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The Theme Manager gives you full control over every theme on your site. It is organized into three tabs: Installed, Search & Install, and Upload ZIP.

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Installed themes

The Installed tab displays all themes as screenshot cards in a responsive grid. Each card shows:
  • The theme screenshot (16:9 aspect ratio)
  • Theme name, version, and author
  • A Child of badge for child themes
  • An Active badge (blue ring around the card) for the currently active theme
  • An Update badge (amber) when a newer version is available
For each theme you can:
  • Activate — set the theme as the active theme for the site
  • Update — one-click update button for themes with available updates
  • Version History — install any older or newer version from WordPress.org
  • Export as ZIP — download the theme’s files as a .zip archive
  • Delete — permanently remove an inactive theme
You can filter the grid by typing in the Search themes field, which matches against the theme name and author.

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Activating a theme

1

Find the theme

Locate the theme card on the Installed tab.
2

Click Activate

Click the Activate button on the card. The button shows a spinner while the change is applied.
3

Confirm activation

The card gains a blue ring and the Active badge. The previously active theme loses its ring.
You cannot delete the currently active theme. The delete button is hidden on the active theme card. Activate a different theme first, then delete the unwanted one.

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Installing a theme from WordPress.org

1

Open the Search & Install tab

Click the Search & Install tab.
2

Enter a search term

Type a theme name or keyword and press Enter or click Search. Up to 12 results are returned from the WordPress.org themes API with screenshot previews, ratings, and version numbers.
3

Install the theme

Click Install Theme on the card. Once installed, the button changes to Installed (if up to date) or Update (if a newer version exists locally).
Click Check Updates in the top-right corner of the Theme Manager to force WordPress to re-check for theme updates immediately.

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Rolling back a theme to an older version

1

Open version history

Click the History icon on any installed theme card to open the Version History dialog. The dialog displays the currently installed version and the full version list from WordPress.org, sorted newest-first.
2

Select a version

Click Install next to the target version. The currently installed version is marked Installed and disabled.
3

Confirm

The selected version is downloaded and installed over the existing theme files. A success toast confirms the change.
Version history is only available for themes hosted on WordPress.org. Custom or premium themes uploaded via ZIP will show no version history.

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Uploading a theme ZIP

1

Open the Upload ZIP tab

Click the Upload ZIP tab.
2

Select a file

Drag and drop a .zip file onto the drop zone or click to browse. Only a single file is accepted per upload (unlike the Plugin Manager, which supports multi-file queues).
3

(Optional) Enable overwrite

Check Overwrite if exists to replace an already-installed theme’s files.
4

Install

Click Upload & Install Theme. A spinner shows while the file is uploaded and extracted.

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Exporting a theme as ZIP

1

Find the theme

Locate the theme card on the Installed tab.
2

Click the download icon

Click the Download icon on the theme card.
3

Save the file

The browser downloads a .zip file named {theme-slug}-{version}.zip containing the complete theme directory.