I don’t know about you but I have a closet full of clothes that I don’t actually wear. You know how it goes, you go shopping for a few new outfits, but you don’t clean out the old. I mean come on, we could possibly want to wear that some day… right?
It is common to do the same thing with our WordPress sites. When we first start building our websites or blogs, we try on new themes. We may activate a theme, try it on for a while then decide that we don’t like it. Before long our WordPress blog has 4 or 5 themes just sitting around waiting to be hacked.
Yeah, I said “hacked” because sadly that happens from time to time.
“Hacking” is something that I will never understand. Nevertheless, it is our duty to lock as many doors to prevent it as possible. That is why I highly recommend you delete ALL unused themes, with the exception of your current and the most current WordPress default theme. It is good to have a second theme such as the default for testing should you need it later.
Periodically themes can end up with vulnerabilities, due to old pieces of code or plugins embedded directly in them. A major hack happened in 2011 with a plugin called TimThumb. That plugin was used by a great many themes as a part of its standard package. More recently hackers attacked a plugin that I often use called “Revolution Slider.” The good news is that the hacks are quickly discovered and addressed with a current upgrades. The bad news is that we need to reduce the amount of opportunities for hacking by removing unused items and staying vigilant with updates on our current ones.
Two more reasons to delete unused WordPress Themes
Unused themes can slow down your database.
Unused themes will reduce the size of your backups.
Warning before you delete WP Themes
This does require you to know a bit about how your blog or website was built. If you have a developer that you are working with, you may want to ask them if they have removed all unused themes. If you are not on contract with a developer, do be careful with what I am about to walk you through.
Here is the deal: There are common setups where you have a theme and what is also called a “child theme.” For example, if you WordPress site is built using the Genesis Theme, odds are good that it also has a “child theme.” In that case, you don’t want to delete the Genesis theme or its corresponding child theme.
A helpful tool
There is a free online tool that may tell you what themes and child themes you are currently using on your site. It is http://WhatWPThemeIsThat.com/ I have tested it on a few sites and found it helpful. I ran the test on our corporate site and it showed me that I am using the Whitespace Pro Theme. More importantly, it also showed me that it is a Child Theme (see the red box below) of Genesis. There is no guarantee that this tool will be completely accurate but it is a great resource to spot check your effort. So before you delete anything, take a moment and make sure that you understand which theme your site utilizes.
A quick walkthrough
- Log into WordPress.
- Click on Appearance.
- Click on Themes.
- Look to verify which theme is your “active” theme. (It should be the one on the top left and it will say active.)
- Click on the theme that you want to delete.
- In the bottom right corner click delete.
Again go ahead and leave the latest default WordPress theme such as 2015. Since you are going thru this exercise, I am curious to know what themes you are using for your site? What do you like about it?