Jul | 06 | 2007

When Your Wordpress Theme Keeps Reverting To Default

You have a nice Wordpress blog set up. You changed its theme to one of your favorites. After a few days, it suddenly returned to its default theme.

“What the?…” You thought “Must be a glitch.”

So you set up the theme again back to your favorite one. After another day, it happens again. The wordpress blog reverts to the default theme. You realize something is really wrong.

Well, you’re not alone. Apparently, a number of other wordpress users have experienced the same thing.

The root cause is that Wordpress reverts to default in certain cases where it cannot find the theme. A lot of conditions are known to cause this to happen falsely. For example, if the filesystem is slightly flaky, then there are instances where it may return an error incorrectly, causing Wordpress to reset to default. Another case is where somebody accesses the site at the exact moment you’re uploading a modified version of the theme.

This seems to occur with Version 2.2 of wordpress. How do you solve this? A simple solution would be just to change the folder name of your favorite WordPress theme to ‘default.’ This way, you don’t have to regulary change theme options.
Other than that, you might want to upgrade your wordpress to updated stable version as soon as possible.

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30 Responses

redwall_hp
06|Jul|2007

Make sure you have a “style.css” file. Sometimes Wordpress accepts a theme, then notices somethings wrong later. It’s odd.
HART (1-800-HART)
06|Jul|2007

That keeps happening to me, switching back to the default. On one site, however .. it’s when there is a mobile reader. Maybe I should just rename my current template to the folder .. default
redwall_hp
07|Jul|2007

Yeah, try that.
Vincent
26|Dec|2007

It happened to me for the first time moments ago (WP Version 2.3.1)

The theme reverted to default after I tested some new modifications and uploaded a few modified files. Maybe someone was accessing at the exact moment of uploading. Sigh!
Jill
08|Jan|2008

Just had this happen on a client’s website, and it’s version 2.2.2

Is there a 2.3 version that this doesn’t happen on?

Jill
Holy Jumping Wordpress Themes Batman!
30|Jan|2008

[…] friend, Mr Google and typed in “wordpress theme reverting to default“. I immediately found this and realised what was going on. Basically […]
tricia
11|Feb|2008

So happy to know that I am not the only one having this problem. I was pulling my hair out trying to trouble-shoot. Thanks for the tip. I have upgraded to version 2.3.3. Hopefully it’s ok now.
Make sure WordPress doesn’t switch to the default theme | WordPressGarage.com
11|Feb|2008

[…] did a search, and found this post on the topic, that explains that this glitch introduced itself in WordPress 2.2. A WordPress […]
Jaypee
14|Feb|2008

For those of you who have installed a mobile theme like Alex King’s WP Mobile, you need to make sure you install it correctly.

You can read more about it in my post:
WordPress Reverting Default Theme Fix
bob
20|Feb|2008

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13|Mar|2008

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Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques
17|Mar|2008

[…] When Your WordPress Theme Keeps Reverting To Default- Have you ever been working on your WordPress blog’s design, when you refresh the page only […]
Jaki Levy
17|Mar|2008

i had this happen , and solved the problem for 1 particular theme. i’ve posted it on the wordpress.org support forum:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/149843?replies=12
Wordpress vuelve el theme al default ~ Gran Impetu
17|Mar|2008

[…] al theme por default. Parace que este es un fallo (aunque tampoco es demasiado grave) y que tiene una simple solución. Nada más nombra al directorio del theme que estes usando como default entonces el problema […]
Heather
20|Mar|2008

Same problem here..
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