How to Delete Themes in WordPress: A Simple and Secure Method

When building your WordPress site, you want it to look and work great. That’s why you try out different WordPress themes until you find the right one.

Over time, you might find yourself with a collection of WordPress themes that you no longer use. These unused themes can clutter your WordPress dashboard and potentially slow down your site.

In this blog post, we’ll explore a detailed process on how to delete themes in WordPress, helping to keep your website current and running smoothly. But first, let’s start with the “why”.

Potential Reasons to Delete WordPress Themes

Before diving into the deletion process, it’s important to understand why you may need to remove the unused themes from your WordPress site. Unused themes can lead to several adverse effects, like:

Security Risk

Keeping inactive themes on your WordPress site may expose it to potential security threats. Even if a theme isn’t actively in use, it might still harbor outdated code that hackers could exploit.

Performance Impact

Having multiple themes installed, particularly those with many files and assets, can slow down your website’s performance. This can negatively influence user experience and search engine rankings.

Confusion

A cluttered dashboard filled with numerous unused themes can complicate the navigation and management of your site. It’s much simpler to work with a streamlined dashboard that only includes the themes you are currently utilizing.

Regularly audit your installed themes. If a theme is truly unused (not a parent, not a backup, not needed for multisite), it is safer to remove it. Maybe it will improve your website performance. Plus, you can get a performance audit for your WordPress website to identify additional ways to improve its performance.

When Should You Keep an Unused WordPress Theme?

There are certain scenarios where retaining an underutilized theme becomes essential.

When It’s a Parent Theme for an Active Child Theme

If your website is utilizing a child theme as the active theme, it’s crucial to keep the parent theme installed. The parent theme must remain in place to deliver the necessary functionalities and styles, even when the child theme is active.

For Backup and Emergency Recovery

It’s also a good idea to retain an unused theme for backup purposes. Having a backup theme ensures a seamless transition if unexpected issues arise with the active theme, all while preserving the website’s appearance and feel.

In a WordPress Multisite Network

In a WordPress multisite network, it’s logical to keep a theme that is still in use on other sites. This allows for site-specific customization while maintaining consistency in functionality and style across the network.

Regularly reviewing and updating your WordPress themes is key to ensuring a well-managed and effective online presence.

Differences Between Deactivating and Deleting a WordPress Theme

The difference between deactivating and deleting a WordPress theme is crucial for managing your website’s security and functionality.

In summary, deactivation offers a temporary pause, while deletion means permanently removing the theme from the WordPress setup.

Preparation Before Deleting a WordPress Theme

Before you go about deleting a WordPress theme, there are a few prep tasks to take care of.

• Switch to a different theme first: Never delete your currently active theme. Always activate another theme (e.g., a default like Twenty Twenty-Four) before deletion.
• Ensure no child themes depend on it: Verify the theme you’re deleting isn’t the required parent theme for an active child theme. Deleting it will break the child theme’s site.
• Back up your entire website: Use a reliable plugin or your host’s tool to create a full backup (files + database). This is your safety net for restoring the theme if its deletion causes unforeseen issues.
• Note your Customizer settings: Understand that any theme-specific customizations (colors, fonts, layouts) made in the Customizer for that theme will be permanently lost upon deletion.
• Check for multisite usage: If your installation is a WordPress Multisite network, confirm the theme is not active on any other site within the network before deleting it.
• Document custom code snippets: If you added any unique code to the theme’s functions.php file or other template files, ensure you have saved that code elsewhere before deletion.
• Verify site functionality after switching: After activating a new theme but before deletion, check that your site’s critical functions (menus, widgets, forms) still work correctly to avoid compounding problems.

After you have taken care of these tasks, you can go about deleting unused themes.

How to Delete Themes in WordPress? (The Usual Approach)

Now that you understand the importance of deleting unused WordPress themes, let’s explore the step-by-step procedure:

Step 1: Access Your WordPress Dashboard

Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard with your credentials. This is where you’ll oversee all elements of your website, including themes.

You can access the dashboard with the following URL:

https:///your-domain.com/wp-admin/

Step 2: Navigate to the “Themes” Section

In the left-hand menu, hover over “Appearance“, and then click on “Themes“. This will direct you to the area where you can manage both your active and inactive themes.

Step 3: Identify Inactive Themes

Your active theme will be labeled as “Active”. All other themes listed are inactive and are potential candidates for deletion.

Crucial Check: Ensure the theme you want to delete is not the parent theme of a child theme you are using.

Step 4: Activate a Default Theme (If Necessary)

To delete your current active theme, you must first activate a different one (e.g., a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Four).

To activate a new theme, hover over its thumbnail and click Activate.

Step 5: Delete Inactive WordPress Themes

Once the theme is inactive, hover over its thumbnail again. Instead of an “Activate” button, you will now see a “Theme Details” button. Click it.

In the bottom right corner of the pop-up window, you will find a red “Delete” button. Click it and confirm the action.

Step 6: Clean Up

After deletion, it’s good practice to clear your website’s cache if you use a caching plugin (e.g., W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache) or a server-level cache.

This ensures your site displays correctly without any remnants of the old theme’s styles.

Step 7: Regular Maintenance

Make it a habit to periodically review your installed themes. Keeping your installation clean by removing truly unused themes is a good security and maintenance practice.

It’s quite a straightforward approach. But some themes are installed from third-party sources. For these, you’ll need to use a more technical approach.

How to Delete a WordPress Theme Via FTP?

Accessing your website’s files via FTP is another method to delete themes in WordPress. It’s usually opted for when you cannot access the WordPress dashboard. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the process:

Step 1: Gather Your Tools and Login Info

You will need:

• FTP Client Software: Such as FileZilla (free), Cyberduck, or WinSCP.
• FTP Login Credentials: These are provided by your web hosting provider. You typically need:
  • Host/Address: Often ftp.yourdomain.com or your server’s IP address
  • Username: Your FTP username
  • Password: Your FTP password
  • Port: Usually port 21

Step 2: Connect to Your Web Server

Open your FTP client and enter your Host, Username, Password, and Port. Then click ‘Quickconnect’ or equivalent.

Step 3: Navigate to the Themes Directory

Once connected, you will see your website’s files on the remote server. Navigate to the path where WordPress is installed, then go to:

/wp-content/themes/

Step 4: Identify and Delete the Correct Theme Folder

Inside the /themes/ directory, you will see a folder for each installed theme (e.g., /twentytwentyfour/, /astra/, /your-theme/).

‘Right-click’ on the theme folder you want to delete. Select ‘Delete’ from the context menu. Then confirm the deletion when prompted.

Step 5: Verify Deletion in WordPress Dashboard (Optional)

Once the folder is deleted, you can log in to your WordPress dashboard. Go to ‘Appearance’ > ‘Themes’. The theme you deleted should no longer appear in the list of installed themes.

This approach is a “brute force” method that is essential in case of a corrupted theme, a broken website, or admin/dashboard issues.

This method requires technical confidence. Deleting the wrong folder can break your site. So make sure to keep a backup handy. To ensure the best results, consider our WordPress development services.

What Next After Deleting a WordPress Theme?

Deleting a theme isn’t the final step. Here’s what you should do next to ensure your site remains secure, functional, and clean.

Check Your Site’s Frontend Immediately

What to Do?

Open your website in a new browser tab (or an incognito window) and navigate through key pages (Home, Posts, Contact, etc.).

Why?

This confirms that deleting the theme didn’t accidentally break anything. While it shouldn’t if the theme was inactive, it’s a crucial first check.

Clear Your Site’s Cache

What to Do?

If you use a caching plugin (like WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache) or a server-level cache (like Cloudflare), clear all cached content.

Why?

Caches store old file paths (like to the deleted theme’s stylesheets). Clearing it forces the browser to load fresh data from your current theme, preventing display issues.

Run a Security Scan (Highly Recommended)

What to Do?

Use a security plugin like Wordfence or Sucuri to run a malware scan.

Why?

If the theme you deleted was outdated or nulled, it might have left malicious code behind elsewhere. A scan helps ensure your site is clean now that the vulnerable theme is gone.

Review and Update Your Backup

What to Do?

If your backup strategy is automated, ensure it runs successfully after the change. If you manually backup, consider creating a new backup now.

Why?

You now have a clean, post-deletion backup point. If a future problem arises unrelated to the theme, you won’t have to restore a backup that includes the old, unwanted theme.

Last but not least, regularly removing unused themes is a core security best practice. It reduces your website’s “attack surface” and keeps your WordPress installation clean and efficient.

Let’s Conclude

Knowing how to properly delete a WordPress theme is more than just routine housekeeping—it’s a crucial step in maintaining a secure and efficient website. By removing unused items, you minimize security risks and keep your admin area clutter-free.

Remember, the key is to always proceed with caution: never delete an active theme, always have a backup ready, and keep a reliable default theme installed as your safety net.

A little maintenance goes a long way in ensuring your site remains fast, secure, and running smoothly. So if you want help with it, connect with us today!