You can change the theme of your site to give your existing content a fresh look. In this guide, you will learn how to switch themes, preview a theme before activating it, and what to check after switching.
Switching themes updates your site’s design while keeping your existing content intact. To change the theme of your site, follow these steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance → Themes (or Appearance → Theme Showcase if using WP Admin).
- Note your site’s current theme, which will be first in the list with the “Active” label.
- You may need this later if you choose to switch back to your site’s current theme.
- Browse through the available themes and choose one that you like (or upload your own theme).
- On the theme’s info page, click the “Activate” button.
- Once the new theme is applied, click the “Customize site” button or navigate to Appearance → Editor to customize the design.
Changing themes is a safe, non-destructive action. Your existing pages, media, and other data is preserved on your site.
Your site’s homepage will update to the homepage of the new theme. If you want to recover content from your previous theme’s homepage, reactivate the previous theme to view and copy the content.
If you have forgotten the name of your previous theme, check your site’s Activity Log. You will find the name of the theme you switched from and to:
You can see how your site will look with a different theme without activating it. This lets you explore design options and make changes in the Site Editor before applying the theme to your live site.
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The steps below apply to themes included with your site. Installed or uploaded themes may have different preview options available. To safely test any theme with your content, consider using a staging site.
To preview one of the themes included with your site, follow these steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance → Themes.
- Browse through the available themes and choose one that you like.
- On the theme’s info page, click the arrow next to the “Preview” button to reveal the dropdown menu.
- Select one of the following options:
- Preview with demo content: View the theme with sample content provided by the theme designer.
- Preview with your content: View the theme with your site’s existing pages, posts, and media.
- Browse through the layout and make any changes to Styles, Templates, and other areas of the Site Editor. Your changes will not apply to your live site until you activate the theme.
- If you’re satisfied with the look of the new theme, click the “Activate” button (if you made no changes) or the “Save and Activate” button (if you made changes).
To exit the Editor preview without activating the theme:
- Click the < (arrow) next to the “Previewing [Theme Name]: Design” text.
- Confirm that you want to exit the editor and return to the theme search page.
If you have clicked through to templates or the editing tools, click the site icon in the top left to return to the Design screen.
With a staging site (available on higher-tier plans), you can change your theme on a testing version of your site without affecting your live website. The staging site is a private clone of your website where you can experiment freely.
Once you’re happy with the new design, sync the changes to your live website. Visitors will see the new design without encountering any downtime.
When you change to a new theme, check the following:
A new theme may replace your homepage with its own default layout. Review the following:
- If you’ve selected a block theme, you will not see your homepage listed in Pages. Instead, edit the homepage through Appearance → Editor. Learn more about editing the default homepage for block themes.
- Some themes replace your homepage with the new theme’s homepage when you activate it. The content is not lost, instead the old page is moved to drafts.
- If you want to restore your previous homepage, you can find it under “drafts” in your Pages list, where you can publish it again and set it as your homepage.
Review your menus to confirm the correct items appear and link to the right pages. Some themes display menus in different locations, so you may need to reassign your menu to a new location.
Custom CSS does not transfer when you switch themes because CSS is theme-specific. You can recover your previous CSS from the CSS revisions option.
