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WPBeginner» Blog» Beginners Guide» What Happens When You Switch Your WordPress Theme?

What Happens When You Switch Your WordPress Theme?

Last updated on July 24th, 2015 by Editorial Staff
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What Happens When You Switch Your WordPress Theme?

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you switch your WordPress theme? With so many beautiful WordPress themes available, it can be tempting to switch to a better looking theme. While it is mostly safe to switch your WordPress theme, there are few things that you need to keep in mind. In this article, we will answer the question: “what happens when you switch your WordPress theme” and things that you need to do to make sure that your site works properly after the switch.

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Before You Switch WordPress Themes

It’s extremely important that you create a complete WordPress backup when you are making a major change like switching themes, installing plugins, or importing/exporting data.

Before activating a new WordPress theme, you should preview it to see how it will affect your site. WordPress allows you to install and preview themes without activating them.

Simply install a theme and click on the Live Preview button under that theme.

Live preview WordPress theme before activation

When previewing your theme, you should take notes on things that the new theme will affect. Browse your site’s main page, single posts, individual pages, and archives. See how the new theme handles things differently.

Live Previewing a WordPress  theme without activating it

Now you need to decide whether you can easily adjust the new theme to retain the features of your old site that you want to keep.

For more detailed instructions, check out our guide on how to properly switch your WordPress theme.

Having said that, let’s take a look at what happens when you switch to a new WordPress theme.

Menus Will Most Likely Disappear in New Theme

WordPress comes with a built-in navigation menu system. Each WordPress theme defines theme locations where menus are displayed.

That’s why when you switch your WordPress theme, there will be new menu locations.

The menu you previously assigned to a theme location will need to be reassigned.

Simply go to Appearance » Menus. Next, select the menu you want to use and then check the theme location where you want menu to be displayed.

Setting navigation menus in the new theme

See our guide on how to add custom navigation menu in WordPress for detailed instructions.

Widget Settings Will be Changed

Widgets allow you to easily place different elements in your WordPress theme’s sidebars. When you change your WordPress theme, similar to menus those sidebars are replaced by the new theme’s sidebars. This will automatically deactivate your active widgets.

Note that some themes will automatically show default WordPress widgets. But any widgets with customizations will be placed under the inactive widgets section.

You can still use those widgets and add them back to your sidebars.

Inactive widgets can be easily added to your new theme

See our guide on how to import/export widget settings in WordPress. Also check our list of the most useful WordPress widgets for your site.

Theme Settings Will Disappear

Each WordPress themes come with different customization options. In fact, there are some WordPress themes that come with tons of customization options controlled by their own theme options panel.

These settings may include your site’s logo, favicon, header, background image, etc. All of these settings will disappear when you switch to your new WordPress theme.

If made a list of changes, then you can probably try setting those things up in your new theme. However, it is possible that your new theme may not have all the features that your previous theme had OR that it may have more features than your previous theme.

In most cases, these settings do not affect your site’s performance on search engines. The impact of losing those settings will not be that significant. However, some themes bundle SEO settings in their theme options panel. In that case, you will need to transfer SEO settings with SEO data transporter.

Theme Specific Post Types & Taxonomies Will Disappear

Some WordPress themes (Not the ones in official WordPress theme directory), cross their intended functionality and jump into the plugin domain.

This means that these themes start offering functionality that is not related to the appearance of your site. Functionality like creating custom post types, custom taxonomies that can be used to display content like portfolio, testimonials, etc.

When you change your WordPress theme, these custom post types and taxonomies would become inaccessible. They will still be stored in your WordPress database, but you would need to do additional customization to display them in the new theme.

See our guide on how to import and export custom post types in WordPress.

Theme Specific Sliders Will Disappear

Many WordPress themes offer an easy way to add sliders on different sections of your website. These sliders will disappear when you switch the theme.

This is why we recommend our users to use a reliable plugin to add sliders to their WordPress site. Take a look at our comparison to find the best WordPress slider plugin.

Theme Specific Shortcodes Will Disappear

Shortcodes provide an easier way to bring functionality into WordPress posts and widgets. Many WordPress themes come with an extensive set of shortcodes to add buttons, galleries, sliders, column layouts, etc.

When you switch themes, all theme specific shortcodes will be disabled.

This will result in your shortcode code appearing as text inside your posts. Unfortunately there is no easy way to just click a button and import shortcodes from your old theme into your new WordPress theme. However, you can find and remove unused shortcodes from WordPress posts.

Things That Will Not be Affected by a Theme Switch

Your WordPress posts and pages will be unaffected by the theme switch. However, depending on how your old themes displayed posts, images, attachments, and pages, they might look a little different on your new theme.

All your media uploads will be unaffected by the theme switch. However, many WordPress themes come with their own image sizes for featured images and thumbnails. You may need to regenerate image sizes after switching the theme.

The default WordPress settings located under Settings menu will also remain unaffected.

We hope this article helped you learn what happens when you switch your WordPress theme, and you are better prepared for the transition. You may also want to see our list of 15 things you must do before changing WordPress theme.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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39 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Nadiia says:
    Feb 14, 2021 at 12:02 pm

    Hello!
    I already changed a theme, I did that before and I know that need to work on settings, but I was thinking to pick an actual site template, will It impact somehow on my posts and media? I mean will I lose it? I did not import the website but do I need to press on “delete a previously imported site?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 15, 2021 at 2:42 pm

      That would depend on your theme, some have templates that would overwrite and remove your old content if you reach out to your theme’s support they can clarify.

      Reply
  2. Manju says:
    Jan 31, 2021 at 2:20 pm

    Will changing a theme affect plugins?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 1, 2021 at 2:22 pm

      Unless the theme has a set of plugins to specifically accompany the theme, most if not all plugins will be unaffected by the change.

      Reply
  3. srini says:
    Jun 14, 2020 at 2:47 pm

    If you switch to a theme and switch back to the old theme – will it work as before?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 16, 2020 at 8:38 am

      It would depend on the specific theme.

      Reply
  4. Sam Doying says:
    Jun 1, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    Thank you for this content – it was very helpful. My question is this: I created my website about 2 years ago using the OceanWP theme. Now I’d like to do a complete from-scratch overhaul using the Hello Elementor theme. While I build my new site, I’d like my old site to just sit there, as is, and be available should someone want to visit. I don’t want it to adopt the new theme and be all funky because building the new site will take me a loooooooong time. Any way to do this? Thanks, Sam

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 2, 2020 at 8:59 am

      You would want to create a staging site following our guide below:
      https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-staging-environment-for-a-wordpress-site/

      Reply
  5. shanzah says:
    Apr 28, 2020 at 7:50 am

    hey i just wanted to ask that can I switch back to my custom made theme once I move to another theme? what if I want to come back to my previous theme? will it be saved in my database?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 28, 2020 at 1:35 pm

      When you change themes you should have the option to swap back later should you want.

      Reply
  6. Glen says:
    Jan 21, 2020 at 8:50 am

    Thank you for these great explanations. But my question is a bit ease: what happened if I just switch to the Child theme? will this break anything in my settings?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 21, 2020 at 1:46 pm

      While it should not break anything, depending on the child theme you would likely need to set your customizations.

      Reply
  7. Michal says:
    Jan 1, 2020 at 5:01 pm

    Thanks, though I miss information about more aspects:
    – is changing theme destructive operation? Does it wipe some data from database, or can I switch safely back to original theme without data loss?
    – can I deactivate/delete old theme, then install/activate it back, and my website will look same as before, or not?
    – where actually theme-specific data are stored? per-theme database table, or files?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 2, 2020 at 10:46 am

      Changing the theme would only remove data if your theme added custom post types which most themes shouldn’t. Deleting an old theme normally removes the information as that is a process normally included in the removal of a plugin or a theme. Where the data for the theme is stored depends on the specific theme.

      Reply
  8. Claudia says:
    Apr 13, 2019 at 11:54 am

    Hi, I just changed themes from Envo to Astra. The transition has been smooth so far but I got on the main menu the items I had on the Envo theme plus the items on the Astra menu so I have two home tabs one says original and the other has the URL of my website. Out of these two which one should I keep on the menu? or doesn’t matter?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 15, 2019 at 12:37 pm

      That is a question of personal preference on which you should keep. :)

      Reply
  9. Taran jeet says:
    Mar 14, 2019 at 8:23 am

    First of all Thanks to Your Team. Because of Your Inspiration, I Made a Website. I Am using Hestia. but after a few days, I just randomly check the theme editor. There are 13 theme errors. I want to fix them. I saw ur comment above. But my question is what if I completely remove the theme and reinstall it will I lose all my settings of that theme? Or is there any safe way to fix those errors? Anyone Can help me?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Mar 14, 2019 at 11:03 am

      If you manually delete the theme in your wp-admin area it would remove the settings you had set for that theme

      Reply
  10. Michaela says:
    Jan 21, 2019 at 9:38 am

    And what if I just need to reinstall the same theme ? Would all settings and content stay ?
    Thank you ☺

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 23, 2019 at 11:45 am

      Depending on the theme the styling may change but your content should remain.

      Reply
  11. David says:
    Dec 19, 2018 at 7:13 am

    Thanks for sharing such an insightful thought. The information was really helpful

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 19, 2018 at 10:47 am

      Glad our post could be helpful :)

      Reply
  12. Patricia says:
    Aug 10, 2018 at 8:56 am

    Seems like so much is going to disappear. I am rethinking my decision of changing my theme now.

    Reply
  13. Nikita Smith says:
    Jun 25, 2018 at 10:06 am

    When doing this i seem to loose my “portfolio” does anyone have any tips on how to ensure this doesnt happen?

    Reply
  14. Paul says:
    Jun 19, 2018 at 9:06 pm

    I recently installed a new theme for my portfolio but none of the content is showing up on live preview but is showing
    up in the backend editor Deleting project content and entering in new data also does not make a difference.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 19, 2018 at 9:24 pm

      Hi Paul,

      It seems like you are using a page builder plugin. Please contact your theme developer for support and they will be able to help you out or contact the page builder plugin’s support for help.

      Reply
  15. GABRIELA MORENO says:
    May 5, 2018 at 10:30 am

    My question is, what happens to my old theme when I install the new one?

    Can I adjust the new theme without it being live?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 6, 2018 at 8:46 pm

      Hi Gabriela,

      Your old theme will be inactive but it will remain installed on your website unless you delete it. You can click on the preview button to see a live preview of the new theme on your website.

      Reply
    • Gabriel Marmitt says:
      Aug 23, 2018 at 4:06 pm

      Hello guys.

      I use the Twenty Ten theme since I started my site in 2013, I already have 5 years of website! But now I see that it’s important to have a responsive, fast, and friendly topic with SEO. I tried to do a test with the Twenty Sixteen theme, it worked well apparently, but when I looked at the analytics report, I realized that I did not have a visit any more, I tried to access my page through the phone and I saw in the analytics real-time visualization tool that my visit came, so I do not know what might have caused it and what should I do? Grateful for the attention.

      Reply
  16. mohamedali shurbaji says:
    Dec 11, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    If i change theme, and things disappear in the new one, how i can clean up the mess and start again fresh since I am deep progress through the old one. Thank you.

    Reply
  17. Rob Manser says:
    Jun 28, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    How does changing themes impact the SEO rankings for single page posts, provided I am using permalinks?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 28, 2017 at 3:48 pm

      Hi Rob,

      It actually depends on your WordPress theme. If it follows the WordPress coding best practices than there will be no impact on SEO. If it is slower or faster than your previous theme, uses some poor design practices, have bad user experience, then these kind of things may also have a slight impact on your SEO.

      Reply
  18. Raddy says:
    Jan 10, 2017 at 11:55 am

    I would like to ask if I switch back to the theme againafter activating a new one is it going to keep its settings and customization or I should start from the begging ? Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 12, 2017 at 1:52 am

      It will retain all its settings.

      Reply
  19. Katie Keith says:
    Aug 2, 2015 at 3:45 am

    Useful article thanks. A lot of our WordPress clients think that changing theme is as simple as clicking a button and don’t realise that it can actually be days of work due to the theme-specific shortcodes, layouts, widgets etc. This is a good overview of the implications of changing theme.

    Reply
  20. Connor Rickett says:
    Jul 21, 2015 at 4:36 am

    And some fine day, the “preview” button will actually output a result that matches what you’ll see when the theme has actually been switched.

    Reply
  21. Mione C says:
    Jul 20, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    Thank you so much for this great, detailed article. I will feel much more confident doing my upcoming theme change now! I’d been putting it off for too long. You guys rock!

    Reply
  22. RW says:
    Jul 20, 2015 at 10:06 am

    Thanks for this. That’s why I take screen captures of all my settings and widget before I switch themes…

    Reply
    • Matthew says:
      Jul 20, 2015 at 4:36 pm

      Go idea RW

      Reply

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