If you would like to uninstall and delete the WordPress theme, but you’re concerned that it might be insecure, what should you do?
You may want to delete your old theme if you recently changed your WordPress theme. It is also possible that you have other WordPress themes that came pre-installed with your website that you might want to remove.
The following article will explain why and how you can easily delete a WordPress theme without causing any damage to your site.
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It is recommended to delete a WordPress theme from your website if you are not using it. Deleted WordPress themes serve a variety of purposes.
It is now common practice for many users to install WordPress themes on their live websites for testing purposes. Usually, this is not the best approach for finding out how a theme performs.
It is recommended that you do all your testing on a staging site or on a local WordPress installation. As a result, you can maintain a consistent experience for your users without having to change your live website.
Only one theme can be active at a time in WordPress. As long as you want, you can install any number of themes on your website.
Even though they will not be active, you will receive updates for these themes while they are still installed on your site.
If you wish to completely uninstall a WordPress theme, you must delete it. Deleting the theme files will remove all files associated with the theme from your website.
There’s no problem deleting a theme that you don’t use.
In order for WordPress to run properly, at least one theme must be installed. This is what WordPress uses to display your website.
In the Appearance > Themes section, you can see what theme you are currently using. If you currently have an active theme, it will appear as Active in this section.
We recommend you always keep one default WordPress theme installed on your site. It’ll work as a backup in case your current installed theme won’t work properly.
However, if your currently active theme is a child theme, then you also need to keep a parent theme installed on your website.
Without these themes, you can uninstall and delete other themes from your site.
Having said that, let’s see how you can uninstall and delete the WordPress theme.
If you’ve personalized a WordPress theme and wish to keep those changes before uninstalling it, you may build a full WordPress backup.
You may also backup your PC by downloading the theme folder.
You may accomplish this by using an FTP client or the File Manager software in your WordPress hosting account dashboard. After connecting, navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ folder and save the inactive theme folder to your PC.
You can remove your previous theme once you have carefully backed it up.
There are several methods for removing a WordPress theme. We’ll begin with the easiest one.
This is the simplest and most recommended method for removing a WordPress theme.
To begin, navigate to the Appearance > Themes tab and choose the theme that you wish to remove.
WordPress will now display theme information in a popup window. In the bottom right corner of the popup screen, click the Delete button.
You will then be prompted to confirm that you wish to remove the theme. To proceed, simply click the OK button, and WordPress will remove your chosen theme.
This solution is a little more advanced, but it comes in useful if you can’t get into the WordPress admin area.
Well, now connect to your WordPress website using an FTP client, then navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ folder.
Now locate the theme folder that you wish to remove from this menu. Right-click the folder name and choose Delete.
Your FTP client will now erase the theme you’ve chosen.
If you don’t want to use an FTP client, you may utilize the File Manager tool in your web hosting control panel.
We’ll use screenshots from Bluehost’s hosting panel for this example. Your hosting dashboard may seem slightly different depending on your hosting provider.
Log in to your hosting account dashboard and select File Manager from the Advanced menu.
This will open the file manager, where you may view the contents of your web server in the same way that you would with an FTP client. You must navigate to the /public html/wp-content/themes/ directory.
Then, simply right-click and delete the theme you wish to remove, and you’re done.
If you unintentionally erased a WordPress theme, there are several ways to recover it.
To begin, recover the theme from the backups. This is made easier by the fact that many WordPress backup plugins enable you to easily restore your website to a previous stage.
If you did not create a backup, you can restore the theme by downloading and installing a fresh copy of the same theme.
The disadvantage of the second technique is that you will lose any theme adjustments you have done.
To sum up, you can easily uninstall and delete the WordPress theme by following any of the above-mentioned methods.
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