How to Deactivate & Delete a theme in WordPress
WordPress developers, from time to time, find themselves switching from one theme to another. Either to complete an overhaul on a client’s website or test new layouts and themes for the next WordPress project. Whatever the case, we recommend you continuously delete all inactive WordPress themes. So, in this WordPress website care guide, we will show you how to deactivate/uninstall and delete a theme in WordPress without breaking your site.
We’re WordPress experts. And from time to time, we create content around WordPress tips and guides. Before you get into this guide, we recommend that you check out our latest blog about “How to delete duplicate images in WordPress“
Why Should I delete inactive WordPress themes?
Before we dive into the steps, let’s first understand why it’s essential to delete all inactive WordPress themes.
1. Security Issues
Inactive WordPress themes and Plugins are one of the security loopholes on your website. The bad guys can use this vulnerability to inject malicious code into your website. So, it’s always advisable to deactivate and delete all inactive WordPress themes and plugins to keep your website secure.
2. Storage Issues
Another reason to delete inactive WordPress themes and Plugins is to free up space from your hosting server. Keep in mind that WordPress Plugins and themes are a pack of files, so they consume a significant portion of your storage. However, deleting the entire inactive theme will free up space on your server.
3. Performance Issues
Deleting inactive and old WordPress themes will improve your admin dashboard’s performance. Hence, your WordPress backend admin pages will load faster and become more responsive.
Get 30% Discount
WordPress Website Care Plan
Choose a WordPress Care Plan package for your website. We will help secure, manage, control, and keep your website performing at its best.
How to deactivate/uninstall and delete a theme in WordPress
Here are the three methods you can use to safely deactivate, uninstall, and delete WordPress themes without breaking your site. However, before attempting to delete an inactive WordPress theme, ensure to back up your website. As a result, you can roll back to the previous state in case of anything.
Method #1: Deactivate themes Using WordPress Dashboard
This is the easiest way to deactivate and delete a theme in WordPress. Follow the steps below to delete your inactive Theme using the WordPress dashboard:
1. Login to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the left panel.
2. Scroll to find Appearance and then click on Themes. This action will display a page containing all your site’s installed WordPress themes.
3. Now simply hover over the Themes on this list to find the inactive ones you need to delete.
Note:
- The first Theme on the list is your active WordPress theme. Don’t be tempted to delete it.
- Some WordPress themes come with their child themes. So, the child theme won’t function if you delete the parent theme.
4. Finally, click on the WordPress theme you want to delete to display its main information page like in the image above. Then, click on the Delete option in the bottom right corner to safely delete the Theme.
Method #2: Deactivate themes Using the cPanel
Deleting a WordPress theme via your cPanel is another easy way of deactivating or uninstalling a WordPress theme. But it needs slightly more care than the dashboard method since you’re dealing with sensitive files.
First, log in to your host and use the File Manager tool in cPanel. We are hosted by Bluehost, so all the steps below are for those who host with Bluehost. It’s an incredible host with great speed and uptime you may want to try out.
1. Login to your Bluehost app. On the left panel, scroll to find Advanced and click on it to open the cPanel page.
2. Scroll through the features. Under Files, navigate to File Manager. You can also find this option in the left panel under Advanced.
4. The above action will open the CPanel File Manager in a new window. Here, you will see a list of system folders. So, and public_html > wp-content > Themes
5. Inside the themes folder, identify the themes you want to delete. Then, right-click on it and select Delete from the menu.
Method #3: Deactivate themes Using WP-CLI
WP-CLI is a text-based WordPress Command line tool that will enable you to access your website via the command line. It’s a little bit technical but a faster way of doing anything you would have done via the standard WordPress graphical user interface.
There are a couple of commands you might want to get your hands on while using WP-CLI, but this article doesn’t cover that. If you want to learn more about WP-CLI, visit their official site. You will also get more information on how to install WP-CLI. Assuming you have gone through the installation document, let’s delete your WordPress theme with WP-CLI.
1. Start by listing all the themes installed in your WordPress account. You can do this by running the following command.
$ wp theme list
2. Finally, run the following command to delete your target theme in WordPress. Replace ThemeName with the name of the theme you would like to delete.
$ wp theme delete ThemeName
Final Remarks
It doesn’t matter which method you use so long as you delete those inactive WordPress themes and improve your website security. We hope this article has helped you learn how to deactivate and delete a theme in WordPress.
We create WordPress website care guides just like this one from time to time. So if you are interested in learning more about WordPress care with us, please, check out our guides.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Deactivating a WordPress theme or plugin simply means it’s turned off but is still installed on your website.
Yes. Your WordPress website can run out of space, especially if you don’t delete unused themes, plugins, images, and other files that consume server memory.
Yes. It’s strongly advisable to permanently delete all unused and old WordPress themes, plugins, images, and other files to free up space on your server memory. It can also improve your website security.
To delete any WordPress theme, simply go to Appearance > Theme and delete a specific theme. But always remember to back up your website before deleting WordPress themes.
Take Care of your Site
Read our WordPress Care guides to learn more about how you can safely take good care of your WordPress website.
