Will my old theme break the site?

  • I did not update my wife’s site for years because it used a child theme based on a very old WP theme, and we very much liked the look we had achieved.


    It became necessary to update WP (Jetpack newsletter wasn’t working). I looked for another theme to have in place when I updated. One of the themes I found simply broke the site–all I got was a dozen lines of error. I couldn’t find a way back to change the theme, because whenever I tried to move from the admin dashboard I got the same page of error messages. I solved that problem by updating WP. Nothing to lose at that point since it was broken anyway.


    All went well, except we’re not happy with any of the themes we’ve tried.


    Our old child theme opens nicely in “live preview.”
    Does it follow that it will open nicely and not break the site when I activate it?

    If it does break the site, and I run into the same problem of not being able to change themes from the dashboard, is there another way to change the theme back to something safe?
    Thanks.


    (This is a kind of follow-up to these two threads:
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/cant-turn-off-comments-4/
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/finding-a-non-responsive-theme/)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • First of all, I would recommend that you test themes in a copy of the project – not in the live system. That way, you’ll be less annoyed if something doesn’t work. You can set up a test system like this with this plugin, for example: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-staging/ – or you can ask your hoster if they can set one up for you.

    Now to your question: there is no general answer as to whether an old theme will continue to work. Experience shows that some really last a very long time. However, some are written in such old PHP codes that they are not compatible with current hosting or with a current WordPress.

    Check whether there are any updates for the theme. If so, install them. With child themes, you may have to get involved yourself and update them. If you need help with this, you may find it here: https://jobs.wordpress.net

    If this is not a practical option for you, your only option is to use a different theme and adapt it to your needs.

    Another tip: such an old theme also has other disadvantages. Modern browsers could have display problems with them. Search engines could not read the content correctly if older, less precise HTML structures are used. Plugins that you use could be incompatible with them. There is a lot to be said for cutting off old ties at some point and starting something new when they can no longer grow.

    Thread Starter wperic

    (@wperic)

    Thanks for the tips and observations. I’ll give the staging plugin a try.

    Thread Starter wperic

    (@wperic)

    So I’ll try the old theme in the staging plugin. If it works ok there, I’ll assume it will work OK live.

    I’d still like insight on this question: If the old theme does break the site, and I run into the same problem of not being able to change themes from the dashboard, is there another way to change the theme back to something safe?

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Yes, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel (consult your hosting provider’s documentation for specifics on these), navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme.

    Hopefully, this will force the default theme to activate instead and allow you to access the Dashboard.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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