How to Delete a WordPress theme Easily (Safe Method)

Most times many users would want to switch between different WordPress themes depending on the specific uses.

Actually deleting themes or plugins which aren’t needed is really a healthy practice as this could make your site run faster. 

Aside from improving the performance of the site, deleting themes also enhances the security system,frees up space in the site and improves the database performance.

So in order to be on a safer side it is ideal that a user deletes the old WordPress theme if not in use. 

But most times we find it hard to delete WordPress themes probably due to lacking knowledge on how to go about it. 

This article will give you detailed guidelines on how to delete WordPress themes. The steps you need to follow are:

1. Backup Files
2. Delete Theme (3 different methods)

Backing up files

Before  a user decides to delete a WordPress theme which is not in use, the first and most important step to take is to back up. If not done you may lose some sensitive contents on appearance.

But in order to back up your files you must firstly test the site with a theme deleted on your staging site.

A staging site is a mirror of your live site on the same server. The reason for the test is to be sure that deletion of a certain WordPress theme doesn’t cause any upset or problems on the site. Once  you are sure you can carry on with the backup.

To backup you will need to install a backup plugin if your hosting plan doesn’t have it. You can use the Updraft WordPress Plugin as it’s the very best.

Deleting of WordPress themes

There are about three possible ways to delete wordpress themes which include

• Deleting WordPress themes via WordPress dashboard
• Deleting WordPress themes via FTP/ SFTP
• Deleting WordPress themes using WP-CLI

Deleting WordPress themes via WordPress dashboard:

This has been proved by many as the easiest way to delete an unwanted theme as long as you have access to the administration.

In order to do this, from the toolbar which  is accessible from the dashboard of the site click on the “appearance” and then on “theme” 

Once on the theme page a list of the available themes on the site is shown with the active one placed first on the screen.Therefore if you want to delete a theme click on the desired theme to be deleted.

This shows a preview of the theme. But since you want to delete the theme all you have to do is  to click on the “delete” option at the bottom of the screen. 

Deleting WordPress Themes using FTP / SFTP

This  method is used  when the user is not accessible to the WordPress  dashboard but is accessible to the site via FTP /SFTP.

This method allows the user to delete the folder with the theme in it. 

To do this you have to open your FTP client and navigate to the Wp content / theme and you will see a list of the themes in their respective  folders. This method is quite risky because  you don’t actually know the particular folder that carries the active theme.

This scenario alone depicts the reason while a user has back up first before deleting a theme 

Having made up your  mind on the selected theme to be deleted; right click on it and then click on “delete”

Deleting WordPress themes via WPtheme.

The WP-CLI is actually  the fastest way to delete a WordPress theme. However it requires an expert who is conversant with the CLI interface.

In as much as it is the fastest way, it comes with a risk. The risk of not knowing the active theme and you may end up deleting the wrong theme.

This case too helps to point out the reason why deleting a theme on a stage site and to back up files is very important before a user can be able to delete a theme

In order to delete a theme using the WP -CLI interface the user has to :

• Type ” $ theme list” to see the list of all available themes on the WordPress
• To see the list of the inactive themes the user should type  “$ wp theme list – -status=inactive theme
• In order to delete a  theme simply type for instance ” $ wp theme delete twentytwelve”  The last  part “twentytwelve”signifies the  folder in which the theme is in and not the order it appears in the administration.
• Once this is  done  a message pops up showing you that the theme has been deleted.

Once you are done with deleting a theme it is very important that you test the site .You can do this by viewing it on a browser making you sure that you cleared the cache and that everything is in order.

If in the case that you mistakenly deleted the active theme there is no need to panic as long as you did a back up before  you deleted the theme.

All you have to do is reinstall the theme from the “theme” menu if you originally got the theme from the  theme directory or by uploading the theme in the backup u took before you began.

Also be sure to check out your sites for junk files which a deleted theme has left. These junk files may include widgets, images, menus and dummy contents like post pages. Delete them to enhance free and speedy performance on the site.

Conclusion

After Reading this article, you should be able to understand how to delete a WordPress theme safely without any compromise, if you have any questions on the topic, ask me in the comments.

Scroll down to read more WordPress Related Tutorials. They are the very best you’ll find on the web and available for free.