how to disable theme using ftp

  • RHCdG

    (@rhcdg)


    6 years, 11 months ago

    Hi,
    One of my themes, Avada, is currently causing a white screen with the message, “The site is experiencing technical difficulties” on both front and backend. If I rename the Avada folder using FTP, the message changes to “The theme directory “Avada” does not exist”.
    So I know it is calling the theme. How do I go about disabling the Avada theme using FTP (since backend is not accessible) and how do I activate another theme, e.g. Twentynineteen?
    Any help is much appreciated!
    Thanks,
    Rutger

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • JNashHawkins

    (@jnashhawkins)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Manually install one of the ‘Twenty’ series themes. I like Twenty Thirteen myself but Twenty Nineteen is a stalwart… very reliable.

    https://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/article/using-themes/#adding-new-themes-manually-ftp

    rename the other theme’s directory when you’re finished. The only theme WordPress can find will be that ‘default theme’ so it should start just fine.

    Joy

    (@joyously)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Unlike plugins, the theme only falls back when you are in the admin. So you can rename the theme folder, but it won’t use your default theme until the error is encountered in the admin (I think it has to check capabilities before switching themes, even if it dies).
    But the technical difficulty message is new in 5.2, and that is for Recovery Mode which allows you to use the link it sends to the site admin to login even when there is an error (by pausing the one that is dying). So look for that email and click the link. It might not be your theme that is dying. Or if you know it’s the theme, you could FTP a good copy of it, or get into your database and change the option for the theme name.

    Thread Starter RHCdG

    (@rhcdg)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Thanks both, Jnash and Joy!
    Yes, renaming the themes (there are 4 different ones in my theme folder) does not cause the site to fall back to the one that is left unchanged, i.e. twentynineteen.
    However, I haven’t received an email either. What can I do at this point?

    Thread Starter RHCdG

    (@rhcdg)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Incidentally, there is also an index.php file in the themes folder with the following content:

    <?php
    // Silence is golden.
    ?>

    Not sure what this does or means, just thought I’d mention it.

    Thanks,
    Rutger

    Joy

    (@joyously)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    You have to treat it just like White Screen of Death, which is what Recovery Mode was added for. Check the error_log to see if it says it’s a plugin or a theme. Or rename the plugins folder to see if it was really a plugin with the problem (that means leaving the theme named as it should be). If it’s an error for not enough memory, you have to increase the memory limit (or figure out what is calling itself in a loop).
    If it really is the theme, you can go into your server phpMyAdmin and look in the options table for template and set it to the default theme.

    And the index.php in the themes folder is so that nothing is shown when someone navigates to that address.

    Thread Starter RHCdG

    (@rhcdg)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Hi Joy,
    It was actually the theme, I figured it out with the debugging option you suggested.
    Thanks again,
    Rutger

    Denis Žoljom

    (@dingo_d)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Hi @rhcdg , the silence is golden comment in the index.php is just a way to circumvent the directory listing, so it’s ok. It shouldn’t be a closed php tag, but that shouldn’t cause any issues.

    Ideally the directory listing should be prevented on the server 🙂

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘how to disable theme using ftp’ is closed to new replies.