Can't change themes

  • I can’t change my theme. I searched these forums and found people having the same issue as far back as 7 years ago, but I don’t see any threads positing a cause, and the only solution seems to be to reinstall WP.

    The symptom: I click Appearance: Themes, and I see only the active theme. In my case it’s Avada, but other people here have reported the same issue with other themes. There are no other themes visible to select, even though I know there are other themes available on the site. It looks like this: https://screencast.com/t/yRuknRV3

    If I click the Add New button, I can then see the other installed themes plus the suggested list of new ones available to install. If I select one I can install it, then I can hit Activate, but the result is ONLY that it’s installed; it never activates. https://screencast.com/t/9ZUZb70J

    Clicking Appearance: Themes again results in the picture above again.

    I’ve disabled all plugins, no effect.
    I’ve disabled all but this theme’s required plugin, shown in the first image above, no effect.
    I’ve cleared my browser cache, no effect.
    I’m not running a caching plugin.

    Anyone know what the heck is going on here?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • Do you have an installed WP-CLI? Maybe you can try to change the theme via the command line. Here is more info:

    WP CLI

    You can check with your hosting provider if they can assist with changing the theme as well : )

    Thread Starter cassman

    (@cassman)

    Wow, learn something new every day! Never heard of WP CLI…

    I don’t think it is, and the site is hosted on someone else’s server, so I don’t have the permissions I assume would be required.

    Any idea what the problem might be?

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    Have you considered installing/changing themes manually?: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Using_Themes#Adding_New_Themes_Manually_.28FTP.29

    Thread Starter cassman

    (@cassman)

    Yes, I could do that, and the only reason I haven’t is that I’m on deadline with a hundred other things to do, and changing the theme isn’t on the list.

    I was just trying to figure out why something else wasn’t working right — the Thrive Content Builder, to be precise — so I wanted to switch to a different theme for a minute to see if that had any effect. When I couldn’t, I came here to see if there was any discussion about it, and there is — but in all these years of people reporting similar behavior, I see no causes or solutions posted.

    I really just want to know what’s causing it, but nobody seems to know.

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    but in all these years of people reporting similar behavior, I see no causes or solutions posted

    This is not WordPress core issue.

    If your server does not let you do that, you may want to contact your hosting provider, because they know their servers better than anybody else.

    I am having the same issue, I am unable to activate a new theme. I get notification that the new them has been activated but then when on themes homepage it says the previous one is still active. very frustrating as i have just spent money on purchasing a new theme that I cannot install.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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