How to change a WordPress theme manually

Table of Contents

In this article, you will learn how to change a WordPress theme manually. This is useful if you’re unable to access your WordPress administrator dashboard or have the dreaded white screen error. If you have access to your WordPress dashboard we would suggest you do this through the interface as this is a slightly longer process

Obtaining your theme

To change your current WordPress theme you first need to download one. You can do this by downloading the theme via the WordPress theme library then clicking download on the theme you’d like to use. Themes can also be downloaded elsewhere such as ThemeForest however please make sure these are genuine themes that won’t harm your WordPress site.

Uploading your New theme

To change your current theme you need to upload the theme you’re wanting and removing the old one. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to cPanel.
  2. Search for file manager then click it.
  3. Navigate to your WordPress install (usually public_html) the click wp-content > themes.
  4. Click upload in the menu and select the zip file you downloaded earlier.
  5. Once the zip folder has uploaded right click then press extract.
  6. Your theme can now be activated in phpMyAdmin.

Changing the WordPress theme in phpMyAdmin

Now you have uploaded your theme in the file manager, you’ll need to change the currently active theme To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Go back to your cPanel dashboard
  2. Search for phpMyAdmin and click it
  3. On the left side select your WordPress database
    If you have multiple WordPress installations you can find the database name in your file manager install directory > WP-Config.php
  4. Click the wp_options table.
  5. Change the number of rows from 25 to 500 in the dropdown menu
  6. In the filter rows type template then change the option_value to yourthemename
  7. Press enter to save
  8. In the filter, rows type stylesheet then change the option_value to yourthemename
  9. Press enter to save
  10. You will now be using your new theme

 

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