Automatic theme updates in WordPress are designed to make your life easier by keeping your site secure and up-to-date without you lifting a finger. But what if an update goes wrong and breaks your beautifully designed website? For many site owners, this “helpful” feature is a source of anxiety, not relief. This guide is your solution. We will walk you through exactly how to disable automatic theme updates in WordPress, giving you back full control. You’ll learn several safe methods—from simple dashboard clicks to adding code snippets—so you can choose the approach that fits your comfort level and prevent unexpected downtime.

Why Would You Want to Disable Automatic Theme Updates?

The main reason is simple: control. While automatic updates are great for security patches, a theme update is different from a core WordPress update. Your theme defines your entire site’s look, feel, and often its functionality. If you or a developer have made any customizations to the theme’s code—whether through a child theme or by editing the parent theme directly—an automatic update can overwrite those changes. This can lead to missing features, broken layouts, and a frustrating experience for your visitors.

Another key reason is stability testing. Many site owners, especially those running business or e-commerce websites, prefer to test major theme updates on a staging site first. A staging environment is a clone of your live website where you can safely test new updates, plugins, and code without affecting your real site. By disabling automatic updates, you give yourself the time to push the update to your staging site, check for any compatibility issues with your plugins and custom code, and only then deploy it to your live site with confidence.

What Are the Risks of Automatic Theme Updates?

The biggest risk is breaking your live website. A theme update might introduce a conflict with one of your essential plugins, causing errors, strange formatting, or even the dreaded “White Screen of Death.” For example, if your theme updates and changes how it handles product galleries, but your e-commerce plugin relies on the old method, your product pages could become unusable. This directly impacts user experience, leads to lost sales, and damages your professional image.

Beyond conflicts, automatic updates can silently erase your hard work. If you’ve added custom CSS in the WordPress Customizer or made modifications to your theme’s functions.php file without using a child theme, an automatic update will wipe them out. You might not even notice immediately, leading to a slow degradation of your site’s design and functionality. Furthermore, if a theme update has a bug itself (which does happen), your site will automatically inherit that bug, potentially causing widespread issues before the developer can release a fix.

How to Disable Auto-updates for a Single Theme in WordPress

WordPress itself provides a straightforward way to manage updates on a per-theme basis. This is perfect if you want to keep most of your themes updating automatically but need to disable it for one specific, heavily customized theme. You can do this directly from your WordPress admin dashboard without needing any extra tools or code.

To do this, navigate to Appearance > Themes. Find the theme for which you want to disable automatic updates. It doesn’t need to be the active theme; this setting works for any installed theme. Click on the theme details and then look for the link that says “Enable auto-updates” or “Disable auto-updates.” Simply clicking this link will toggle the setting. When auto-updates are disabled for that theme, you will see a message confirming it. This method is the easiest and most user-friendly, leveraging the built-in auto-updates feature of WordPress.

How to Completely Turn Off All Automatic Theme Updates

What if you want to disable automatic updates for every theme on your site? Perhaps you manage multiple client sites and want a blanket policy of manual updates for maximum stability. While there isn’t a single click in the dashboard for this, it’s still easy to achieve. You can use a simple code snippet added to your site’s functions.php file.

This approach uses a WordPress filter called auto_update_theme. By adding a filter that returns false for every theme, you instruct WordPress to never automatically update any theme. This is a powerful method that gives you complete, site-wide control. It’s important to note that this will override the individual settings you might have set in the dashboard. Once this code is in place, you, as the site administrator, are entirely responsible for manually checking for and applying all theme updates through the Updates screen in your dashboard.

Can You Disable Theme Updates with a Plugin?

Yes, absolutely! If you’re not comfortable editing code, using a plugin is an excellent alternative. While there isn’t a plugin specifically named “Disable Theme Auto-Updates,” several well-known management plugins include this functionality as a core feature. Plugins like Easy Updates Manager (formerly Disable Updates Manager) are designed specifically for this purpose.

After installing and activating a plugin like Easy Updates Manager, you’ll find a new settings page in your dashboard, typically under “Settings” or a dedicated menu. These plugins offer a granular, user-interface-driven way to control all automatic updates—for the WordPress core, plugins, and themes. You can often configure settings globally or for individual items. This is a fantastic solution for website owners who manage multiple sites and want a consistent, easily configurable policy without touching code. It adds a layer of convenience and powerful update management features.

Using a Code Snippet to Manage Automatic Updates

For those who prefer a lightweight solution without an extra plugin, a code snippet is the way to go. The primary code for disabling all theme auto-updates is remarkably simple. You would add the following line to your functions.php file:
add_filter( 'auto_update_theme', '__return_false' );
This single line of code uses the auto_update_theme filter hook and the built-in __return_false helper function to effectively turn off the feature.

You can also write more advanced code for granular control. For instance, you could write a function that only disables auto-updates for specific themes based on their stylesheet (the theme’s unique identifier). This requires a slightly more complex function that checks the theme’s directory name before deciding whether to allow the update. This method provides developer-level control, allowing you to create custom rules that fit your exact needs, all from within your theme’s (preferably child theme’s) functions.php file.

How to Safely Add Code to Your WordPress Site

Before you rush to add code to your functions.php file, it’s crucial to do it safely to avoid crashing your site. The golden rule is to always use a child theme. A child theme inherits all the functionality and styling of its parent theme but allows you to make modifications safely. When the parent theme updates, your custom code in the child theme’s functions.php file is preserved.

If you don’t use a child theme, your code will be erased when the parent theme updates. To add the code, connect to your site via FTP/SFTP or use your hosting provider’s File Manager. Navigate to /wp-content/themes/your-child-theme/ and edit the functions.php file. Add your code snippet at the very end, just before the closing ?> tag (if it exists), or simply at the end if there isn’t one. Save the file and upload it. Always test your site immediately after adding code to ensure everything is working correctly. For an even safer method, you can use a plugin like Code Snippets to manage and run your custom PHP code without needing a child theme.

What About Automatic Updates for Plugins and Core?

It’s important to understand that disabling theme updates does not affect plugins or the WordPress core. These are controlled by separate auto-updates systems. WordPress has a robust system for major core releases and security updates, which are generally recommended to be left on for critical security patches. However, you can control these too.

In your WordPress dashboard, under Dashboard > Updates, you can configure auto-updates for plugins individually, similar to how you manage themes. For core updates, the settings are also accessible from this screen. You can choose to enable only for minor releases (security and maintenance) which is the safest bet, or for major releases as well. Managing these settings holistically is part of a complete WordPress maintenance strategy, ensuring your entire site—core, plugins, and themes—is updated in a way that balances security and stability.

How to Manually Update a WordPress Theme Safely

Once you’ve disabled automatic updates, you are in charge of updating manually. This isn’t as scary as it sounds if you follow a safe process. The first and most critical step is to create a full backup of your website. Use a reliable backup plugin like UpdraftPlus or BlogVault to back up your database and all WordPress files. This is your safety net.

Next, it’s highly advisable to test the update on a staging site. Most good hosting providers offer a one-click staging environment. If you don’t have a staging site, at least ensure your backup is recent and restorable. To perform the update, simply go to Dashboard > Updates in your WordPress admin, select the theme you wish to update, and click “Update Themes.” After the update, thoroughly check your website’s key pages, forms, and functionalities to ensure nothing is broken. If something goes wrong, you can restore your backup immediately.

Troubleshooting: What to Do If an Update Already Broke Your Site?

If an automatic theme update has already occurred and broken your site, don’t panic. The first step is to determine the scope of the problem. If you can still access your WordPress admin dashboard, the simplest solution is to roll back the theme. Some managed WordPress hosting providers keep automatic backups of your site before updates. Check your host’s control panel for a “restore” or “backup” point from just before the update.

If you can’t access the dashboard, you will need to use FTP/SFTP or your host’s File Manager. Navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and locate the folder of the updated theme. Rename this folder (e.g., from twentytwentyfour to twentytwenty-four-broken). This will force WordPress to fall back to a default theme (like Twenty Twenty-Four) and should restore access to your site, even if the design is basic. Once you have access, you can then work on properly restoring your functional theme from a backup or troubleshooting the compatibility issue.

Conclusion: Finding the Right Update Strategy for You

Disabling automatic theme updates isn’t about ignoring security; it’s about embracing a more controlled and professional approach to website management. For sites with any level of customization, the potential risk of a broken layout or lost functionality far outweighs the convenience of a hands-off update process. By taking manual control, you empower yourself to test updates in a safe staging environment, ensure plugin compatibility, and deploy changes on your own schedule, not WordPress’s.

Whether you choose the simplicity of a per-theme toggle in the dashboard, the power of a dedicated management plugin, or the precision of a custom code snippet, the most important thing is that you are now in the driver’s seat. A consistent routine of creating regular backups, monitoring for available updates, and testing them before going live is the hallmark of a well-maintained WordPress site. This proactive strategy leads to a more stable, reliable, and professional online presence for you or your business.