Unlocking the Mystery of Removing WordPress Themes

At times, when installing a new theme onto your WordPress website, you may find that it’s not exactly what you thought or even causing compatibility issues. Fear not, for in this article, we will unlock the mystery of removing installed themes from WordPress for all admin rights holders.

The Benefits of Removing Unused Themes

The advantages of removing unused themes from your WordPress website are rampant. Here are a few of the major benefits:

• Security: Keeping your website secure means updating WordPress themes and plugins regularly. It’s also essential to remove unused themes as they may contain vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers to gain access to your website.
• Speed: Unused themes can take up space on your website, ultimately slowing it down and leading to a negative user experience. Removing these themes can help increase the website’s speed, attracting more users and enhancing the website’s performance on search engines.
• Maintenance: Unused themes require maintenance, just like active themes, to avoid compatibility issues with new versions of WordPress. Removing them can help reduce the maintenance load on your website, ensuring that it runs smoothly.

Three Methods to Remove Installed Themes from WordPress

There are numerous ways to remove an installed WordPress theme. Below we outline three of the most common methods:

Method 1: Remove a Theme from the WordPress Dashboard

This method is the easiest, making it ideal for beginners:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to your Themes page by clicking on ‘Appearance’ then ‘Themes.’
2. Locate the theme you’re looking to remove and then click on it to select it.
3. Click on the ‘Delete’ button located at the bottom-right corner of the page.
4. A pop-up message will appear asking if you’re absolutely sure that you want to delete the theme.
5. Click ‘OK’ to confirm.
6. Refresh your themes page to confirm the deletion was a success.

Method 2: Remove a Theme via FTP

A possible solution when you can’t remove the theme via the WordPress dashboard:

1. Open an FTP client (e.g., FileZilla) and connect to your website’s server.
2. Navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ directory on the server.
3. Locate the folder containing the theme to be removed.
4. Right-click on the folder and select ‘Delete’ or ‘Remove.’
5. Click ‘Yes’ to confirm the deletion.

Method 3: Remove a Theme Via cPanel

A quick and efficient option to remove a theme from your WordPress website:

1. Log in to your cPanel account.
2. Navigate to the Files section and click on ‘File Manager.’
3. Navigate to the /public_html/wp-content/themes/ directory.
4. Locate the folder of the theme to be deleted.
5. Right-click and select ‘Delete’ or ‘Remove.’
6. Click ‘Yes’ to confirm the deletion.

Conclusion

Removing unused themes from your WordPress website is critical for all security, speed, and maintenance purposes. In this article, we’ve provided you with three methods to remove installed themes from WordPress. Hopefully, you found this article helpful, and you’ve successfully removed any unnecessary themes from your WordPress website.