Renaming "errant theme" folder to get default theme

  • After reading a lot of posts that recommend renaming the theme and plugin folders to assist in troubleshooting an issue, I thought that I would try this myself to see how it works.

    The plugin renaming works as expected but not for the theme. When I rename the “errant active theme” folder, adding -old to the end, I cannot get the default theme (2012) to display, only the dreaded WSOD.

    I am just wondering, does the theme folder renaming only work when in fact there is an “issue”? I cannot seem to get this tip to work when the site is all tickety-boo ??

    Cheers!
    Lyle

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

  • It only works if you have a copy of the WordPress default theme (currently Twenty Twelve) installed. All WordPress sites should retain an unedited copy of the default theme for exactly this kind of situation.

    Try re-uploading a fresh, unpacked, copy of the Twenty Twelve folder to wp-content/themes using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides.
    https://www.ads-software.com/themes/twentytwelve

    Thread Starter 2ninerniner2

    (@2ninerniner2)

    Yep, that is exactly what I have done, both on a local and hosted test site. A brand new, fresh 3.5.2 install, installed a theme from the Themes directory (Pinboard in this case), activated that theme and then tried the renaming. 2012 and 2011 are still there, untouched.

    Have you tried checking your site’s error logs for messages. If the issue isn’t in the theme but a plugin or even a core file, activating the default theme won’t help

    Thread Starter 2ninerniner2

    (@2ninerniner2)

    I haven’t checked the logs as I am only trying this to see how it is supposed to work. These are fresh installs for only this purpose. No other plugins or themes other than one to test and no posts or pages or anything else added to the default install.

    That said, I am not attempting to login to the dashboard as I have seen this recommended for when folks cannot; that is why I wanted to “see for myself”.

    However, when I do login, I get the expected “ERROR: The themes directory is either empty or doesn’t exist. Please check your installation.” warning and then the front end is being displayed using 2012.

    Thread Starter 2ninerniner2

    (@2ninerniner2)

    So I guess this renaming the theme folder troubleshooting method only works when there is something wrong.

    It will only work if the issue was in the original theme. All it does is force the default theme to activate automatically.

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