When creating a new website or updating an existing website, it is often common to test different WordPress themes. In quite a few cases, these test objects remain and are not removed, which is bad practice as this can lead to a number of difficulties later on.
In this material, we will look at the reasons why you need to remove unused themes and the different methods you can use to do this.
Preparations Before Removing a Theme From WordPress
Before you start the procedure, you must have access to the WordPress admin panel. Editor rights are not sufficient to perform these actions. You therefore need full administrator rights.
It is recommended that you have access to the files themselves as well as to the database. Your data is bound to steps that are optional, but they are highly recommended.
Another important step before you start any action is to create a backup of your website. This way, you can be sure that you can restore your website to a working state in the event of a faulty action.
And the third important aspect is determining which active theme to use and which inactive themes to remove. For better visualization, we use in this material:
Active theme - Twenty twenty-four
Inactive topics - Twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, twenty twenty-one.
In the WordPress admin panel, open the menu Appearance → Themes
The image above shows how the active theme is displayed. For comparison: On the second Twenty nineteen theme, we see the "Activate" button, which means that it is currently inactive.
How to Delete a Theme in WordPress
Now that we have completed the preliminary steps, let's move on to removing a theme. We have prepared for you 3 possible options for performing this action:
Using the WordPress Dashboard
Delete via the WordPress admin panel
Access the Appearance → Themes menu again. Click on the inactive theme. In our example - Twenty Nineteen. Once the theme is selected, you will see buttons below its appearance, one of which is called “Delete". You can use it to delete the theme.
Using cPanel (or Similar Hosting Control Panel)
Delete via cPanel
Another option is to remove a theme through the Control Panel's file manager (if available). In this material, we will show you how to perform the action for cPanel. After accessing the panel, you need to open the "File Manager" menu. Navigate to your website directory and then to “wp-content/themes”. There you will also see all (active and inactive) threads that have been posted. You need to select the relevant directory (click once) and the option to delete will be activated in the file manager itself:
Using FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Via The third option is to use an FTP client. In this article, we will show you how to do it with Filezilla, but you can really use any FTP server.
You need to know the correct FTP data and enter it into the respective client and access the root directory of the website/wp-content/themes. As with the previous option, you will see all templates here. To remove one, right-click on the directory (in our case twentynineteen) and select the "Delete" option.
Cleanup After Deleting a WordPress Theme
We would like to highlight a few additional aspects that you should check after a theme has been removed. Larger themes often add various additional menus, plugins, images and more that you no longer need and would be more likely to get in your way in the future. Below we will highlight the following actions:
Deleting Widgets
Admin Panel -> Appearance -> Widgets
Deleting Theme-Specific Media Files
Admin panel -> Media -> Library
Reassigning Menus
Admin Panel -> Appearance -> Menus
Why Delete Unused WordPress Themes?
Some of you may wonder why this action - the deletion - should be carried out at all. We focus primarily on the first point, namely:
- Security concerns:
It is very important to understand that even if the theme is inactive, its files can still be used by malicious people. In our practice, we have seen more than once attempts (some of which were successful) to hack through exactly this type of themes. For this reason, you should not forget to remove inactive themes. - Performance optimization:
Everything on a website, even if it is not being used, can slow it down. Extra entries in menus, in the database, etc. have an impact. It may be minimal, but if you have tested many themes, you will eventually notice significant delays. - Reducing clutter:
For one thing, your files are esthetically arranged, and for another, it would be easier for you to figure out which theme is being used. This eliminates the possibility of a possible error.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, we can say that removing inactive themes in WordPress is a step you should not miss. The action is easy to perform, and there are also several ways to do it. Do not skip this step to avoid serious negative effects on your website.
