The Requested Theme Does Not Exist – WordPress
24 Feb
This is a quick fix for anyone who has seen the following error appear when trying to edit a WordPress theme through the admin section:
The Requested Theme Does Not Exist
I remember seeing this and immediately fearing the worst (that I had broken my WordPress blog somehow) but I had a think of what I had been changing on the site before I got this error (the CSS file) and after a quick look on Google I found this article.
The article mentions that the commented-out information at the top of the CSS file (containing the theme details) is used by WordPress to pull out the theme name:
/* Theme Name: WordPress Default Theme URI: http://wordpress.org/ Description: The default WordPress theme based on the famous <a href=”http://binarybonsai.com/kubrick/”>Kubrick</a>. Version: 1.6 Author: Michael Heilemann Author URI: http://binarybonsai.com/ Tags: blue, custom header, fixed width, two columns, widgets Kubrick v1.5http://binarybonsai.com/kubrick/ This theme was designed and built by Michael Heilemann,
whose blog you will find at http://binarybonsai.com/ The CSS, XHTML and design is released under GPL:
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php */
At the time I wasn’t too familiar with WordPress and had just deleted the code to save about 15 lines in my CSS file. If you delete the code or use certain special characters in the theme name (such as an ampersand – &) WordPress cannot find the theme and display the templates or CSS in the admin section for you.
To fix this quite simply check the commented code at the top of the theme’s CSS for any characters which may be causing the error. Or if you did what I had done and delete the commented code completely, put it back in via ftp and WordPress will load up the editor section straight away.
Related Posts:
Web designer, developer and SEO expert based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Richard has over 5 years experience as a web designer / developer and is currently head of SEO at ne-web Ltd. He is also the co-founder of successful NUFC Blog: Leazes Terrace. You can follow Richard on twitter: @websdevelopment
Web Development News 24/7
Thanks for this article! I experienced the same problem
your article is good..its very helpful.
Excellent post, I too have that problem. but after some times i tried, whatever changes i applied in themes that’s displayed. Thanks for sharing this valuable information with us
Its a hard one to spot when you are used to comments carrying no weight, i had the same problem, quite frustrating for a while.
I hate little errors like that. They just get in the way.