How Can I Check for Inactive Themes in WordPress?

One of the more fun elements of setting up a new website in WordPress is choosing a theme. There is a huge selection available to you, from a number of different sources, such as Studiopress, so it’s likely that you will try at least a couple of them before you settle on one.

When you combine this trial period with the default themes that come with most WordPress installations, you can easily wind up with a handful of themes installed on your site that you are no longer using.

One way to handle this is to start deleting themes that you aren’t going to use, but you may be curious to see the inactive themes that are currently on your WordPress site. Our guide below will show you how to see those.

How to View Inactive Themes in WordPress

The steps in this guide were performed in WordPress 5.2.1, but these steps are pretty similar in most other versions of WordPress as well.

Leaving inactive themes on your site is potentially a security risk, so it’s a good idea to delete any themes that you aren’t using, and don’t plan to use again in the future. If you are using a child theme with a framework though, such as Genesis, be sure not to delete that framework theme or your site could stop functioning.

Step 1: Sign into the admin section of your site at (yourdomain.com)/wp-admin.

Step 2: Hover over the Appearance tab at the left side of the window, then choose the Themes option.

Your active theme (the one that’s currently being used on your site) will have a gray border around it, and say “Active”, underneath it. The rest of the themes that you see on this menu are inactive.

If you’re looking for a new theme, Studiopress has a lot of great ones. The Genesis framework is incredibly popular, and there is a large library of themes that work with it.