In this WordPress article for beginners, I show you how to delete your unused themes from WordPress. This simple process is important for keeping your site secure as it eliminates security vulnerabilities that may exist in older themes. It also helps clean up your site and free up space on your site’s server.
Step 1: Login to WordPress
For starters, login to the backend of your WordPress using the WP Login or WP Admin page.
Step 2: Navigate to the “Themes” Section
Once you’re logged in, you should be taken to the “Dashboard” area of your site (red arrow in the image above).
From the Dashboard, navigate to Appearance>Themes (yellow arrow in the above image). Note that you may see a number next to the word “Themes” – this simply indicates how many themes currently have updates available.
Step 3: Delete Your Unused Themes
Once inside the “Themes” section, you’ll see all your installed themes listed here with a thumbnail preview (green arrow in the above image), the name of the theme (blue arrow), and a notification if an updated version of the theme is available along with an “Update now” link (pink arrow). The first theme listed here is your active theme, as you can tell by the “Active:” designation before the title of the theme (red arrow).
To delete the unused or “deactivated” themes installed on your WordPress site, hover your mouse over the theme’s thumbnail preview and click “Theme Details” (red arrow in the above image).
A window will pop up that provides details about your theme. In the bottom right corner of this window you’ll see a link labeled “Delete” (blue arrow). Hover your mouse over this link and click “Delete.” You’ll then get a notification confirming that you’d like to delete the theme. Click “OK” to confirm deleting the theme (green arrow).
Repeat this process for all of your unwanted or deactivated themes. I personally recommend deleting any theme you aren’t using or don’t plan on using as each inactive theme presents a security risk to your site.
In my case, you’ll see I only kept the “Twenty Twenty Two” and “Twenty Twenty Three” themes. You can always click the “Add New Theme” button (red arrow) to upload new themes or add new themes from the WordPress Theme library. Keep in mind that if you ever accidentally delete an inactive theme that you’d like to add back to WordPress, you can do so via this “Add New Theme” button.
That’s it for this tutorial! If you want to learn how to build a WordPress website from start to finish, you can check out my WordPress for Beginners: No-Code WordPress Masterclass on Udemy!
