How to Switch WordPress Themes

Changing WordPress themes isn't tricky, but it does take some work, especially if your theme has many custom coding or features. Before hitting "activate" on that new WordPress theme, consider a few things. Also, Learn how to switch WordPress themes.

• What to Expect When Switching Themes
• What to Do Before Switching Themes
• How to Switch WordPress Themes
• Summary

What to Expect When Switching Themes

• Your menus will probably disappear.
  
  Don't worry–they're still there. You'll need to reassign them. After you activate your new theme, go into Appearance > Menus in WordPress, select the menu you want to use, and choose its location.
   
• Widgets will probably deactivate.
  
  Because of how widgets and themes work together, some of your widgets will transfer over, and others might not. For example, if your old theme came bundled with custom widgets, those probably won't transfer over. Also, the widgets that do transfer over might not automatically display. Some of your widgets might still be available in Appearance > Widgets under "Inactive Widgets".
   
• Your homepage might disappear.
  
  If you had a theme-specific homepage, that probably wouldn't transfer to your new theme, so you'll need to create a new one. Non-custom pages and posts should transfer, but you might need to go in and relink them.
   
• You might need to resize images.
  
  While your image and video uploads will still be available under the WordPress media tab, switching themes might affect how they're sized or displayed. Many themes come in their own sizes, such as featured images and thumbnails. You might need to resize them to get the exact look you want.
   
• Theme-specific shortcodes will stop working.
  
  If your old theme relied on shortcodes for things like formatting, styling, buttons, and sliders, that code would break, and those lines of code would show up as text in the middle of your content, for example, [video src="video-source.mp4"]. Delete the code and relink the assets. If your theme relied heavily on shortcodes, you'd need to work through your pages and posts to restructure your content.

What to Do Before Switching Themes

1. Back up your website. - If you use a plugin to automatically create your site's backups, ensure your last backup covers your latest changes. Jetpack, which comes with your Bluehost plan, creates automatic site backups. There are other plugin options if you aren't using Jetpack (UpdraftPlus is the most popular free WordPress backup plugin). Check out How Do I Back Up My WordPress Website? for more information on how to back up your site.

2. Copy unique code and tracking codes. - If you manually added any code to your old theme, copy that code and save it to add it to your new theme. If you're using Google Analytics, it will automatically transfer. But if you've added tracking codes to your theme files or settings panel, you'll want to copy them to add them to your new theme.

3. Take screenshots. - Screenshots of your menus (Appearance / Menus) and widgets (Appearance / Widgets) can make it easier to recreate them in your new theme. Just remember—there's a balance here. Your new theme might have a different layout or new ways to display information. Be open to changing your site, trying new things, and refreshing your layout.

4. Set up a staging website or put your site in maintenance mode. - A staging website lets you work on your website in a test environment. When it's ready, you can push your changes live (Bluehost offers one-click staging). You can also put your website in maintenance mode. If you do this, visitors won't be able to access your site, but you will be able to let them know that you’re making changes to your site. You can work on your website without doing either of these things, but if you have traffic hitting your website at those times, visitors might encounter broken links.

Check out 9 Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing a WordPress Theme to learn how to choose the right WordPress theme for your website.

How to Switch WordPress Themes

Follow the steps below to switch your WordPress theme:

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard.
   • For detailed instructions on how to log into WordPress, please see How to Log in to the WordPress Admin Dashboard.
2. On the left menu, click Appearance, then select Themes.
   

   Note: The theme labeled as Active is your site's current theme.

3. You will have the following options:
   • Search for installed themes and activate the selected theme by clicking on the Activate button.
     
   • Add a new theme by clicking the Add New Theme icon. Select your desired theme and click the Install button. Activate your theme to start using it.
     

Summary

Before switching to a new WordPress theme, you should note that menus may need to be reassigned, your widgets could be deactivated, images might need resizing, and more. To prevent any problems when switching your theme, back up your WordPress website, copy unique code and tracking codes, take screenshots of your menus and widgets, and consider setting up a WordPress staging site. Once you are ready, you can confidently follow the step-by-step guide to switching WordPress themes.