You are here because you saw the default WordPress themes that start with “Twenty” keeps reappearing on your WordPress website every time you update your WordPress and a new WordPress default theme is released. Even after deleting them several times, they keep reappearing as soon as a new release of the Twenty Twenty (as of now) is available. This can be irritating, especially if you have limitations on the inode usages, such as in Siteground web hosting. While trying to keep the number of files on your server to a minimum, and running multiple WordPress sites on the same server, the default theme which will be installed on each one of the WordPress installations may cause issues.
What are the default themes in WordPress?
The default WordPress themes are those themes that are installed by default with every WordPress core installation. Apart from that, they might also get installed during a WordPress update. This is a feature by WordPress that will allow it to roll back to a working state in case something bad happens to your active theme. Below is an example of the Twenty Twenty-Three theme. That comes by default with WordPress installation.
Even though the intentions behind this are understandable, this could be irritating to certain users, which is the reason why we decided to write such an article.
Keep a default theme if possible
According to WordPress recommendations, it is a good thing to keep the default theme installed on your WordPress website. In case of any problems with your current WordPress theme directory or themes, WordPress will try to use the default theme instead to keep your website live. If the default theme isn’t available, the site will return a white screen without any content on it.
So, we also suggest you keep the default theme on your WordPress installation unless you are facing some issues with it or your hosting provider has any restrictions. Do not remove it just to see your theme directory clean.
How to Remove Default WordPress Themes?
So, in this article, we are going to provide a solution for the issue by inserting a single line of code into your wp-config.php file located in the root directory of your WordPress installation. All you have to do is copy-pasting the following line into your wp-config.php file.
define( 'CORE_UPGRADE_SKIP_NEW_BUNDLED', true );As you may have already guessed, this simple line of code skips the bundled installations that come with WordPress, such as the Hello Dolly plugin or the Twenty themes. So, from now on, whenever you update your WordPress, the default bundles that come with every WordPress installation won’t be inserted into your WordPress consuming more disk space and file usage.
Benefits of disabling the default themes
There are many benefits of disabling the default themes that come bundled with WordPress or get installed with every WordPress update –
- Reduce the disk space usage on your hosting account, which might help you to save resources and money.
- Reduce the risk of hack attempts and other security vulnerabilities that are targeted toward the default themes.
- Clean up the WordPress themes section, especially if you have a lot of themes installed.
- Might slightly improve the performance of your WordPress website. If you have any functions or plugins that go through all your files.