Do you want to change WordPress theme without losing content?
If yes, this guide will help you.
WordPress is a CRM that can be quickly modified. Your website may have been outgrown to an existing theme and would obviously look amazing with the added features. Altogether, a WordPress theme will accomplish everything.
All in all, you will find a diverse range of business-oriented presentable themes that can be customized to different websites. Today, themes can be swapped for each other seamlessly. Page builders on top of themes help you do that. They add custom JavaScript and jQuery code.
Sometimes you want to change header color in WordPress, we will help you with that as well. All of you want to keep the content the same while changing the theme, don’t you? But there are a few things you should follow before starting.
What to do before changing the WordPress theme without losing content?
We know you want to change WordPress theme without losing content but here is a checklist of what you should do before changing a WordPress theme so that everything is 100% secure and recoverable.
Website Backup:
Keep a complete backup of your website. You might not need it but if by mistake anything wrong happens, this will help you retrieve it.
Copy all custom CSS on your website:
If you want to customize a few elements of your website, you can add custom CSS. When the CSS is added with the help of a plugin, then it won’t be affected. You can add CSS directly as well without a theme. But before changing the theme, always remember to save the CSS snippers else they won’t be carried over to the new theme.
Once this is done, let’s find out how to change WordPress theme. You can also get help with how to block failed login attempts on WordPress if you are facing an issue with the same.
How to change a WordPress theme without losing content?
Here are different methods to change WordPress without losing content.
- Staging website
- Live preview
- Dedicated theme changer plugin
- Manual theme change
Let’s begin
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How to change WP theme with Staging website?
A staging website is a copy of your current website which is live. This website can be used to test WordPress themes before you merge the changes. Particularly, all the negative effects can be tested in a similar manner without risking your live website.
Consequently here is how you can change your theme with staging:
- Setup a staging website
- Install the new theme on this website
- Test all the functions
- Resolve errors if any
- Merge the staging website with live website
If you are unsure about how to set up a staging website, we’ll help you.
Similarly, connect with your current web host provider for configuration and set up a staging website.
Additionally, you can also install WordPress Staging plugin or Duplicator
Install BlogVault backup plugin and utilize its inbuilt WP staging functionality
Similarly, now let’s move on to another method which change WordPress theme without losing content without going live.
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How to Change WordPress theme without losing content Live Preview
Presently, this functionality allows you to preview any theme on the current WP website.
Consequently, this is how it works:
- Login to WordPress with admin credentials.
- From Appearances, select Themes and explore all the themes installed on your website.
- Whichever theme you want to explore, click “Live Preview”.
- Test your new theme with WordPress theme customizer tool.
- The selected theme can then be activated by clicking “Activate”
The next method is via a plugin.
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How to change WordPress theme without losing content with the help of a Dedicated theme changer plugin?
By installing the “Theme Switcha Tool” on your WordPress website you can change the theme without losing any content. Moreover, this is a great plugin allowing the users to preview new themes without activating them on the love website.
Here are the steps you should follow:
- Install “Theme Switcha” plugin and activate it.
- On the WordPress dashboard admin panel, choose plugin settings. Then select the “Enable theme switching” option. This plugin displays all the installed themes.
- Choose the theme and preview it on the browser tool
Let’s move ahead to know how can the WP theme be changed manually
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How to change WordPress theme without losing content with Manual Theme Change?
If you want to do more hard work then you choose the manual method. Manual theme changing can be done using the phpMyAdmin tool and an FTP tool like FileZilla.
Therefore, let’s begin with the steps:
- Look at the “wp-content/themes” folder, and explore all the themes installed on your live WordPress website. Note the theme folder you are planning to use.
- With the WordPress web hosting account, connect with cPanel> Databases>phMyAdmin.
- In the meanwhile, the PHP My Admin tool is equally important as it connects to the database of your WordPress website and choose the “wp_options” database table.
- Nevertheless, you have to modify the “template” and “stylesheet” rows to pick the theme name.
- Once you’ve saved, tap on “Go”.
The chosen theme will be applied to your live website once you follow all the steps.
Furthermore, you can clearly see the manual theme option is a very technical method. This will definitely work. Therefore, we recommend it only when you have a clear technical understanding of WordPress and related tools.
There are a few steps to take care of while changing your WordPress theme
Let’s begin with the checklist:
Turn off maintenance mode
Firstly, before going live with your new theme, turn off the maintenance mode that was enabled before switching themes.
Test your website
You have to make sure all the functionalities of your WordPress website are working perfectly. You need to certainly test your website, website widgets and plugins. Ensure all the website posts, comments, contact forms, and email messages are perfectly fine.
Cross-browser compatibility
Your WordPress website has to be perfectly working on all different search engines like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Tracking code
Undoubtedly, once the website functionality and cross-browser compatibility is tested, add tracking code for Analytics and Adsense. To add Google Analytics is by using the “MonsterInsights’ ‘ plugin. In addition, this plugin allows you to configure website analytics on your website enabling you to track analytics data.
Custom changes
Ultimately after installing the WordPress new theme, you can absolutely make custom changes in the functions.php file.
Test the loading time
Check the loading time with the help of a speed testing tool like Pingdom. If there is a major difference in the load time, certainly you are recommended not to use the theme.
Final Thoughts
Finally, when you are revamping your website, clearly make the most of the themes and pay attention to the best practices we have mentioned above.
Additionally, we always recommend you to keep a backup of your live website with the help of the plugin “BlogVault”.
