to deactivate your theme. I want to point out that you cannot delete active themes. If you look at the image below, you will notice no delete button on my current active theme. However, if we click on a different theme, we can delete it. That’s because one is active and one is not. If we want to delete the 2019 theme, we must click activate on a different theme.
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Click delete
After you activate a different theme than the one you want to delete, the delete button will appear, just click on that button, and that’s it. Your theme is now deleted.
Can you delete a theme from the file folder directly?
If you’re using Local, like I am, you’ll know that your websites are located in the local sites folder. If you are not using local, navigate to wherever your server saves your site’s files and keep digging until you find your site’s theme folder.
This will work similarly whether you’re using a WordPress installation on your local computer or a server. Go to the public folder, then the WP content folder. You’ll be presented with plugins, themes, upgrades, and uploads. We want to check inside the theme folder.
While inside the themes folder, take this theme you don’t want and drag it to the trash. When you refresh, the theme will be gone.
I don’t recommend deleting themes this way because I can’t guarantee that deleting them from the dashboard is supposed to trigger something important. Still, if you’re having issues with your site and you can’t access the appearance tab, there’s a chance that deleting it right from the themes folder might help you.
What happens if you delete an active theme?
I also want to show you what happens if you delete the active themes. So I’ll throw the active theme in the trash. Now let’s refresh the page.
The active theme is false. So what does that mean? Well, if we try to access our website, you’re going to see that WordPress will default to the other theme because the active theme does not exist. So as you can see right here, it defaulted to the existing theme.
What happens if you delete all the themes?
What happens if we delete both themes and there’s no theme in the theme folder? Let’s delete both the themes and refresh the page. If we go to our website and click refresh, you’re going to see that there is no theme that exists, and it’s referencing the 2020 because that was the last one we used.
That was all kind of pointless. I just wanted to show you what happens if you delete both themes and there’s nothing in there.
Are you a visual learner? Check out my video below, titled “How to Safely Uninstall a Theme on Word Press ???? (2 Methods) Delete a Theme on Your Site #wordpress” from my YouTube channel, as I show you all this firsthand.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Do you still have questions? Below are some of the most commonly asked questions about WordPress themes.
WordPress Is free
WordPress is open-source software that may be downloaded, installed, and used without payment of any kind.
What is a WordPress theme?
WordPress themes are collections of files (images, CSS, and PHP) that determine how your blog or website will look. Themes can govern both the overall structure of your site and the tiniest details, like the color of your links.
Are WordPress themes any good?
WordPress themes are a powerful method for giving your website a professional look and feel and attracting more visitors. WordPress themes make it easy to create a website and modify it to your liking, even if you lack design expertise and have never written a line of code in your life.
Conclusion
Okay, so that concludes this article. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below (I read and reply to every comment). If you found this helpful, check out my full blog and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thanks for reading!