If you have installed a new WordPress theme on your site and want to delete the older one.
In this article, we will show you how to delete an unused theme in WordPress to free up space and improve the performance of your website.
Follow these simple steps to delete a theme in WordPress.
Table of Contents
Why Delete Unused Themes?
Deleting an unused theme is important for two main reasons: Performance, and security.
Unused themes can slow down your website performance because the unused theme also takes valuable disk space on your server. So, speed up your website performance, always remove unused things from your site like WordPress themes.
On the other hand, outdated and unused themes may contain security vulnerabilities that can put your website at risk even if it’s disabled. Themes are the easiest way for hackers to get into your site.
By removing unused themes, you can improve the security and performance of your WordPress website.
How to Check Which Theme is Currently Active
Before deleting any themes, it’s important to know which WordPress theme is currently active on your website.
Follow these steps to check which theme is active:
- Log in to your WordPress Dashboard
- Click on Appearance (from the left-hand menu) > Themes
- Look for the theme that has the word “Active” in it. This is your active theme.
How to Delete a Theme in WordPress
There are several ways to delete a theme in WordPress. In this section, we will cover 3 methods:
- Deleting a theme via the WordPress dashboard,
- Deleting a theme via FTP, and
- Deleting a theme via cPanel File Manager.
Let’s discuss one by one:
1. Delete a Theme via WordPress Dashboard
Follow these steps to delete a theme via the WordPress dashboard:
Step 1 — Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Step 2 — Click on “Appearance” > “Themes” from the left-hand menu.
Step 3 — Now, you will see active and inactive themes. Hover over the theme you want to delete and click on “Theme Details”.
Step 4 — Click on the “Delete” button that is located in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
Step 5 — When you click the delete button, a pop-up message will appear, click “OK” to confirm the deletion.
2. Delete a Theme via FTP
Follow these steps to delete a WordPress theme via FTP:
Step 1 — First, Connect to your website via FTP
Step 2 — Navigate to the “/wp-content/themes/” folder.
Step 3 — Find the folder for the theme you want to delete and delete it.
3. Delete a Theme via cPanel File Manager
Follow these steps to delete a theme via cPanel File Manager:
Step 1 — Log in to your cPanel account. For example, if you’re using Hostinger, then go to hpanel.hostinger.com, and sign in with login credentials.
Step 2 — You’ll see the domain name for which you want to delete the theme. Click on “Manage”.
Step 3 — Navigate to “File Manager” and click on it.
Step 4 — Navigate to the “public_html/wp-content/themes/” select theme (you want to delete), and delete it.
How to Remove a Theme Completely from WordPress Dashboard
After delete a theme from file manger, it may still be listed in the “Themes” section of your WordPress dashboard. If you want remove completely from the WP dashboard then follow these steps to remove a theme completely from WordPress dashboard.
Step 1 — First, Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Step 2 — Navigate “Appearance” > “Themes” from the left-hand menu.
Step 3 — Find the theme that you want to remove completely from the WordPress Dashboard, and click on “Theme details”.
Step 4 — When you click on the theme details, you will see the “Delete” button which is on the bottom right corner.
Step 5 — Click on the “Delete” and “OK”. The theme will be completely removed from the WordPress dashboard.
How to Reinstall a Deleted Theme
If you want to reinstall the deleted theme then you can install it again. Here’s the step-by-step to install a deleted theme.
For example, if you want to reinstall twenty twenty-three WordPress themes.
Step 1 — Go to your WordPress dashboard.
Step 2 — Navigate “Appearance” > “Themes” from the left-hand menu of your WordPress dashboard.
Step 3 — Click “Add New” on the top of your screen.
Step 4 — Click on Search theme and type the name of the theme.
Step 5 — Hover over the theme that you want to install it again, and you will see “Install” click on it.
Conclusion
This was all about how to delete a theme in WordPress. I hope this article helped you to delete an unused theme from your WordPress dashboard.
Keep in mind, if you want to improve your site’s performance and security then you must remove the unused theme, it is best practice for blogging.
If you have any questions related to WordPress, please do comment in the comment box below.
FAQ’s
Will deleting a theme affect my website’s content?
If you delete a theme then it will not affect your website content because content is stored in the WordPress database, while the theme is stored in the server.
Can I delete an unused theme from the WordPress dashboard?
Yes, unused WordPress themes take disk space on your server. Also, it slows down your website performance. So, if you want to improve website performance then you can delete unused themes from WordPress.
Can I delete a theme that is currently active?
No, you cannot delete a theme that is currently active. You will need to activate a different theme before deleting the one you want to remove.
Can I reinstall a deleted theme?
Definitely yes, you can reinstall a deleted theme by downloading it again or upload the theme ZIP file directly.
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