The following tutorial will walk you through the steps of installing and activating a WordPress theme for your WordPress site using an FTP client, in the example below I will be using Filezilla for my FTP software.
To get started open up Filezilla and connect to your server.
Once you are connected to your server, the next step is to find and Double Click on the public_html file.
Once you have located and opened your public-html file, look for the specific site that you want to add your new theme to. If you only have one site on your hosting account you may not see your domain name, don’t worry just move on to the next step.
After Double Clicking on the correct domain name, you now need to Double Click on the wp-content file.
After opening the wp-content file look for the themes file.
Once you have located the Themes Folder, you have two options, you can either Double Click to open the Themes file before uploading the new theme, or simply drag your new theme from your Computers hardrive straight into it without opening the themes file. More on that in the next step.
Now your ready to find your theme on your computer.
To locate the theme you downloaded to your hard drive look to the left hand side of your Filezilla user interface.
You will see all of the files stored on your hard drive. Look for the folder that you downloaded your theme to, but make sure that you have already Unzipped your theme file.
After Locating the theme you want to upload onto your hardrive Click and Hold with your cursor on the theme file, then drag it onto your server into the themes file within your wp-content file.
Once you have positioned your theme over the themes folder, simply let go of the left mouse button. Your theme should start to Upload automatically.
The next step is to log into your WordPress admin.
Once inside your dashboard, look on the left menu bar for the Themes link under the Appearance section. Click on it to continue.
In the Themes page, you should see your New Theme along with the two default themes which are pre-installed in WordPress.
You will see listed under the theme’s thumbnail image three links. Activate | Preview | Delete.
To Activate your new theme just Click on the Activate link.
And that’s all there is to installing a new WordPress theme using the Filezilla FTP client and changing the appearance of your WordPress blog.
For anyone unsure how to FTP then you will find Jeremy’s instructions most useful and easy to follow. I did.
Cheers
Kurt – Australia’s Email marketing Guru
Thanks Kurt, Hopefully I’m adding some value to your blogging, Had to remove the link in the comment though, don’t want spammers thinking they can have a party on my site , Know what I mean.
but how do you transfer a zip file then unzip it within the ftp client? or the question probably “would that be possible?”
I guess if you want to transfer a zipped theme file, then you would use the upload theme function in WordPress where it automatically unpacks the theme from its zip file. Read the article on How To Install A WordPress Theme Without Using An FTP Client
Hello, I followed your tutorial but was unable to find the my newly installed theme on my wordpress.com Themes page as you indicate here:
“In the Themes page, you should see your New Theme along with the two default themes which are pre-installed in WordPress.
You will see listed under the theme’s thumbnail image three links. Activate | Preview | Delete.
To Activate your new theme just Click on the Activate link.”
All I saw was a basic wordpress.com theme which is already installed on my blog, and then options to choose from other wordpress.com themes. My uploaded theme is no where to be seen. Help please!
Sorry I am not familiar with WordPress.com theme uploading, this tutorial is for a self hosted installation of WordPress on your own server. (WordPress.org)
I have rechecked to make sure everything I have written here is correct and unless I am missing something totally obvious this tutorial will work.
Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
Thank You! This worked like a charm.
Thanks alot Mr. Jeremy Young. Sir this tutorial was very informative and it actually helped me a lot in installing a theme for my wordpress blog.